• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.181-189
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• 2015

Shimizu Corporation Tokyo Headquarters, one of the city's leading office buildings, features many pioneering technologies that contribute to a sustainable society through environmental stewardship and a sophisticated disaster management facility. In terms of structural engineering, a seismic isolation system incorporating reinforced concrete core walls and precast concrete perimeter frames create a robust structure in the event of a large earthquake. In addition to the seismic resistance of the structure, several pioneering construction methods and materials are adopted. This office building can serve as a basis for new design and construction approaches and methodologies to ensure safe and economical structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.76 no.2
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• pp.193-205
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• 2020

The growing need for assuring efficient and sustainable investments in civil engineering structures has determined a renovated interest in the rational design of such structures from designers, clients and authorities. As a result, risk-informed decision-making methodologies are increasingly being used as a direct decision tool or as an upper-level layer from which performance-based approaches are then calibrated against. One of the most important and challenging aspects of today's structural design is to adequately handle the system-level effects, the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns. These aspects revolve around assessing and evaluating relevant damage scenarios, namely those involving unacceptable/intolerable damage levels. Hence, the importance of risk analysis of disproportionate collapse, and along with it of robustness. However, the way robustness has been used in modern design codes varies substantially, from simple provisions of prescriptive rules to complex risk analysis of the disproportionate collapse. As a result, implementing design for robustness is still very much a grey area and more so when it comes to defining means to quantify robustness. This paper revisits the most common robustness frameworks, highlighting their merits and limitations, and identifies one among them which is very promising as a way forward to solve the still open challenges.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.385-404
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• 2018

The study investigated an area of sustainable structural design that is often overlooked in practical engineering applications. Specifically, a novel method to simultaneously optimise the cost and embodied carbon performance of steel building structures was explored in this paper. To achieve this, a parametric design model was developed to analyse code compliant structural configurations based on project specific constraints and rigorous testing of various steel beam sections, floor construction typologies (precast or composite) and column layouts that could not be performed manually by engineering practitioners. Detailed objective functions were embedded in the model to compute the cost and life cycle carbon emissions of the different material types used in the structure. Results from a comparative numerical analysis of a real case study illustrated that the proposed optimisation approach could guide structural engineers towards areas of the solution space with realistic design configurations, enabling them to effectively evaluate trade-offs between cost and carbon performance. This significant contribution implied that the optimisation model could reduce the time required for the design and analysis of multiple structural configurations especially during the early stages of a project. Overall, the paper suggested that the deployment of automated design procedures can enhance the quality as well as the efficiency of the optimisation analysis.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.879-902
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• 2015

The remaining service life (RSL) of buildings has been an important issue in the field of building and facility management, and its development is also one of the essential factors for achieving sustainable infrastructure. Since the estimation of RSL of buildings is heavily affected by the subjectivity of individual inspector or engineer, much effort has been placed in the development of a rational method that can estimate the RSL of existing buildings more quantitatively using objective measurement indices. Various uncertain factors contribute to the deterioration of the structural performance of buildings, and most of the common building structures are constructed not with a single structural member but with various types of structural components (e.g., beams, slabs, and columns) in multistory floors. Most existing RSL estimation methods, however, consider only an individual factor. In this study, an estimation method for RSL of concrete buildings is presented by utilizing a fuzzy theory to consider the effects of multiple influencing factors on the deterioration of durability (e.g., concrete carbonation, chloride attack, sulfate attack), as well as the current structural condition (or damage level) of buildings.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.131-138
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• 2014

The inconvenient truth of sustainable public squat toilet culture varies among nationalities. This culture may be comfortable to the people of China, yet uncomfortable to the non-Chinese, according to the adequate environmental management in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture (YKAP), northern China. We conducted a series of field surveys and individual interviews (Chinese n = 1,000 and non-Chinese [foreign visitors] n = 100) on several aspects of the public squat toilet: structural properties, waste disposal methods, important factors, and overall satisfaction level. The significant factors in response to the public squat toilets were cleanliness, odor, toilet paper, temperature, soap, other facilities, and presence of cubicles. These factors should be policy priorities of the local government. In addition, 66.2% of Chinese and 91% of foreign visitors desired type E toilets (two full-high partition walls and a door). The results illustrate the nature of a sustainable and beautiful approach to the culturally and environmentally sound management of various types of public squat toilet in YKAP. The government needs to focus on the future-oriented and excreta treatment management of the sustainable toilet culture for residents and visitors of YKAP.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.463-473
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• 2015

Three full-scale instrumented test slabs were constructed and tested using a heavy vehicle simulator (HVS) to evaluate the structural behavior of internally cured concrete (ICC) for use in pavements under Florida condition. Three mix designs selected from a previous laboratory testing program include the standard mixture with 0.40 water-cement ratio, the ICC with 0.32 water-cement ratio, and the ICC mixture with 0.40 water-cement ratio. Concrete samples were prepared and laboratory tests were performed to measure strength, elastic modulus, coefficient of thermal expansion and shrinkage properties. The environmental responses were measured using strain gages, thermocouples, and linear variable differential transformers instrumented in full-scale concrete slabs. A 3-D finite element model was developed and calibrated using strain data measured from the full-scale tests using the HVS. The results indicate that the ICC slabs were less susceptible to the change of environmental conditions and appear to have better potential performance based on the critical stress analysis.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.47-64
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• 2023

Due to their efficient use of materials, hybrid reinforced concrete-steel (RCS) systems provide more practical and economic advantages than traditional steel and concrete moment frames. This study evaluated the seismic design factors and response modification factor 'R' of RCS composite moment frames composed of reinforced concrete (RC) columns and steel (S) beams. The current International Building Code (IBC) and ASCE/SEI 7-05 classify RCS systems as special moment frames and provide an R factor of 8 for these systems. In this study, seismic design parameters were initially quantified for this structural system using an R factor of 8 based on the global methodology provided in FEMA P695. For analyses, multi-story (3, 5, 10, and 15) and multi-span (3 and 5) archetypes were used to conduct nonlinear static pushover analysis and incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) under near-field and far-field ground motions. The analyses were performed using the OpenSees software. The procedure was reiterated with a larger R factor of 9. Results of the performance evaluation of the investigated archetypes demonstrated that an R factor of 9 achieved the safety margin against collapse outlined by FEMA P695 and can be used for the design of RCS systems.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.214-227
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• 2022

The successful implementation of green supply chain management(GSCM) practices requires a level of cooperation that can be difficult to conduct. Despite this challenge, limited scholarly attention has been paid to exploring how the implementation of GSCM practices can be effectively facilitated and enhanced through accumulated social capital with suppliers. Based on social capital theory, this study postulates that supplier network characteristics derived from social capital with key suppliers can be critical antecedents of GSCM, which in turn enhances the firm's environmental performance. To test hypotheses, data were collected from 330 firms in 15 countries, and structural equation modeling was employed. Results show that GSCM improves environmental performance, and structural and cognitive social capitals of the supplier network act as antecedents and lead to GSCM implementation.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.493-502
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• 2022

In recent decades, infrastructural development has exploded, particularly in the coastal region of Saudi Arabia. The rising demand of most consumed aggregate in construction can be effectively compensated by the alternative material like scoria which lavishly exists in the western region. Scoria is characterized as lightweight aggregate beneficially used to develop lightweight concrete (LWC) - a potential alternative of normal weight concrete (NWC) ensuring reduction in the structural element's size, increase in building height, comparatively lighter foundation, etc. Hence, the goal of this study is to incorporate scoria-based structural lightweight concrete and evaluate its impact on superstructure and foundation design beside contributing to the economy of construction. Fresh, mechanical, and rheological properties of the novel LWC have been investigated. The structural analyses employ the NWC as well as LWC based structures under seismic and wind loadings. The commercial finite element package - ETABS was employed to find out the change in structural responses and foundations. The cost estimation and SWOT analysis for superstructure and foundation have also been carried out. It was revealed that the developed LWC enabled a more flexible structural design. Notable reduction in the steel and concrete prices of LWC might be possible in the low-rise building. It is postulated that the cost-effective and eco-friendly LWC will promote the usage of scoria as an effective alternative in Saudi Arabia and GCC countries for structurally viable LWC construction.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.3
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• pp.311-325
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• 2020

In applying the spectral stochastic finite element methods to the frequency response analysis, the conventional methods are known to give unstable and inaccurate results near the natural frequencies. To address this issue, a new sensitivity based stabilized formulation for stochastic frequency response analysis is proposed in this paper. The main difference over the conventional spectral methods is that the polynomials of random variables are applied to both numerator and denominator in approximating the harmonic response solution. In order to reflect the resonance behavior of the structure, the denominator polynomials is constructed by utilizing the natural frequency sensitivity and the random mode superposition. The numerator is approximated by applying a polynomial chaos expansion, and its coefficients are obtained through the Galerkin or the spectral projection method. Through various numerical studies, it is seen that the proposed method improves accuracy, especially in the vicinities of structural natural frequencies compared to conventional spectral methods.