Healthcare financing has remained a challenge for many developing countries. With increasing financial constraints and persistent pressure on healthcare systems, prioritization of needs has become an issue of strategic importance in public hospitals. Notwithstanding the role of Facilities Management (FM) services in facilitating core healthcare delivery, resource allocation works to the disadvantage

With the construction industry shifting towards sustainable practices, it has become critical to incorporate sustainability measures in the design and operation of buildings. Space layout problem (SLP) in buildings is a classical problem of allocating activities to spaces with the intention of satisfying functional and proximity requirements. Research done on SLPs focused on the relative position of

Various thermal prediction methods and tools for conceptual building design have been rapidly developed in the past decades. However, most of these methods have some drawbacks to obsess their applications, such as heavily relying on very detailed information of building envelope components, and their thermal conductivity data with complicated computation models or formulas; and difficulties for architects

The hydration characteristics of calcium sulfoaluminate cement (CSA) and ordinary Portland cement (OPC) blended pastes incorporating calcium sulfate (CS¯) are investigated. The experimental characterization techniques were employed and complemented with thermodynamic calculations to provide in-depth understanding of the hydration of CSA/OPC blended system. The results showed that the hydration of C3S

Concrete will expand after being heated at high temperatures, and the thermal stress generated will cause cracks inside the concrete, which seriously endangers the safety of concrete. The influence of heating rate on the free expansion deformation of concrete during heating process was studied. Three heating rates were used to conduct high-temperature deformation tests. The concrete specimens were

Being a relatively newer material in construction sector, geopolymer based building materials have been of large interest for last decade. This study presents a comprehensive experimental study for assessment of the effectiveness of mix parameters and compound characteristics of the ingredients on the engineering properties of lightweight geopolymer mortar (LWGM). The investigated fresh properties

In this study, grouted couplers were used to connect steel bars as an alternative approach to the conventional steel bar lapping method. The aim is to avoid bar congestion problems and to reduce the required quantity of steel bars in order to achieve the development length in practice. Two categories of couplers, i.e., short-threaded grout coupler and long grout coupler, in nine groups as well as one

Confinement through steel spirals can significantly improve the performance of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC). However, only a few studies are available in the literature in this context. Considering the variability of recycled coarse aggregates (RCA), more studies are needed to explore the behavior of RAC confined by steel spirals. In this study, the stress-strain behavior of steel spiral confined

Textile reinforced mortar (TRM) stands as an alternative for strengthening or repair reinforced concrete (RC) structures. It presents some advantages when compared to other consolidated techniques, however, as an innovative solution, more research and developments are needed. Therefore, this work is an exploratory study using a locally manufactured AR fiberglass textile (TEXIGLASS AR-360-RA-04) to

The sprayed silver nitrate (AgNO3) solution colorimetric method allows identifying chloride ion presence in concrete. However, this method gives false positive results in carbonated concrete structures. This work aims to help develop a technique that restrains carbonation interference in silver nitrate solution spraying for detecting chloride ions in reinforced concrete. Calcium hydroxide and sodium

The composite beam with inverted-T steel girder and UHPC slab connected by studs arranged in the web of the girder was developed to further the economy in material and best exploit the properties of UHPC. However, the composite beam may experience premature failure due to the occurrence of slip at the shear interface. This so-called partial interaction needs to be addressed in the flexural design for

Concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns are unique structural members that capitalize on the synergy between steel and concrete materials. Due to complexities arising from the interaction between steel tube and concrete filling, the analysis and design of CFST columns are both intricate and tedious. A closer examination to the provisions of American, European and Australian/New Zealand design

A new kind of hybrid fiber reinforced strain-hardening cementitious composite (HySHCC) containing steel fiber, PVA fiber and calcium carbonate whisker was designed. Its tensile behaviors at room temperature and after elevated temperature exposure were investigated. The results indicate that equivalently substitute PVA fibers by steel fibers degraded the tensile strain-hardening ability of SHCC at room

In-plane seismic behaviour of Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) walls is influenced by panel-to-panel and panel-to-foundation mechanical connections, which consist of hold-downs and angle brackets. Due to the platform constructional technology, also the orthogonal to grain timber-to-timber contact is involved in the seismic response of the panels. At date, literature theoretical approaches to evaluating

This article presents testing results of cement mortars, in which Composite Lightweight Aggregates (CLA) obtained in laboratory conditions substitutes a part of natural aggregates. The new aggregates are sustainable products obtained by using 100% waste by-products: PET flakes and sewage sludge fly ash (ssFA) streams or siliceous fly ash (FA). The level of natural aggregate replacement by CLAs in mortars

With the vigorous development of building fresh air filtration systems, the determination of outdoor design PM2.5 concentration has become one of the important factors for the selection of fresh air filtration systems. In this paper, a simple and effective method was proposed to estimate the outdoor design PM2.5 concentration, through which the outdoor design PM2.5 concentration for any location of

Recycled Concrete Aggregates (RCA) are not enough used in the construction sector due to their high porosity and water absorption capacity. Fine particles which are composed of large amounts of attached hardened cement paste are even more difficult to valorize, while they could be used as mineral admixture in mortar or concrete. The objective of this work is to find a recovery track for this material

Retarding admixtures have the ability minimize the adverse effects of concreting under hot weather conditions. Liquid admixtures are generally used for this purpose. However, these have limited shelf-life and therefore there is a need to develop solid retarding admixtures. This paper reports results of a study conducted to assess the performance of solid retarders for retardation of cement. The examined

In recent years, timber has been considered as an alternative source of building material because of its sustainability and design efficiency. However, the cost competitiveness of timber buildings is still under study due to the lack of available cost information. This paper presents a comprehensive cost comparative analysis of a mass timber building mainly developed with cross-laminated timber (CLT)

Machine learning models have been shown to be useful for predicting and assessing structural performance, identifying structural condition and informing preemptive and recovery decisions by extracting patterns from data collected via various sources and media. This paper presents a review of the historical development and recent advances in the application of machine learning to the area of building

Demand response of district heating provides one tool for decreasing cost and emissions in the whole energy system. However, when seeking cost savings and emission reductions, it is also important to consider thermal comfort. Thus, the overall and local thermal comfort of occupants were investigated during the experimental study while applying the demand response of space heating. Thermal manikin measurements

The research carried out studies how the addition of plastic polypropylene fibers from recycled non-degradable wet wipes can influence on the physical and mechanical behavior of composites with a gypsum binder matrix. Four different plaster blends were studied, corresponding to percentages of 2, 2.5, 3 and 3.5% by weight of recycled plastic fibers. To characterize the different test specimens, properties

Given that concrete is the second most-consumed resource in the world after water, and that most buildings are constructed in whole or in part of this cement composite, it is important to understand the impact that this material has on energy performance. In order to evaluate the hygrothermal and mechanical performance of concrete when used in buildings, this study compared different sustainable concrete

Compared to monolithic reinforced concrete (RC) buildings, precast RC buildings are more prone to the risk of progressive collapse. Therefore, there is a need for efficient methods to strengthen beam-column joints in existing precast structures for mitigating the progressive collapse. This paper studies numerically using the finite element (FE) method the risk of progressive collapse of precast concrete

Generally, the phosphoric acid-activated systems use aluminosilicates as raw material (e.g., metakaolin) ; and the addition of alkali metals (e.g., Mg or Ca) contributes to obtain best properties. Volcanic ash (Va) is an aluminosilicate globally available and contain these metal oxides, which makes it a suitable raw material to produce acid-activated cements. The research on the production of this

In tropical countries such as Sri Lanka, wall care putties are applied as primers in building constructions providing a smooth shield for the wall. This research study was conducted to investigate the durability performance in terms of rain surface erosion and the bonding strength by shear testing of different wall care putty materials along with walling materials. Four types of walling materials and

Throughout the last years, Polymer concrete (PC) has been using to enhance the performance of concrete structures. Manufacturing lightweight construction material aims to reduce the weight of structures and utilize lightweight polymer concrete (LPC) to combine with ordinary cement concrete (OCC). The purpose of this paper is to determine the mechanical and durability properties of LPC using destructive

Advances in technology and environmental issues allow the building industry to use ever more high-performance engineered materials. In this study, the hardness of concrete mixtures with high-volume fly ash (HVFA) has been evaluated and modeled for the LEED (Leadership for Energy and Environmental Design). High-performance building materials may have greater strength, ductility, external factor resistance

This study investigated the feasibility of using waste liquid crystal display (LCD) glass powder as a partial replacement for the silica flour that is typically used as a filler in ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC). In this study, 50% of the silica flour was replaced with LCD glass powder, and its effects on the interfacial bond properties of two steel fiber shapes—circular and triangular—were

Reinforcing steel imported into Colombia from various countries, which does not meet the requirements of local building codes, hinders the compliance with the life safety limit state intended by the local building code. The results of a statistical analysis of the tensile mechanical properties that characterize the stress-strain curves of steel bars marketed in Bogotá are presented and discussed. The

An effective indoor temperature model would assist in improving energy efficiency and indoor thermal comfort of air conditioning system. However, it is difficult to build an accurate model due to lag response characteristic in the regulation process of indoor temperature. To solve this problem, the modeling and prediction methods for indoor temperature lag response characteristic based on time-delay

The study focuses on the moisture buffering properties of paper plaster. Two questions are under consideration in this article. Firstly, how the paper used influences the properties (dry density, drying shrinkage) of paper plaster, and secondly, what the material sorption and moisture buffering properties of paper plaster are. Two different dry density sized groups of densities approx. 140–150 kg/m3

In this paper, detailed analysis of field wind data atop the Shanghai Tower is conducted to investigate the wind characteristics evolution generated by typhoon Jongdari, which can provide useful information for high altitude wind features in dense building landform to aid wind-resistant design of 600 m + super-tall buildings. The necessity of data preprocessing is discussed, and some precautions for

Steel plate shear walls (SPSWs) are efficient lateral-force resisting systems with high stiffness, strength, and ductility performances as well as energy-absorption capacity. Proper design and detailing of the plate and frame components is crucial to ensure the favorable yielding and stability performances of such elements, desirable plate-frame yielding sequence as well as interaction, and consequently

In this work, the feasibility of using natural clays for the manufacture of clay ceramics processed by fast drying was studied using mixture design (DoE). Three clays were selected and their chemical (XRF), mineralogical (XRD) and particle size characteristics (laser diffraction) were determined. A plastic clay, a sandy clay and a claystone were used in a simplex centroid mixture design resulting in

This paper assesses the effect of recycled date pits waste additive as a construction material additive to unfired clay bricks, with m Multiple waste additive proportions (0%, 1%, 3%, 7%, 15% and 20%), by weight, in terms of their physicochemical, mechanical and thermal performances. Crystalline characterization of used clay in its raw state, via X-ray Diffraction, showed its Illite type with non-swelling

Old Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings are facing different degrees of structural deterioration and require proper strengthening to enhance their structural performance as well as to extend their life span. Fabric reinforced Alkali-Activated Slag (AAS) matrix is proposed to strengthen RC beams in this study. Seven RC beams with and without strengthening were prepared and tested under four-point bending

A building material’s surface properties play an important role on its corrosion, mainly due to its interaction with water. Water adheres to a surface and, thus, damages it, to an extent depending on the nature of the material, as well as its surface roughness and porosity. In this study, we focus on marble (a widely used material both in cultural heritage and in modern structures) samples with different

Due to its high structural efficiency and aesthetics, free-form grid structures have been widely used in various public structures. However, it is neither a convenient nor an obvious task for engineers to create a discrete grid on a free-form surface that manifests the architect’s intent. This paper presents an efficient design approach based on Coulomb's law to generate well-shaped and fluent grids

Nano-silica (NS) and micro-silica (MS) are both effective in improving the strength and durability of concrete, but their combined effect on a particular performance attribute may not be the same as the sum of their respective individual effects. In this research, the individual and combined effects of NS and MS on the carbonation and sorptivity of concrete were studied by conducting carbonation and

Cement production has a lot of adverse effects on the environment and the globe at large. With all these negativities, it becomes imperative to find alternative materials that are sustainable and environmentally friendly to reduce some of these adverse effects. Seashells are one of the numerous wastes that are quickly accumulating onshore coasts. Using seashells in cement aids in ridding seashells

A proper selection of predictor variables would enhance the exploratory analysis of time series models while prompting practical strategies to optimize chiller system performance. This study explores essential operating variables to predict the time series of the coefficient of performance (COP) of a chiller system expressed as the cooling capacity output divided by the total electric power input of

The environmental impact reduction has a growing prominence in building constructions. One of the solutions to that is external wall coating mortars with improved thermal performance, which can be produced with incorporation of lightweight aggregates. To obtain a mortar with the demanded hardened characteristics (physical and mechanical), their fresh properties must be acceptable. This study is focused

This paper aims to propose complex Morlet (cmorfb-fc) wavelet-based refined damage-sensitive feature (rDSF) as a new and more precise damage indicator to diagnose seismic damages in adjacent steel and Reinforced Concrete (RC) Moment Resisting Frames (MRFs) assuming pounding conditions using acceleration responses. The‏ ‏considered structures ‏include 6- and 9-story steel and 4- and 8-story RC benchmark

In building energy research, there is a lack of behavioral models for understanding energy consumption of large apartment buildings. This study aims to understand energy use characteristics and influential behavioral factors in the dormitory buildings, a type of large apartment buildings with dense occupancy condition. The study collected the monthly electricity data of 620 rooms within two large dormitory

In recent years, various heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) control strategies have been proposed to reduce buildings’ energy consumption and environmental impacts. Due to different research designs, it is impossible to directly compare the reported performance of these strategies and determine the best approach for operating real-world buildings. To fill this gap, this research uses

In this paper a meso-concrete model is established by using cohesive element script and random aggregate procedure to investigate the influence of elastic modulus on the mesoscopic concrete properties, where the crack is simulated by the deletion of cohesive element. The meso-structure parameters of concrete specimen with homogeneous elastic modulus are investigated based on the model, such as aggregate

Vernacular architecture is an important part of cultural landscapes. The use of traditional sandstone roofing for rural constructions has declined significantly in the Aragonese Pyrenees (Spain), leading to important changes in the cultural landscape of this UNESCO World Heritage site. Factors leading to the decline are studied, including laboratory analyses/tests to evaluate the material's shortcomings

In this paper, three new stress-strain relationships for brick masonry with gypsum mortar and cement mortar are presented. The relationships are developed based on experimental data taken from specimens at 1:4 and 1:6 scales constructed according to two different standards. It is shown that suggested strain-strain relationships are highly consistent with the experimental results for brick masonry wallettes

Structural insulation panels (SIPs) are considered promising building products that achieve the low-energy goal, and its potential energy performance can be further improved by combining it with a vacuum insulation panel (VIP) in cold climates. The aim of this study is to determine the optimal SIP with VIP (VIP-SIP) thickness and to minimize the energy cost. We conduct a VIP-SIP thickness optimization

Within the environmental context, several tools based on simulations have been proposed to analyze the physical phenomena of heat and mass transfer in porous materials. However, it is still an open challenge to propose tools that do not require to perform computations to catch the dominant processes. Thus, this article proposes to explore advantages of using a dimensionless analysis by scaling the

The ventilation effect in different places in the teaching building is different. The aim of this paper is to study the relative ventilation relationship of the rooms in “L” type middle school teaching building. Taking Xiamen in the subtropical region as a typical city, different aspect ratio for 1:1, 1:1.5 and 1:2 were set as variables, using the CFD simulation method. Combined and separated effects

In recent years, energy efficiency and sustainability have garnered widespread attention as buildings account for 30–40% of total primary energy use in North America and 24% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Owing to the cold climate in Canada, energy-efficient building practices have drawn significant interest among authorities and researchers who aim to develop sustainable means of improving energy

Prefabricated 3D modules are widely adopted in building construction for better quality, lower demand on labor and construction space, faster construction, and less emission. Various types of modular structures and connections have been tested and are commercially available. A large number of actual applications demonstrate that the structural system of a modular building can be flexibly organized

Circular Economy (CE) can help reduce the building industry’s immense environmental impact. Life cycle assessment (LCA) can facilitate CE decision-making by identifying the largest environmental impact reduction opportunities throughout a building’s life cycle, but it does not suffice in a design situation. Thus, aggregated LCA knowledge is needed. However, existing building LCAs lack transparency

The use of herbal extracts as green corrosion inhibitors shows many positive aspects such as environmentally friendly, inexpensive and renewable. Eucalyptus trees are forestry that grow with little nutrition in many parts of the world. There is no existing research on the evaluation of Eucalyptus leaves (EL) as green corrosion inhibitors of steel reinforcement. Therefore, this study contributes significantly

This paper presents results from testing eight full-scale walls made of calcium silicate units. Tested walls were reinforced in the bed joint or unreinforced, with or without openings. The used reinforcement was steel truss type and fibreglass mesh coated with plastic. Tests also looked at the impact of reinforcement on load-carrying capacity and crack resistance in areas of stress concentration near

Y plan shaped building is usually a triaxially symmetrical building where three separate limbs are bridged in a central core portion. Due to some engineering or architectural requirements, the symmetricity among the wings is not maintained properly, and the limb angle modification is unavoidable. This paper demonstrates a comprehensive study on mean pressure, force and moment coefficients of different

Pursuing green building certification for major renovation projects, including schools, has become common due to its associated resource efficiency, reduced operation cost, and enhanced indoor environmental conditions. The perceived renovation costs may discourage professionals from pursuing the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating systems. To attain cost-effective LEED certifications

Ground-penetrating Radar (GPR) is a non-invasive technique with increasing focus on civil-engineering applications. Referring to existing constructions, the most recent International and National Codes suggest a knowledge-based approach, which is mandatory before any structural assessment or design of interventions. The knowledge-based process includes experimental investigations aimed at the detailed