Structural Building Components Research Articles

Natural disaster mitigation using advanced ferrocement – Future research directions for improved building resilience

Natural disaster mitigation encompasses a wide range of activities which are required to avert the occurrence of natural disasters and is a major goal of the Sendai Framework applicable to all exposed territories worldwide. With respect to earthquakes and hurricanes, the structural retrofitting of buildings which were designed before the availability of seismic codes of practice, or the enforcement of existing codes, can be an effective form of mitigation. Advanced Ferrocement (AF), which is ferrocement based on Lamination Theory (LT), encompasses the use of mesh angle, layer-by-layer mesh layup, possibly with non-metallic mesh, and/or non-standard mortars, for the design and construction of structural components. As a pilot study, a set of core research questions and nine research directions or study areas are presented for investigating the use of AF for retrofitting existing buildings, in the context of earthquake and hurricane resilience. This is also useful for deriving new structural components for new buildings,. The experimental results of the pilot study are that when ferrocement overlays were applied to the faces of concrete masonry-infilled walls of steel frames, the lateral yield strength and displacement at yield increased by factors of 1.50 and 2.30, respectively. For the tested ferrocement shear panels of channel-shaped cross-section, the lateral maximum strength-to-weight ratio was 3.37 times higher than that for an alternative reinforced concrete masonry minimum cost solution. For the tested AF one-way spanning roof panel, the wind load capacity had a strength-to-weight ratio 10.78 times higher compared with the present minimum cost metal sheet-and-purlins solution. LT suggests that the performance of the infilled-frame retrofit, and the ferrocement wall panel, can be increased by aligning the mesh in the principal stress directions, etc. The research directions and preliminary findings presented can serve as the basis for an extensive research effort regarding AF as the application of LT to mesh-reinforced cementitious composite structural building components.

Seismic retrofitting of buildings using Building Information Modeling

Building Information Modeling (BIM), in the last couple of decades, has emerged as a technology that can be used in combination with different methodologies in the fields of architecture, engineering, and construction industry as a digital model to facilitate the planning and design process, construction and maintenance. Using the tools of BIM, the stakeholders generate the digital models that can help them to identify the problems. A total of 24 conference papers, referenced journal articles, and other academic sources were analyzed based on their relevance and research focus areas. This article provides a review on the integration of building information modeling with different methodologies for seismic retrofitting of both structural and non-structural components of buildings. Pre-seismic and post-seismic applications of Building Information Modeling with the integration of different methodologies have been reviewed overbuilding life cycles with a view of addressing the challenges and recommending the future research perspectives. In the end, by stating the possibilities of integration of BIM tools with different methodologies mainly using Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering as a paradigm which is fully probabilistic, this paper concludes that the implication of the Building Information Modeling with the integration of different methodologies isnt merely the inclusion of the certain conditions, but also of the numerical integration of all the possible uncertainties.

Extracting structural components of concrete buildings from laser scanning point clouds from construction sites

In construction projects, inspection of structural components mostly relies on classical measurements obtained by measuring tapes, levelling, or total stations. With those methods, only a few points on the structure can be measured, and the resulting inspection may not fully reflect the actual, detailed condition of the complete object. Laser scanning is an emerging remote sensing technology to accurately and quickly capture surfaces of structures in high details. However, because of the complex, massive point cloud data acquired at a construction project, in practice, data processing is still manual work with computer aided programs. To improve upon current workflows, this paper proposes a method to automatically extract point clouds of individual surfaces of structural components of a concrete building, which subsequently can be used to inspect construction quality based on geometric information of the surfaces. The proposed method explores both spatial point cloud information and contextual knowledge of structures (e.g., orientation or shape) derived from building design specifications and practice. For extracting point clouds of surfaces of each structural component, the proposed method consists of 4 consecutive steps for extracting: (1) floors, ceiling slabs, and walls, (2) columns, and (3) primary and (4) secondary beams. Each step consists of two ingredients: (i) rough extracting the candidate points of the component and (ii) fine filtering of the surface points of the components via cell-based and voxel-based region growing segmentation (CRG and VRG) incorporating contextual knowledge of the structural members. Experimental tests on two different types of concrete buildings showed that the proposed method successfully extracts the structural elements, in which the completeness, correctness, and quality from the point-based evaluation are larger than 96.0%, 96.9%, and 92.0%, respectively. Moreover, the evaluation based on a shape similarity showed that the extracted floor, ceiling slab and wall overlap to the ground truth more than 92.5%.

Energy‐efficient and sustainable composite facade constructions

Society currently undergoes a transformation process in understanding the environmental impact of its resource exploitation. The growing importance of resource‐efficiency and the reduction of the environmental impacts are being widely discussed and investigated. Therefore, the European Union (EU) countries have implemented energy efficiency regulations in all sectors, including the building sector, which is accountable for 40 % of energy consumption and 36 % of CO2 emissions within the EU. In modern facade constructions, the use of large‐scaled glass elements is inevitable, which has led to the investigation of potential optimization of structural performance, energy efficiency and ecological characteristics of the structural building components. The Department of Structural Design and Timber Engineering (ITI) at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) developed several timber‐based composite systems, combining timber and wood concrete on the one hand, as well as timber and structural glass components on the other hand. Through various combination of the individual composite systems, certain advantages as well as the synergies resulting from the different combinations could be shown. Different types of combined timber, wood concrete and glass composite structures for facades are developed, assessed and compared to conventional facade structures. The comparison is carried out regarding the materialization on component level, as well as the overall construction level, whereby a scale‐independent assessment of the examined construction types could be reached. This assessment shall further be enabled by a broad‐spectrum computation, ranging from static and dynamic thermal simulations for annual heating and overheating periods up to various thereof resulting ecological impact calculations. In terms of ecological building design, the conceptual implementation of the building envelope plays an important role in the thermal comfort of the inner rooms, as well as the glare and reflection by the use of daylight. One advantage of large‐scale glass facades is the possibility to implement a high portion of solar entries into the total energy concept. The extremely versatile application possibilities allow different sectors of power generation, such as photovoltaic cells in the facade, thermal collectors for heat generation or algae panels, which generate biogas by photosynthesis process. The gained energy can further operate heating and cooling systems but also hot water supply.

Decision-making model for sustainable management of Australian community buildings: combined approach using analytical hierarchy process and neuro-fuzzy system

Community buildings such as childcare/ aged care centres, sports pavilions possesses a massive investment in Australian economy built up over generations. From one viewpoint, they are providing essential services to the community and another viewpoint, the delivery of those services is limited by the ongoing degradation of the structural and service components of buildings, the scarcity of resources and the lack of funding by state and federal governments. This poses a huge challenge to Australian local governments to sustainably manage community buildings accountable to them. Reaching the goal takes further away by the absence of a holistic decision-making model for sustainable management of Australian community buildings. This study approaches the problem holistically identifying the sustainable decisions to be made through triple bottom line (environment, economic and social) and functional aspects. Incorporation of the influencing factors of each aspect led to a comprehensive decision-making structure which was the base for developing an effective decision-making model. The design of the model is based on the combination of two analytical methods namely Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Neuro Fuzzy System (NFS). The final output of the model computes the sustainability index which interprets the total sustainability impact of a given building component. This enables building asset managers to utilise the index to prioritise the maintenance tasks of all building components. The paper encapsulates the results of a case study to explain the outputs of the model and their practical significance. The study previously conducted two industry-wide questionnaire surveys to finalise the attributes of the decision-making structure and the importance of the attributes (weightings).

Seismic Evaluation and Retrofitting of an Existing Buildings-State of the Art

In this study, previous researches were reviewed in relation to the seismic evaluation and retrofitting of an existing building. In recent years, a considerable number of researches has been undertaken to determine the performance of buildings during the seismic events. Performance based seismic design is a modern approach to earthquake resistant design of reinforcement concrete buildings. Performance based design of building structures requires rigorous non-linear static analysis. In general, nonlinear static analysis or pushover analysis was conducted as an efficient instrument for performance-based design. Pushover analysis came into practice after 1970 year. During the seismic event, a nonlinear static analysis or pushover analysis is used to analyze building under gravity loads and monotonically increasing lateral forces. These building were evaluated until a target displacement reached. Pushover analysis provides a better understanding of buildings seismic performance, also it traces the progression of damage and failure of structural components of buildings.

Solar Bridge Retrofit System: An innovative solution to renovate structural thermal bridge areas

The structural components of load-bearing concrete frame buildings, such as concrete beams and columns, are critical elements of the facades which often act as a thermal bridge. To reduce the impact of structural thermal bridge areas in non-retrofitted Portuguese residential buildings, a new innovative solar passive retrofit solution, named Solar Bridge Retrofit System (SBRS), is proposed. This concept relies on the principles of unvented Trombe wall systems and consists in using an external transparent skin in front of the structural areas of the envelope in combination with the traditional ETICS in the remaining area. Contrary to the traditional Trombe walls, this innovative design enables the heavy structure of the building to absorb solar radiation and conduct the heat slowly inward or to the adjacent structure.To evaluate the thermal performance of the SBRS, an experimental setup was developed. The field results obtained during February and March 2020 for two different configurations, showed that the double-glazing configuration in combination with ETICS has the potential to improve thermal comfort and reduce energy consumption. This paper addresses both the design of the SBRS and the obtained results from the experimental work.

ONTOLOGY-BASED HBIM FOR HISTORIC BUILDINGS WITH TRADITIONAL WOODWORK IN TAIWAN

In recent years, the use of Historic Building Information Modeling (HBIM) has grown prevalent and thus provided a research opportunity. Differing from newly constructed buildings, structural components of historic buildings come with unique physical configurations and have amassed impressive amount of restoration data, all of which must be taken into consideration when incorporating Building Information Modeling. In terms of modelling, it is critical to determine the appropriate level of detail (LoD), level of information (LoI), especially the comprehensiveness and expandability of the database. International Committee for Documentation/Conceptual Reference Model (CIDOC CRM) is a widely accepted standard for ontology model. This study aims to integrate the HBIM and CIDOC CRM to construct a framework and comprehensive operational procedure for the modeling of traditional Minan architecture and a database with complete semantics archiving the background and restoration data. Autodesk A360 is ideal for collaborative. However, there are limitations when it comes to developing advanced models for data management or query; interactive experience; meeting model applications derived from future scenarios. Therefore, the study also offers a 3D modeling platform constructed using Unity, as well as a comparison of the platforms built with Unity, three.js and Autodesk A360 as a reference for users.

Skeletal composites: robotic fabrication processes for lightweight multi-nodal structural components

The research presented in this chapter describes the novel robotic fabrication strategies for multi-nodal structural components made from lightweight fiber composite materials. The paper contextualizes the research within a larger area of composite manufacturing in architecture and focuses on the developed methodologies for adaptive, material-efficient production. This research builds on coreless filament winding processes that eliminate the need for large surface molds and wasted materials for composite production. This process allows for large geometrically differentiated structural building components to be easily produced adaptively for architectural applications. The research tests the production of complex components for a vertical lattice structural system. The multi-nodal structural components enable continuous material and fiber orientations across the intersections of the lattice while simplifying connections. Key improvements presented in this paper included the robotic assembly process for the reconfigurable winding frames that reduce assembly times and increase accuracy, computational techniques for developing winding syntax, and physical simulation of material orientations for robotic path planning. This is followed by a conclusion and outlook to discuss the tested results on a full-scale demonstrator and the future design potentials.

Predicting Long-Term Deformation of Soundproofing Resilient Materials Subjected to Compressive Loading: Machine Learning Approach.

Soundproofing materials are widely used within structural components of multi-dwelling residential buildings to alleviate neighborhood noise problems. One of the critical mechanical properties for the soundproofing materials to ensure its appropriate structural and soundproofing performance is the long-term compressive deformation under the service loading conditions. The test method in the current test specifications only evaluates resilient materials for a limited period (90-day). It then extrapolates the test results using a polynomial function to predict the long-term compressive deformation. However, the extrapolation is universally applied to materials without considering the level of loads; thus, the calculated deformation may not accurately represent the actual compressive deformation of the materials. In this regard, long-term compressive deformation tests were performed on the selected soundproofing resilient materials (i.e., polystyrene, polyethylene, and ethylene-vinyl acetate). Four levels of loads were chosen to apply compressive loads up to 350 to 500 days continuously, and the deformations of the test specimens were periodically monitored. Then, three machine learning algorithms were used to predict long-term compressive deformations. The predictions based on machine learning and ISO 20392 method are compared with experimental test results, and the accuracy of machine learning algorithms and ISO 20392 method are discussed.

Point Cloud vs. Mesh Features for Building Interior Classification

Interpreting 3D point cloud data of the interior and exterior of buildings is essential for automated navigation, interaction and 3D reconstruction. However, the direct exploitation of the geometry is challenging due to inherent obstacles such as noise, occlusions, sparsity or variance in the density. Alternatively, 3D mesh geometries derived from point clouds benefit from preprocessing routines that can surmount these obstacles and potentially result in more refined geometry and topology descriptions. In this article, we provide a rigorous comparison of both geometries for scene interpretation. We present an empirical study on the suitability of both geometries for the feature extraction and classification. More specifically, we study the impact for the retrieval of structural building components in a realistic environment which is a major endeavor in Building Information Modeling (BIM) reconstruction. The study runs on segment-based structuration of both geometries and shows that both achieve recognition rates over 75% F1 score when suitable features are used.

Bayesian Network revealing evidence-based strategies to enhance the performance of building envelope openings subject to wind-driven rain

Severe storms and tropical cyclones bring destructive winds and heavy rain. While building structural performance has significantly improved in the last few decades due to higher regulatory requirements, some non-structural elements, such as windows, external doors, roof coverings and attachments such as guttering, fascia and eaves, remain subject to minor failure, causing loss of amenity and damage to structural building components over time. Enhancing the performance of buildings has become imperative to mitigating the impacts of tropical cyclones and storm events. Damage investigations conducted after tropical cyclones and severe storms have consistently revealed that windows and external glazed doors are affected by wind-driven rain, causing leakage into the cavity and interior of the building. This research study focuses on repeated water ingress through windows and external glazed doors. Wind-driven rain can penetrate undamaged windows and external doors, gaps around the window seals or doors, and waterproofing elements, thereby allowing water to enter buildings. A qualitative expert interview research approach was applied to identify several factors affecting the performance of openings (windows and external glazed doors). Subsequently, a Bayesian Network model was developed according to the determined parameters and expert workshops. The Bayesian Network scenario analysis enabled the researchers to identify the best combination of management interventions to enhance the performance of openings to water ingress from tropical cyclones and severe storms. The study findings provide evidence-based support for industry and government authorities to develop effective strategies for enhancing the performance of openings subject to wind-driven rain from tropical cyclones and severe storms.

Development information system for building maintenance for structural components of government green building using Building Information Modelling (BIM)

Structural components are the most important components in building from the stages of design-construction-maintenance. The failure of structural components will result in the reliability and function of the building not being achieved. Therefore, maintenance of structural components is one important factor to maintain and achieve the reliability and the function of building. This research discusses about maintenance system in government green building that are not implemented properly due to poor maintenance schedule, undocumented data and no history of maintenance checks stored. Maintenance of structural components that aren’t implemented properly can lead to increased operating and maintenance costs, and potentially increases the risk of building failure. The purpose of this research is to increase the maintenance performance of structural components of government green building. The case study in this research is Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing’s Building which is one of the government green building in Indonesia. The methods that used in this research are literature review, case studies and surveys done by questionnaires from structure’s experts and Greenship Professional. Result of this research in the form of integrated information system development using BIM is expected to facilitate users to improve performance in maintaining structural components of green building.

Windstorm Resilient Rural Housing: Lessons learned in Temerloh, Malaysia

In 2019 alone, Temerloh district located in central Peninsular Malaysia has been hit by unpredictable wind storms in localised areas which damaged more than 185 rural homes. This research set out to assess the structural vulnerabilities of damaged rural houses to severe winds in Temerloh and lessons learned from windstorm damage through field surveys of damaged homes between March 2019-August 2019 and supplemented by district-level post-windstorm reconnaissance reports prepared by Malaysia Civil Defense Force (APM) and other information gathered from local government. Results indicate poor performance of structural and non-structural building components in resisting high wind loads due to inadequate design, under-strength of failed building materials and defective construction details. The results of this study could have important implications for government agencies, NGOs, builders, and engineers in assisting rural communities in reconstructing windproof resistant homes and planning for future windstorm risk management efforts specially catered to homeowners in Temerloh.Keywords: Rural housing; Windstorm; Resilience; Malaysia eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2019. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/e-bpj.v4i12.1817

Probabilistic modeling and fragility assessment of limestone wall tie connections subjected to wind loads

Public safety has been the main objective of conventional design codes and standards, which provide a good threshold for the performance of structures. However, public safety is not the only objective that can drive the design decisions of building owners and their architectural/engineering design professionals. Minimization of total economic losses in a particular scenario event or over a period of time can also be a major objective for the design and retrofit decisions of building owners. Such economic losses accrue from various cost components that can be caused by damage to structural and/or nonstructural components of buildings, so the uncertainties associated with these damages should be understood. This paper analyzes a set of experimental data for the capacity of limestone wall tie connections in tension to develop probabilistic models. Dependency of tie connection behavior on four testing pre-conditions is also examined. The probabilistic models are then used to illustrate development of fragility curves for the tie connections, by implementing them in limestone veneer façades that are characteristic of those on mid-rise buildings located in the wind environment of Chicago, Illinois.

Review on Evaluation and Study of Parametric Characteristics of Structural Components of High Rise Building

Review on Evaluation and Study of Parametric Characteristics of Structural Components of High Rise Building

Evaluation and Study of Parametric Characteristics of Structural Components of High Rise Building

Evaluation and Study of Parametric Characteristics of Structural Components of High Rise Building

Comparative Study on The Analysis Results of Multi-Storeyed Commercial Building (G+12) by Using Staad.Pro and ETABS

Structural Analysis is a branch which involves in the determination of behavior of structures in order to predict the responses of real structures such as buildings, bridges, trusses etc. Under the improvement of expected loading & external environment during the service life of structure. The results of analysis are used to verify the structure fitness for use. Computer software’s are also being used for the calculation of forces, bending moment, stress, strain & deformation or deflection for a complex structural system. The principle objective of this project is “The Comparative Study on Analysis Results of Multistoreyed Commercial Building (G+12) by STAAD.Pro and ETABS”. STAAD.Pro is one of the leading software’s for the design of structures. In this project we had analyzed the G+12 building for finding the shear forces, bending moments, deflections details for the structural components of building (such as Beams, Columns & Slabs) to develop the economic design. ETABS is also leading design software in present days used by many structural designers. Here I have also analyzed the same structure using ETABS software for the design. Finally I made an attempt to define the economical section of G+12 multistoried building using STAAD.Pro and ETABS comparatively.

DISPLACEMENT MEASUREMENT IN SAWN WOOD AND WOOD PANEL BEAMS USING PARTICLE IMAGE VELOCIMETRY

ABSTRACT Throughout their useful life structures demand monitoring to verify their conditions of use. Thus, the need arises to seek methodologies capable to evaluate displacements and deformations in structural components of buildings. The objective of this research was to evaluate the use of the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique to analyze test specimen behavior during a static bending test, additionally a displacement map is presented. The PIV technique measures variations of position of a region in an object from consecutive images from a loading session. The tests were performed on wood of Pinus oocarpa and Eucalyptus grandis, plywood panels, laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and oriented strand board (OSB). The results obtained by the PIV technique were compared to values obtained from dial indicators. It was verified that in all the materials tested, the PIV technique presented results similar to those found in the dial indicators. By means of the Student t test, with a significance level of 1%, some regions of analysis the values found by the PIV technique and the dial indicators were statistically similar. For the analyzed regions that did not achieve statistical equality, a correction equation was calculated (R² higher than 0.99). It was concluded that the PIV technique, with properly adjusted setup, presented results similar to those obtained in the conventional tests, proving its accuracy and reliability in displacement measurements, with the advantage of being a non-destructive and contactless structure monitoring technique.

Failure of reinforced concrete and tuff stone masonry buildings as consequence of hydrogen pipeline explosions

Pipelines are the most efficient method of transporting large quantities of hydrogen, and the low volumetric energy density of gaseous hydrogen requires that the gas must be compressed to extremely high pressure to be used as a transport fuel. The failure of high pressure hydrogen gas pipelines and subsequent explosion may induce heavy damage to buildings. In this paper, such an issue is addressed for existing reinforced concrete framed buildings and tuff stone masonry buildings. Physical features such as the gas jet release process, flammable cloud size, blast generation and propagation, and explosion effects on structural components of buildings are considered and evaluated through the SLAB integral model, Multi-Energy Method and pressure‒impulse diagrams. Damage to both types of structural components was evaluated and the maximum distance of blast damage was derived in several environmental conditions, contributing to land-use planning and performance-based design/assessment of pipelines and buildings.