Types Of Building Structures Research Articles

The physical vulnerability of different types of building structure to debris flow events

Vulnerability assessment of elements at risk is a key component for risk assessment. The representative element at risk for debris flow is a residential building in downstream mountain, and the physical vulnerability of such a building depends on the structural characteristics of a building. The main objective of this paper was to construct physical vulnerability curves for different types of building structures in Korea to enable a quantitative assessment of debris flow risks. The physical characteristics of debris flows were analyzed based on 11 debris flow events that occurred in July and August, 2011. A total of 25 buildings that were damaged during these events were investigated in detail to determine the characteristics and patterns of damage. This study analyzes the relationship between the degree of building damage and the intensity of the debris flows through field survey data, spatial data, and empirical formula. Three different empirical vulnerability curves were obtained as functions of the debris flow depth, the flow velocity, and the impact pressure. Furthermore, the vulnerability function was characterized according to the structural type of the buildings. In the case of non-RC buildings, complete destruction occurred with an impact pressure greater than 30 kPa. For RC buildings, slight damage occurred with impact pressures less than 35 kPa. The impact pressure of debris flows corresponding to slight damage to RC buildings could result in complete destruction of non-RC buildings. The physical vulnerability curves suggested here have potential applications in quantitative assessment of the structural resistance of buildings to debris flow events.

Development of Shoe Theft Detection and Prevention System

The objectives of this research are to assess a shoe theft detection and prevention system. The theft of shoes can happen relatively frequently in Korean or Japanese societies because people often have to take off their shoes when entering and eating at a local restaurant or any other type of crowded building structure. A single pair of shoes can cost hundreds of dollars; hence, the theft of shoes can hurt people financially. This research adopts difference image comparison, with use of binary images, pixel rates, time, and a histogram that uses Bhattacharyya distance measurements. In addition, we assess the originality and quality of our research and evaluate it through video forensics studies. We hope that this research will become the catalyst for society to grow morally. The social climate of today’s society is becoming ever more fraught, but we have to endeavor to change this by introducing more positivity. A central tenet of a healthy society is the rule of law and respect for property rights.

Specific Knowledge in Assessment of Local Fire for Design of Building Structures

The development of designing building structures exposed to fire is solved not only on the basis of data obtained by standardized tabular values from the fire tests, but also by calculations or their combination with standard values. Calculation methods are becoming more important for most types of building structures, especially for timber and steel building structures. One possibility how to define thermal load of building structures, which is usable especially immediately after the development of a fire, is local fire method. This paper summarizes the principles of calculation while using local fire, it evaluates its positive and negative characteristics, and especially its practical applicability.

Alternative strategies for supply air temperature control in office buildings

A key element for a reduced energy usage in the building sector is to improve the systems for indoor climate control. But, it is important that such measures are fairly simple and easy to implement in order to facilitate a widespread utilization. In this work, four alternative strategies for supply air temperature control in offices were investigated through simulations. Their level of complexity stretches from linear SISO (single-input, single-output) structures with standard inputs to an optimal algorithm with information about the entire set of disturbances acting on the building. The study was conducted with a conventional outdoor-air-temperature based method as benchmark, and two different heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems as well as two types of building structures were taken into account. Compared to the benchmark, all alternative strategies resulted in lower energy usages while thermal comfort and indoor air quality were satisfied, and simple strategies could perform almost equally well as more complex. But, it was also shown that the benefits were highly dependent on the considered HVAC system and somewhat dependent on the considered building structures.

An applied methodology for assessment of the sustainability of biomass district heating systems

In order to maximise the share of biomass in the energy supplying system, the designers should adopt the appropriate changes to the traditional systems and become more familiar with the design details of the biomass heating systems. The aim of this study is to present the development of methodology and its associated implementation in software that is useful for the design of biomass thermal conversion systems linked with district heating (DH) systems, taking into consideration the types of building structures and urban settlement layout around the plant. The methodology is based on a completely parametric logic, providing an impact assessment of variations in one or more technical and/or economic parameters and thus, facilitating a quick conclusion on the viability of this particular energy system. The essential energy parameters are presented and discussed for the design of biomass power and heat production system which are in connection with DH network, as well as for its environmental and economic evaluation (i.e. selectivity and viability of the relevant investment). Emphasis has been placed upon the technical parameters of biomass logistics, energy system's design, the economic details of the selected technology (integrated cogeneration combined cycle or direct combustion boiler), the DH network and peripheral equipment (thermal substations) and the greenhouse gas emissions. The purpose of this implementation is the assessment of the pertinent investment financial viability taking into account the available biomass feedstock, the economical and market conditions, and the capital/operating costs. As long as biomass resources (forest wood and cultivation products) are available and close to the settlement, disposal and transportation costs of biomass, remain low assuring the sustainability of such energy systems.

Comparison of the Thermal Properties of Different Insulating Materials

Currently thermal insulating of the buildings is sorely needed from the point of view of energy as well as money savings. It is important to highlight that the most commonly used insulation materials in the building sector are the expanded polystyrene (EPS), the extruded polystyrene (XPS) and the fibrous (mineral, rock) ones. In this communication we confront 6 different insulating materials slabs (EPS 30, 100, 150, 200, a yellow XPS and a mineral wool by their thermal properties. Therefore two types of hypothetic building structures were created and they were insulated with the above presented materials from 0.01 m to 0.3 m thicknesses. For the calculations the thermal conductivity of each sample was determined using a Holometrix 2000 (HLS) heat flow meter. As a result their heat transfer coefficients, delaying abilities, energy storing capabilities and thermal diffusion coefficients were confronted. Besides a material constant had been defined and was paired with the measured thermal conductivity.

Tree-like Structures for Addressing Carbon Capture in Megacities Charged with Anthropogenic Carbon-di-Oxide

Alarming values of carbon emission in megacities charged with anthropogenic carbon-di-oxide continued to draw international attention. At present, creating green packets with high plant density was the only implementable solution for the carbon capture. In this paper, we propose, a strategy of increasing the packing density of the plants by creating tree-like building structures. The essential features of the building were modelled mathematically by emulating a natural tree. Cantilever balconies were designed similar to leafs of a natural tree to host the plants for carbon capture. The simulation assumed constant node to node distance, two leafs per node, each leaf trapezoidal in shape and perpendicular to stem. For various values of helix angle, pitch, leaf dimensions, number of leafs per node and cycles, the simulation calculated the area for carbon capture, land needed, slenderness of the building and percentage benefit on area created over the land available. It was found that typically about 200% extra area can be created for carbon capture for a given land. REVIT Architecture software was used to design a typical building structure. The structure was adoptive to futuristic carbon capture technologies like algae harvesting, chemical neutralization, CO2 conversion into bio-fuel. Integration of Human habitation can be a value added feature.

Simplified serviceability design of jointless structures. Experimental verification and application to typical bridge and building structures

In this article an experimental campaign aimed at validating a previously published simplified serviceability design method of the columns of long jointless structures is presented. The proposed method is also extended to include tension stiffening effects which proved to be significant in structures with small amount of reinforcement subjected to small axial loading. This extension allows significant improvement of predictions for this type of element. The campaign involved columns with different reinforcement and squashing load ratios, given that these parameters had been identified as crucial when designing columns subjected to imposed displacements. Experimental results are presented and discussed, with particular regard to cracking behaviour and structural stiffness. Considerations on tension stiffening effects are also made. Finally, the application of the method to typical bridge and building cases is presented, showing the feasibility of jointless construction, and the limits which should be respected.

Performance Assessment of Turkish Residential Buildings for Seismic Damage and Loss Estimation

AbstractThis study aims to present an integrated method in a probabilistic manner for seismic performance assessment of Turkish residential buildings, which can be used as a tool to estimate earthquake losses due to structural damage. In particular, the objective is to determine the performances of different types of residential buildings for predicting the potential seismic loss in terms of casualties (death toll) for a highly populated city in northwestern Turkey. The main phases of this study are seismic hazard, building performance in terms of fragility functions, and loss in terms of damage states of buildings and total number of casualties. To quantify the regional hazard, a probabilistic seismic hazard assessment approach is adopted. For different types of building structures, probabilities of satisfying predefined performance levels for a given hazard level are determined using appropriate fragility curve sets produced by using local characteristics. The results are expressed as expected losses in...

Effects of Building Primitive Library and Automatic Correction of Roof Topology Graph

Abstract. The reconstruction of 3D building models has been extensively researched in the last decade. The model driven methods, which fit building parts to predefined building primitives and glue them together into complete buildings, have been proved to be powerful. This paper solves two open questions left in prior works. Firstly, the primitive building libraries defined in literature are limited to few types of building structures. Therefore the undefined types of buildings could not be well represented by the primitive libraries. Secondly, the roof topology graphs used for interpreting the roof structures are assumed to be correct in previous works. In many cases, however, the roof topology graphs are inevitably wrong because of outliers in input data and errors in their construction steps. In this paper we solve the two problems and compare the improvements with prior woks. We introduce a complete building library, which can present planer buildings with arbitrary structures, and present an automatic method to correct the erroneous roof topology graph. Experiments show our method is robust to reconstruct buildings in both resident and commercial areas.

Analysis of the Reinforced Masonry on Shear Capacity

The reinforced masonry structure system is turned up as a new group of high-rise building structure type. This paper mainly researched the shear of reinforced masonry structure under earthquake. The maximum shears of the structure are calculated in X and Y direction by numerical analysis method. The changing of the shear bearing capacity is presented under three kinds of seismic waves.

Health monitoring of an instrumented SRMF building using earthquake data

SUMMARYThis paper is a study of a six‐story welded steel moment‐resisting frame instrumented by California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program. Several earthquakes had shaken the building, and its response of strong motion data recorded during the earthquakes were made available. In particular, the Whittier Narrows (October 1987), Sierra Madre (June 1991), Northridge (January 1994) and Chino Hills (July 2008) earthquakes were considered in the studies reported here.The paper investigates the capability of input–output system identification methods, namely eigensystem realization algorithm with data correlation, and observer Kalman filter identification, in identifying dynamic characteristics of typical office building structures subjected to strong ground motion. It explores the possibility to extend the above system identification procedures to near‐real‐time estimation of the building response under future earthquakes in order to estimate the likelihood of brittle damage in welded beam to column connections. The modal identification results are compared with those obtained using the spectral analysis and the deterministic‐stochastic subspace identification method to verify the accuracy of the identified modal parameters. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Numerical estimation of coupling loss factors in building acoustics

A study on the optimal procedure for obtaining SEA (statistical energy analysis) coupling loss factors (CLF) numerically is presented. The energies of an SEA system with two subsystems (one excited, the other one unexcited) are obtained from deterministic numerical simulations. Three different ways of isolating the CLF are explored: from the power balance of the excited subsystem (first approach) or the unexcited subsystem (second approach) and from the power transmitted through the connection (third approach). An error propagation analysis shows that the first approach is unreliable and that the second approach is the best option. As application examples, the CLF between some typical building structures is computed. These examples illustrate the potential of the estimated CLFs to solve larger problems with SEA and show the influence of the type of excitation on the coupling loss factor estimation. Finally, a simplified technique to account for the effect of studs in double walls with SEA is presented.

Damage-control Seismic Design of Moment-resisting RC Frame Buildings

In this study, a new seismic design method for directly and efficiently controlling damage to structural and non-structural components of moment-resisting reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings is developed. The global seismic damage index, which considers the effect of accumulative damage, and the inter-story drift ratio are applied as the performance indexes for structural and non-structural components, respectively. As the base of this method, the seismic damage model, the determination of the seismic strength demand, and seismic performance objectives are first introduced. Then, the detailed design procedures of this method are presented. Finally, as a case study, the seismic design of a typical 6-story moment-resisting RC frame building structure is provided following this new method. The seismic performance of the designed structure is evaluated under different levels of earthquake by conducting a nonlinear time history analysis. The results indicate that the predetermined seismic performance objectives of the structure as designed in accordance with the proposed method can be achieved with great efficiency.

Reconnaissance observations on the buildings damaged by the 2010 Taiwan Kaohsiung earthquake

On March 4, 2010, at 08:18 local time, an earthquake with a magnitude of ML 6.4 hits southern Taiwan. The earthquake occurred in the mountainous area of Kaohsiung County at a depth of 22.64 km. The epicenter was located in the area struck by the 2009 Morakot Typhoon, which destroyed nearly 2,000 houses, leaving 461 people dead and 192 missing. Trapped residents were moved from the affected regions, and the earthquake did not cause any deaths, but injured 96 people. Damage reports were also issued on low-rise and mid-rise reinforced concrete (RC) buildings located 30 km or more from the epicenter. This paper presents the main results of a damage investigation on the largest seismic disaster in a century in the county of Kaohsiung. The focus was on the damage incurred by different types of building structures, including governmental, religious, commercial, and residential buildings. Detailed descriptions are given of the structural configurations as well as the types of damage sustained by five selected buildings. Suggestions are also made to prevent similar damage to low-rise RC buildings in a future disaster.

Seismic Response Analysis of Soil-Structure Interaction on Base Isolation Structure

As an effective way of passive damping, isolation technology has been widely used in all types of building structures. Currently, for its theoretical analysis, it usually follows the rigid foundation assumption and ignores soil-structure interaction, which results in calculation results distortion in conducting seismic response analysis. In this paper, three-dimensional finite element method is used to establish finite element analysis model of large chassis single-tower base isolation structure which considers and do not consider soil-structure interaction. The calculation results show that: after considering soil-structure interaction, the dynamic characteristics of the isolation structure, and seismic response are subject to varying degrees of impact.

Static Analysis on Integrated Building of Steel Structure with Wind Turbines under Equivalent Wind Load

More and more attention has been paid on the development and utilization of new energy sources, as the global energy crisis escalated. Combined with the concept of wind energy generation and High-raise steel structure, a new type of building structure is proposed integrating high-rise steel structure with vertical axis wind turbines. Static analysis under equivalent wind load of seven different wind pressures were carried out on two models, one with wind turbines and the other one without. The feasibility of this new structure was verified preliminarily by comparing analysis results.

Numerical Analysis of High-Rise Steel Structure with Wind Turbines under Earthquake Action

The utilization of new energy sources, like wind power, has become more and more popular as the global energy crisis escalated. Preliminary mechanical analysis was done to verify the feasibility of a new type of building structure, integrated high-rise steel structure with vertical axis wind turbines. Time history analysis under the action of EI-Centro earthquake wave and Wenchuan earthquake wave were carried out on the model with wind turbines and the other one without. The seismic behavior of this new structure was analyzed.

Performance-based Fire Design of Air-supported Membrane Coal Storage Shed

The air-supported membrane shed is a new type of building structure for storing coal. Performance-based fire design for these sheds is needed because they meet the requirement of fire compartment and safe evacuation distance stipulated by current fire protection design specification difficultly, and has danger of structural collapse in fire, due to their uniqueness in building volume and membrane material. A domestic raw coal storage shed taking advantage of air-supported membrane structure was taken for example: 1.Field simulation software FDS was used to verify the effectiveness of evacuation corridors as fire barrier. 2. In the most unfavorable fire scenes, the dangerous coming time of carbon monoxide, temperature and flue gas visibility at the clear height, i.e. available safe evacuation time was simulated in FDS, and the required safe evacuation time was calculated by Pathfinder software. The structural instability time of the air- supported membrane coal storage shed was get by combustion characteristic experiment of the membrane material and numerical simulation finally. 3. Reliability of the fire protection design was determined by comparing the three times mentioned above. The results show that, both the available safe evacuation time and the structural instability time are longer than the required safe evacuation time, so the existing fire design in the air-supported membrane coal storage shed can ensure the personnel safety evacuation. But the collapse risk still exist in fire scenes, therefore, the minimum distance between coal pile and membrane structure should be controlled properly in engineering applications.

Test Research on Seismic Performance of Beam

Reinforced concrete ( RC) frame structure is one type of building structure which is widely used in China. Damage of some reinforced concrete frame structures under the earthquake is caused by the damage of RC beams, So RC beams are an essential seismic members. The paper introduces the design of RC beam specimen, mechanical properties of materials, production of RC beam specimen, test method, loading device, loading system, the contents of measurement and data acquisition in detail. From the above analysis, it is obvious that the test is the most effective means of studying the seismic performance of beam.