Current Issue : July - September Volume : 2015 Issue Number : 3 Articles : 5 Articles
Quantifying the environmental impacts and simulating the energy consumption of building�s components at the conceptual design\nstage are very helpful for designers needing to make decisions related to the selection of the best design alternative that would lead\nto a more energy efficient building. Building Information Modeling (BIM) offers designers the ability to assess different design\nalternatives at the conceptual stage of the project so that energy and life cycle assessment (LCA) strategies and systems are attained.\nThis paper proposes an automated model that links BIM, LCA, energy analysis, and lighting simulation tools with green building\ncertification systems. The implementation is within developing plug-ins on BIM tool capable of measuring the environmental\nimpacts (EI) and embodied energy of building components. Using this method, designers will be provided with a new way to\nvisualize and to identify the potential gain or loss of energy for the building as a whole and for each of its associated components.\nFurthermore, designers will be able to detect and evaluate the sustainability of the proposed buildings based on Leadership in\nEnergy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. An actual building project will be used to illustrate the workability of the\nproposed methodology....
An experimental study was conducted on green roofs under the semiarid summer climatic conditions ofWest Texas to investigate\nthe effect of soil type, moisture content, and the presence of a top soil grass layer on the conductive heat transfer through the roof.\nTwo soil types were investigated: uniform sand and local silt clay. Tests were also conducted on a control roof. A dual-needle heatpulse\nsensor was used to conduct thermal property tests on the soils. The tests reveal that unlike sand, the thermal conductivity of\nsilt clay did not increase continuously with soil moisture. Better heat transfer conditions were achieved when the sand and silt clay\nroofs were watered to a water depth of 10mm per day rather than double the amount of 20mm per day. The roof with silt clay soil\nhad the lowest fluctuation in inner temperature between daytime and nighttime. Green roofs with silt clay soil required more than\ntwice the amount of soil moisture than green roofs with sand to achieve similar roof heat transfer rates. The best net heat flux gains\nfor vegetated green roofs were 4.7W/m2 for the sand roof and 7.8W/m2 for the silt clay roof....
In 2012, 775 fatalities were recorded, and many more were injured at construction sites in the United States. Of these, 415 fatalities\n(54%) were due to fall, slips, and trips as well as being struck by falling objects. In order to decrease fatalities at construction\nsites to these types of events, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) provides Fall Prevention and OSHA-10\ntrainings to construction workers. Moreover, safety personnel monitor whether the workers use personal protective equipment\n(PPE) properly. Data shows that construction fatalities have decreased by 2% annually since 1994; however, the owners still are not\nsatisfied with this result. Various studies have shown that fall is the biggest contributor for construction fatalities. One study showed\nthat half of the fall fatalities were because the workers either had not used PPEs or had not used them properly. In addition, studies\nshowed that, with proper use of hard hats, the fatalities due to fall, slips, trips, and being struck by falling objects could be reduced.\nThis study developed and tested a hard-hat detection tool that uses image-processing techniques to identify whether workers are\nwearing hard hats. The tool dispatches warning messages if the workers do not use hard hats....
Mass housing projects (MHPs) are said to differ significantly from the ââ?¬Å?one-offââ?¬Â traditional building projects often encountered\nin the construction industry and thus require unique management skills and approach in MHPs delivery. This unique nature of\nMHPs contributes to managerial inefficiencies that result in delivery failures when management approaches are not adapted to the\nproject characteristics. However, understanding and knowledge of the unique attributes of MHPs are critical towards improving\nthe organisation, planning, managerial effectiveness, and delivery success of mass housing projects. To date, extensive studies\nestablishing the unique features of mass housing projects are lacking. This study is set out to identify what constitutes the unique\nfeatures of mass housing projects by comparing mass housing projects to traditional ââ?¬Å?one-offââ?¬Â building projects. A questionnaire\nsurvey was used to establish mass housing practitionersââ?¬â?¢ perception of the unique characteristics of MHPs. Data analysis involving\nmean scores and ANOVA revealed 10 unique features of MHP. A clear and systematic understanding of these unique features\nof MHPs is crucial for evolving effective project management practices and critical competencies towards successful delivery of\ncurrent and future MHPs....
Transport forms one of the primary needs in all categories of the population inmodern society; it is of paramount concern for traffic\nengineers, transport planners, and policy makers to understand and evaluate the quality of service being provided by the transport\nfacilities designed by them. This paper presents an investigation in profile geometric design and traffic flow operation on two-lane\ntwo-way highways and provides analyses that will help in a better understanding of traffic operation on these facilities to select the\noptimum profile configuration. The effects of influencing parameters consisting of grade, length of grade, traffic composition, and\ntraffic volume are evaluated and finally a systematic procedure to evaluate flow rate under the base condition is presented. Finally,\nbased on these achievements an algorithm is introduced to select optimum Finished Ground of profile view. Results show that the\npercentage of heavy vehicles has a contributing effect on traffic operation so that the optimum profile configuration is incredibly\naffected by this factor. Source data have been obtained from Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) as a pioneer document in respect\nof quantifying the concept of capacity for a transport facility....
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