Wooden materials in building projects: Fitness for roof construction in southwestern Nigeria
July 2013
A survey of building projects in south-western, Nigeria was conducted to assess wood usage in building roof projects in the zone and to determine the efficiency of wood utilization in building constructions prior to and during oil economy in south-western Nigeria. Based on various purposes of wood utilization in building projects, wood usage in building can be classified as structural, functional and...
Integrated hydraulic design approach for cost effective aqueduct trough
July 2013
An aqueduct structure is a complex structure as compared to bridge, as it takes canal water across stream and canal traffic over the trough. The water-tightness and free expansions - contractions of trough, canal water load as well as traffic load on the trough involves complex load combinations, for which the superstructure and substructure of it is required to be planned and designed. The object of this...
Effect of fines mineralogy on the oedometric compressional behavior of sandy soils
July 2013
Oedometer tests have been performed on reconstituted samples prepared to study the consolidation behavior of sandy soils. The influence of fines content and type can be determined with oedometer test by utilizing intergranular void ratio. Result shows that, up to transition fines content, compression behavior of the mixtures is mainly controlled by the sand grains. When concentration of fines exceeds...
Acoustic emission analysis of fatigue crack growth in steel structures
July 2013
The Acoustic Emission (AE) characteristics and source mechanism during fatigue crack growth in steel structures and weld connections are investigated experimentally by three point bending testing of specimens under low cycle constant amplitude fatigue loading using the Hilbert Huang Transform (HHT). The characteristic frequencies corresponding to crack growth sequence, that is, initiation, crack propagation...
Sorption characteristics of cement composite reinforced with some locally available lignocellulosic materials in Nigeria
June 2013
The aim of this study was to investigate the sorption property of wood cement composite produced from bagasse (Saccharum officinarum), bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris) and coir (Cocos nucifera L). The mass of the fibre varies from 1 to 6% of the mass of cement. The result indicated that the mass fraction has significant effect on the sorption properties of the composites....
Simplified method of strengthening RC continuous T beam in the hogging zone using carbon fiber reinforced polymer laminate – A numerical investigation
June 2013
Though Reinforced Concrete (RC) continuous beams are vastly used in civil engineering, little experimental work on repairing and strengthening of continuous T beams has been carried out; especially, experiments on strengthening the hogging zone of continuous beams are very rare. This paper attempts to address an important practical issue which is not considered in existing conventional strengthening...
Reinforcing efficiency of glass fibres in low volume class F fly ash concrete
June 2013
This study reports the reinforcing efficiency of glass fibre addition in the low volume fly ash concrete upto 25% cement replacement level. Micro mechanical action of glass fibres in fly ash concrete are discussed with respect to different percentage of glass fibre addition. Glass fibres in concrete improves the matrix densification, refinement of microstructure, reduction of voids, minimize cracking due to...
Behavior of impervious facing system in zone semi arid in absence of the thermal protection Bouhnifia dam (Algeria)
June 2013
The bituminous concrete mask was the water barrier system of Bouhnifia dam "Algeria”. It was applied on the upstream slope. The mask risked to be unstable because of the sunlight temperatures which can reach (65°C). So, it was covered with a thermal protection which demands a periodic renovation. This solution was very expensive. To avoid these costs, one tried to test the stability of the mask...
Assessment of environmental hazards: Linking borrow pits, gully erosion, and road failure
June 2013
Highway failure linked to the action of erosion initiated by active or abandoned borrow pits in no small measure affects environmental quality and safety. This study has investigated the Owerri-Okigwe-Enugu highway, Nigeria. Environmental assessment of the study area through photographs showed prevalence of landslides, at risk structures, and motor accidents. Soil samples were collected at three abandoned...
Load-settlement test of full-scale foundation on concrete-grid reinforced soil
June 2013
Result of field test on load-settlement of full-scale foundation, resting on soil reinforced with concrete-grid is presented. The test was carried out at 3 different points within a construction site in Minsk, Belarus. The test points were characterized by different soil conditions below the reinforced base. Result of the study shows that, the use of concrete-grid as reinforcement for subsoil base under...
Validity of iterative static procedure for analyzing rectangular box-shaped building under blast loading
May 2013
Nowadays the explosion of bombs or explosive materials such as gas and oil near or inside the buildings cause some losses in installations and building components. This has made the engineers to make the buildings and their components resistance against the effects of explosion. These activities lead to provide regulations and different methods. The above regulations are mostly focused on the explosion...
Linear and nonlinear analysis for seismic design of piping system
May 2013
For this evaluation, two programs are studied; (1) the evaluation of ASCE methods (2) offer of the improved method for supporting structures design. In this study, four pipes and related pipe racks are designed according to scaling method and their vulnerability is assessed based on the linear and nonlinearsimultaneous model of pipes and structures. Analytical results show that scaling method...
Experimental and analytical investigation of ferrocement water pipe
May 2013
The main objective of this research is to investigate the possibility of using ferrocement concrete in constructing water supply pipe. The current work presents the comparison between the performance of ferrocement pipe and reinforcement concrete pipe under static load as starting step to study the performance of this type of pipe under impact load. The current paper presents an experimental models of...
Study of coir reinforced laterite blocks for buildings
April 2013
Some index property tests which include natural moisture content, sieve analysis, specific gravity, compaction, Atterberg limits were carried out on the laterite sample for the purpose of identification and classification. Twenty blocks of size 150 mm × 150 mm × 150 mm of coir reinforced laterite were moulded at coir content of 0, 0.063, 0.125, 0.188 and 0.25% by mass of the laterite respectively,...
Effects of water and air curing on physical properties of high strength concrete containing pre-soaked rice husk ash
April 2013
High strength concrete (HSC) specimens containing rice husk ash (RHA) presoaked in equal weight of water were cured in water and ambient air. Compressive strength test results indicates that at a w/c ratio of 0.35, the cube specimens containing 10% presoaked RHA cured in water was higher than control. The compressive strength losses of uncured cubes containing presoaked RHA were more than that of uncured...
Innovation in bills of quantities for engineering practice by using a hierarchical structural database with multilanguage data
April 2013
Digital documents are stored and used in many formats, especially in the case of engineering tender documents. Consequently, organization and automation are needed in order to improve access to information for all participants, and are essential for the upper management team. This paper describes an innovative approach to organizing information in a hierarchical structural database containing data in multiple...
Experimental study on axial compressive strength and elastic modulus of the clay and fly ash brick masonry
April 2013
Brickwork is a composite material with bricks as the building units and the mortar as the jointing material. When this two element combined to form a brickwork unit, the properties of the materials influences the strength of the brickwork. Short prisms have been tested under axial compressive load using two types of masonry units: clay brick and flyash brick using flyash cement mortar. The brick masonry is...
Toughness characterization of steel fibre reinforced concrete – A review on various international standards
March 2013
Toughness measurements are considered to be an important scale for evaluating the post crack performance of a fibre reinforced concrete. There are various international standards that lay down different testing procedures and the corresponding deflection measurements. This paper presents a complete review on the various flexural testing methods for fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) prescribed by different...
Pile design using Eurocode 7: A case study
March 2013
Eurocode 7(EC7) introduces the characteristic and design values with partial factors to reduce uncertainties associated with soil parameters, applying load, etc. The characteristic and design values of soil parameters according to this code were determined, three design approaches of EC7 were evaluated and pile foundation design was assessed suitability using the better one. Moreover the limitation of this...
A Canadian Water Quality Guideline-Water Quality Index (CCME-WQI) based assessment study of water quality in Surma River
March 2013
Water quality of Surma River is frequently deteriorating for the last few decades since ever-growing human activities, poor drainage facilities, and direct disposal of industrial and municipal waste. Along with poor structure, natural canals (local name Chara) are responsible for the conveyance of surface runoff from its urban catchments to the receiving Surma River. The purpose of this study is to...
Effect of uniform and gradient thermal loadings on cylindrical steel reservoirs (analytical investigation)
March 2013
Circular steel reservoirs are used extensively for storing petroleum products, water and grains. Additional to uniform thermal loading, gradient thermal loading from sunshine varying angle during day and various seasons is one of important loadings that should be taken into account in design of these reservoirs. In this paper, using finite element modeling of cylindrical steel reservoirs with various...
Effects of limited initial curing durations on mechanical properties of concrete
March 2013
Mechanical properties (compressive and split tensile strength, sorptivity and coefficient of water absorption) of concrete cube specimens cured in water and ambient air (uncured) for 3, 7, 14, 28 and 90 days were determined. Compressive and split tensile strength properties of concrete specimens that were initially water cured for limited durations of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, 28 days and subsequently air...
Health and safety influence on the construction project performance in United Arab Emirates (UAE)
February 2013
The traditional performance measurements of time cost and quality are no longer the only benchmarks for construction projects. In recent years there is an additional target of health and safety requirements challenging construction performance to plan more thoroughly. Wherever reliable records are available, construction is found to be one of the most dangerous safety criteria. Efforts have been made to...
Effect of secondary aggregates on relationship between creep time dependant index and Paris Law parameters
February 2013
Bituminous mixtures undergo cracking, either top-down or bottom-up, as a consequence of the repeated application of traffic loads, thermal cycling or a combination of the two mechanisms. Cracking is considered as one of the major distress modes in asphalt pavements. This study presents a method to characterise crack resistance of asphaltic mixtures containing waste materials using a semi-circular bending...
Evaluation of various methods of FEMA356 compare to FEMA440
February 2013
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance-based procedures in the FEMA356 which is used for vulnerability assessment of existing buildings. The FEMA 356 contained four analysis methods. These methods are linear and nonlinear static / dynamic analysis. For this evaluation, two programs are studied (1) the Displacement Coefficient Method and (2) the buildings designed by UBC97. In this study,...
Shear failure investigation of reinforced concrete beams with swimmer bars
February 2013
Shear failure of reinforced concrete beams is usually sudden, occur without sufficient advanced warning. This type of shear failure is considered to be high risk type of failure. The cost and safety of shear reinforcement in reinforced concrete beams led to the study of other alternatives. Designers try to avoid the shear mode of failure when designing reinforced concrete beam due to the sudden nature of...
Studies on influence of water-cement ratio on the early age shrinkage cracking of concrete systems
January 2013
Concrete is sensitive to environmental changes, especially during the first few days after casting. Volumetric changes due to drying, temperature, plastic and autogenous shrinkage are often experienced. These changes are critical during early ages when the concrete is most vulnerable to cracking. Reinforcement and joints are used to control shrinkage and leads to cracking. Bad cracking leaves the...
New approach of delay penalties formulation: Application to the case of construction projects in the Republic of Congo
January 2013
In the construction industry, delay penalties are usually applied at the end of the normal contractual period. Those penalties, daily in general, are of two types: linear monotonous delay penalties and gradual delay penalties. Usually penalties are fixed without considering the real size of the project, both by its initial overall cost and by its length. In the ordinary classic method, we focus on determining...
Effect of soil moisture in the analysis of undrained shear strength of compacted clayey soil
January 2013
An experimental study was undertaken to study the principles of soil compaction and establish a relation between the undrained shear strength of compacted clay and its moisture content. Compaction of soil is an important prerequisite for the construction of man-made structures like bridges, roads, dams, embankments etc. In the present study fine grained saturated clay finer than 2 × 10-6 m were...
Durability based suitability of bagasse-cement composite for roofing sheets
December 2012
Accelerated and natural weathering of bagasse reinforced cement composite filled with rice ash pozollan used as roofing sheets were studied. In this paper, the durability of natural fibers such as sugarcane bagasse used as roofing sheets has been reported by conducting an experimental investigation. This investigation includes determination of mechanical strength properties such as compressive, tensile,...
Hydration characteristics of cement pastes incorporating electric arc-furnace slag
December 2012
This paper presents the results of a comparative study of the hydration characteristics of cement pastes incorporating steel slag or ground granulated blastfurnace slag (GGBS) as substitutes for ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The study looked at the physical and chemical characteristics of the starting materials. Various cementitious paste mixes were manufactured and cured under two separate curing regimes...
A multi-purpose water resources optimization programme: A case study at Oji-River
December 2012
This paper presents a household centered water resource approach jointly proposed by Federal Ministries of Water Resources and Power. Moreover, the steady increasing demand to achieve optimum operating policy on water resources and power forces engineers and planners of both ministries to contemplate and propose even more comprehensive and ambitious plans for mitigated water supply, power and flood. This...
Analysing the use of construction management (CM) at risk to suggest a suitable contractual structure for developing countries
November 2012
Paying attention to the science of management, generally, and especially to the knowledge of Project management and leadership, is absolutely necessary in national development programs in every country. Like other fields of industrial development, the progresses of the systems of project management have been considerable. In common traditional systems, there were no kind of some services like scheduling,...
Using Finite Element method for Pile-Soil Interface (through PLAXIS and ANSYS)
November 2012
This study investigated the pile-soil interaction and its effect on the pile settlement and shear stress in the interaction zone. The impact of loading on the pile displacement was explored applying Mohr-Coulomb as well as Hard-soil behavior laws. First, the modeling proposed by the PLAXIS Bulletin (No. 16) was duplicated in which Hard-soil behavior law was taken into consideration. Next, the modeling took...
Effects of curing conditions on high strength concrete
November 2012
Compressive strength of high strength concrete (HSC) cubes cured in water and air (uncured) were investigated at different ages and free water/cement (w/c) ratio. Tensile strength of the HSC cylinders was also determined at 90 days for uncured and water cured specimens at different w/c ratios. Compressive strength decreases were recorded for all the ages tested for uncured specimens compared to water cured...
Prediction models for conflict rate in unsignalized intersections
October 2012
Most conflicts occurring in intersections are related to left turn of vehicles. Therefore, transportation engineers use access management as an effective tool to improve arterial ways safety specifications to solve the problem and minimize conflicts. The goal of this study is offering prediction models for conflicts in unsignalized intersection for direct left turn (DLT). In other words, these models analyze...
Investigating effect of size element in nonlinear behavior of concrete shear wall
October 2012
Completion and development of reliable analytical models using finite element method could help investigation and prediction of the actual structure response results. Analysis of each model in finite element software need meshing that computer results are dependent specific to geometry and dimensions of the elements, calling mesh dependence. Finding a strategy for independency of results to meshing is...
Multi-objective optimization of a spouted bed via Genetic algorithm
October 2012
Performance of the gas-solid spouted bed benefits from solid's uniformity structure (UI) with lower pressure drop (PD). Spouted bed system needs to be optimized to achieve the maximum performance. Therefore; the focus of this work is to maximize the UI and to minimize the PD along the bed. Three selected decision variables are affecting these objectives that are; gas' velocity, particle's density...
Maintenance of painted interior walls supported on virtual environments
September 2012
In a building, the paint coating applied to interior walls conveys their aesthetic character and also performs an important function of protection. It is a construction component which is exposed to agents of deterioration related to its use, needing the regular evaluation of its state of repair. The completed model supports the performance of such periodic inspections and the monitoring of interior wall...
Vulnerability assessment of the concrete building by GSREB: Case study
September 2012
The Iranian Guideline for Seismic Rehabilitation of Existing Buildings (GSREB) is currently used for vulnerability assessment of existing buildings in Iran. In this paper, this guideline is used to assess the case study of concrete building. The lateral resisting system of this building contains the steel bracing frames and shear wall. So the lateral seismic system of this building is dowel system. The...
Reflectance spectroscopy as a tool to assess the strength of high-performance concrete in situ
August 2012
Modern high-performance concrete is one of the most versatile, durable, and cost-effective building materials known to man. Its composition has been well-characterized in 'test sample' reports from laboratory specimens and trial castings. The compressive strength of concrete is the most common performance measure used by engineers when designing concrete structures (e.g. buildings, pipes, roads and...
Dynamic behavior of torsionally sensitive reinforced concrete framed structures
August 2012
Torsional irregularity leads to increased unequal displacements at the extremes of the building and may cause distress in the lateral load resisting elements at the edges. Torsional irregularity is caused by plan asymmetry, asymmetrical distribution of mass and stiffness, asymmetrical configuration of the lateral load resisting systems. In the present study, a model G+2 storey was considered to analyze the...
High safety pillars design for underground excavation of natural stone blocks
June 2012
In existing underground mines of dimensional (natural) stone in Slovenia, including the Lipica II and Hotavlje I quarry, the geomechanical characteristics have been observed concerning safety pillars with a low width-to-height ratio. The initial height of safety pillars usually amounts to 4.5 m, but with deepening of underground spaces it increases by 3.0 m; in places, it may reach values of up to 25.0 m or even higher....
Static and dynamic response analysis of reinforced concrete piles
June 2012
In order to clarify restoring force and deformation characteristics of reinforced concrete (RC) pile – soil system, static and dynamic loading tests were conducted for RC piles in dry sandy soil. It was clarified that, within the range of the tests, the restoring force at pile head can be determined from the maximum damaged depth of the pile which depends on the relative stiffness between the...
The analysis of shallow shells with random variable curvature by asymptotic method
May 2012
The paper intends to survey and assess the random change of the form in the shallow shells, which is caused by the usual faults in the technology construction, the influence of which is ignored by the use of safety factors. The surface of the shallow shells with the random function is modulated by the asymptotic method, surveying the stress and strain in the shell. The results of the research can be used in...
Drift analysis due to earthquake load on tall structures
May 2012
Earthquake is one of the destructive events in the world. Prediction of earthquake is not feasible at all. In the horizon, earthquakes of different intensities and magnitudes occurred. So it is a threat to all especially the tall structures of the mega cities. Due to shaking of ground surface, the substructure as well as the superstructure is vibrated. During earthquake, there will be a drift on the high rise...
Development of a wind tunnel model compared with results of method of initial parameters and BS6399 models for dynamic analysis of multi-storey building subjected to aerodynamic loadings
May 2012
The research investigated the development of a wind tunnel model compared with results of method of initial parameters and BS6399 models for dynamic analysis of a multi-storey building subjected to aerodynamic loadings. The dimensional analysis which based its concept on the law of motion and energy conservation was used as wind tunnel experimental data assessment tool, for the determination of the...
An experimental determination of damping ratio of a multi-storey building subjected to aerodynamic loadings
April 2012
The present study focused on an experimental determination of damping ratio of a multi-storey building subjected to aerodynamic loadings. It used the methods of model construction, wind tunnel and dimensional analysis for the investigation. Although, the wind tunnel and dimensional analysis were successfully used in the past and in different ways by many Scholars and Engineers to investigate the problem of...
Assessing effectiveness of utilization of passive design parameters on active energy consumption in public buildings in warm-humid climate
April 2012
Energy requirement in buildings for physiological comfort can be in form of active or passive energy. When the buildings are not energy conscious and passive energy is not well utilized to achieve the desired comfort level, the use of active energy becomes necessary. The mean minimum satisfaction rating of 1.13 which was significantly correlated at 0.01 level, and mean maximum satisfaction rating of 3.34...
Natural fibres as construction materials
March 2012
This paper reviews the properties of different natural fibres. These natural fibres were investigated by different researchers as a construction material to be used in composites (such as cement paste, mortar and/or concrete). The different researches carried out and the conclusions drawn are briefly presented. The aim of this review is to compile the available data of different natural fibres evaluated in...
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