Current Issue : October - December Volume : 2017 Issue Number : 4 Articles : 5 Articles
Some recent catastrophic impacts on highway bridges around the world have raised\nconcerns for assessing the vulnerability of existing highway bridges in Canada. Rapid aging of bridge\ninfrastructure coupled with increased traffic volume has made it crucial to establish an advanced\nBridge Management System (BMS) for highway bridges. This paper aims at developing a highway\nbridge inventory for the province of British Columbia (BC) which is critical for efficient assessment\nof the existing structural health condition of the bridges, predicting their future deterioration, and\nprioritizing their maintenance and retrofitting works. This inventory is an extensive assemblage of\ndata on highway bridges in BC under the responsibility of the BC Ministry of Transportation and\nInfrastructure (BC MoT) that includes more than 2500 highway bridges. It includes identification\nof the most common bridge types along with their location, structural and geometric parameters\nsuch as construction materials, bridge length, number of spans, deck width, skew angle, bridge pier,\nand foundation type, structural health condition rating and construction period. This information is\nof paramount importance for effective infrastructure management, proper rehabilitation solutions,\nand efficient design of a Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and Control System for enhancing\nstructural resilience of highway bridges in BC. Several statistical analyses have been carried out for\nefficient utilization of the information available in the inventory for further research and analyses, as\nwell as for developing a proper BMS for the province�s bridges....
During the last decades, standards on building construction have risen sharply to integrate\nnew, ambitious demands regarding energy efficiency, as well as thermal and optical comfort\nin the design procedure. Building simulation software assists in the accurate calculation of a\nhypothetical or existing building�s performance on several aspects; but they are, in their vast majority,\nassessment-oriented, rather than focused on dynamically supporting the decision-making procedure.\nDuring the last two decades, a clear shift of design professionals and academia towards addressing\nperformance issues from the conceptual stages of a building�s design is observed. In this review,\nthe methodology of performance-driven design optimization using computational/parametric\ndesign and optimization is presented, and the core literature available on the topic is reviewed\nin order to identify the current status, different approaches, obstacles, and areas of future research\non the subject. The review findings confirm that there is enormous potential for the design of\nbetter-performing buildings using this technique, but there are still many obstacles to overcome and\nareas for future research....
The Shaped Steel Reinforced Concrete structures are increasingly used in large-span\nor irregularly shaped public buildings. In the actual construction, cross-operation of steel\nstructures and concrete is more frequent. Traditional construction method causes a lot of quality\nproblems easily like installation deviation of beam and column, improper treatment of steel at the\njoints of beams and columns, and unevenness of concrete surface. If you can not take timely\nmeasures to deal with or prevent, it will inevitably have a great impact on the reliability of the\nstructure, and also delay the construction schedule. This paper makes related research about the\nquality issues, proposes corresponding solutions and provides a complete set of construction\ntechnology processes. At last, through engineering case, we analyze the economic and social\nbenefits....
Migration of liquids lead to embarrassing post construction\nscenarios such as that of leaks from roofs, potable water leaking from\nwater tanks/ reservoirs, rising damp in walls with groundwater seeping into\nbasement structures, leakage of water from ornamental lakes and ponds or\nleachate leakage into the environment from MSW landfill sites. Such\nfailures demand immediate and expensive maintenance. A stringent control\non structural and waterproof stability is deemed necessary for long term\nservice life of structures and in particular underground and near surface\nstructures. On a micro scale and over a longer time scale, the phenomenon\nof rising dampness occurs in older buildings with the groundwater rising\nup through walls, floors and masonry via capillary action. Even slower\nrates of contaminant fluid migration occur through landfill base liners. In\nthis paper a variety of hydraulic barrier technologies is critically discussed\nagainst a backdrop of relevant case studies. The choice of an appropriate\nhydraulic barrier technology for a given scenario will depend also on the\nsustainability, financial affordability and subjective aesthetics....
Massive amounts of brick waste are obtained from demolition of old buildings\nand structures around the world. With the increased stress on sustainable\nconstruction, and environmentally friendly materials and greener concreting\npractices, a large proportion of such waste bricks are crushed and mixed with\nnormal aggregates for use in concrete. The performance of concrete containing\nwaste brick aggregates partially replacing normal aggregates have not been\ninvestigated for their performance. This paper covers investigations carried\nout on concrete with such aggregates obtained from demolition waste and\nmixed with varying proportions of normal aggregates to produce concrete.\nTwo types of crushed brick aggregates were mixed with gravel in the ratios of\n30:70 and 40:60 by weight and specimen were cast for investigations. Two w/c\nratios were investigated. Various tests were carried out to assess the compressive\nstrength of cubes and cylinders of mixed aggregates concrete along with\nf1exural strength, stress/strain behavior, moduli of elasticity, ultrasonic pulse\nvelocity determination, densities, surface absorption, shrinkage and frost resistance.\nThe values obtained from these tests were compared with the values\nof concrete with normal aggregates (gravel) with similar w/c ratios. While the\nstrength tests and durability tests more or less gave satisfactory results however\nthe larger moisture absorption by the waste brick aggregates reduces the\nfrost resistance capacity somewhat thereby care needs to be exercised in using\nthese mixes in regions/areas susceptible to frost....
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