• Land and Housing Review
• /
• v.2 no.4
• /
• pp.569-575
• /
• 2011

In domestic mechanical demolition work against RC building, unsuitable selection and loading of heavy equipment have led to occasional accidents such as collapse of structural members during the work. Therefore, proper analysis technique to easily decide allowable equipment load on the structure is needed at the planning stage of mechanical demolition work. In this paper, performing loading test and elastic analysis against 4-story building at full scale, we confirm appropriateness for allowable load of equipment on RC structures, which was suggested in previous study, and suggest structural analysis method that can evaluate safety of RC building during the mechanical demolition. The suggested method can be effectively utilized to improve work efficiency through safety of mechanical demolition work against RC building and proper management of equipments.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.301-319
• /
• 2010

The paper seeks to explore some aspects of the current state of knowledge on progressive collapse in the technical literature covering blast loads and structural analysis procedure applicable to reinforced concrete (RC) buildings. The paper describes the progressive collapse analysis of a commercial RC building located in the city of Riyadh and subjected to different blast scenarios. A 3-D finite element model of the structure was created using LS-DYNA, which uses explicit time integration algorithms for solution. Blast loads were treated as dynamic pressure-time history curves applied to the exterior elements. The inherent shortcomings of notional member removal have been taken care of in the present paper by simulating the damage of structural elements through the use of solid elements with the provision of element erosion. Effects of erosion and cratering are studied for different scenarios of the blast.

• Land and Housing Review
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.195-204
• /
• 2011

During mechanical demolition of RC structures, weights of dismantling equipment and demolition waste of building are applied to unexpected load which did not be considered during the design of structural member. Nevertheless, the loading of dismantling equipment and dismantling process are mainly dependent on field managers' field workers' or experiences without considering safety of structural member by a structural engineer. It is urgently required that reflecting actual circumstance of mechanical demolition, safety evaluation method to evaluate the safety and the guideline for appropriate capacity of structural member to support dismantling equipment weight, be provided. Through site investigation and questionnaire on field workers, this paper proposed demolition waste load, load factor, strength reduction factor, and so on. These are essential to safe evaluation of a building, ready to demolition. Considering actual circumstance of mechanical demolition, safety evaluation method of building and design method of slab and beam was suggested to a dilapidated building. An capability to loading of dismantling equipment was proposed, applied to RC slab and RC beam. Therefore, the suggested safety evaluation method and the guideline for an capability to loading of dismantling equipment weight can reasonably evaluate the capacity of structural member in demolition and use effectively as increasing efficiency and improving safety of demolition through proper management of dismantling equipments.

• Advances in Computational Design
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.1-23
• /
• 2024

Present paper deals with the cost effective design of reinforced concrete building frame employing unified particle swarm optimization (UPSO). A building frame with G+8 stories have been adopted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the present algorithm. Effect of seismic loads and wind load have been considered as per Indian Standard (IS) 1893 (Part-I) and IS 875 (Part-III) respectively. Analysis of the frame has been carried out in STAAD Pro software.The design loads for all the beams and columns obtained from STAAD Pro have been given as input of the optimization algorithm. Next, cost optimization of all beams and columns have been carried out in MATLAB environment using UPSO, considering the safety and serviceability criteria mentioned in IS 456. Cost of formwork, concrete and reinforcement have been considered to calculate the total cost. Reinforcement of beams and columns has been calculated with consideration for curtailment and feasibility of laying the reinforcement bars during actual construction. The numerical analysis ensures the accuracy of the developed algorithm in providing the cost optimized design of RC building frame considering safety, serviceability and constructional feasibilities. Further, Monte Carlo simulations performed on the numerical results, proved the consistency and robustness of the developed algorithm. Thus, the present algorithm is capable of giving a cost effective design of RC building frame, which can be adopted directly in construction site without making any changes.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.82 no.5
• /
• pp.557-569
• /
• 2022

The retrofit of existing structures in high seismic zones is a crucial issue in the earthquake engineering field. The interest of the research community is particularly high for the structures that do not respect current seismic codes and present structural deficiencies such as poor detailing and lack of capacity design provisions. A reinforced concrete (RC) school building is used as case study to show the influence of different knowledge levels on the seismic retrofitting cost assessment. The safety assessment of the case study building highlights deficiencies under both vertical and seismic loads. By considering all the possible knowledge levels defined by the Italian such as by the European codes in order to derive the mechanical properties of the school building constitutive materials, the retrofit operations are designed to achieve different seismic safety thresholds. The retrofit structural costs are calculated and summed up to the costs for in-situ in tests. The paper shows how for the case study building the major costs spent for a large number of in-situ tests allows to save a consistent amount of money for retrofit operations. The hypothesis of demolition and reconstruction of the building is also compared in terms of costs with all the analyzed retrofit options.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.90 no.5
• /
• pp.493-504
• /
• 2024

This paper presents the methodology and results for the investigation of the structural safety of 40 aged underground water tanks to support the weight of photovoltaic (PV) systems that were supposed to be placed on their roof reinforced concrete (RC) slabs. The investigation procedure included (1) review of available documents; (2) visual inspection of the roof RC slabs; (3) carrying out a series of nondestructive (ND) tests; and (4) analysis of results. Out of the 40 tanks, eleven failed the visual inspection phase and were discarded from further investigation. The roof RC slabs of the tanks that passed the visual inspection were subjected to a series of ND tests that included infrared thermography, impact echo, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), Schmidt hammer, concrete core compressive strength, and water-soluble chloride content. The NDT results proved that eight more tanks were not suitable to support the PV systems. Based on the results of the visual inspection and testing, a probabilistic decision-making criterion was established to reach a decision regarding the structural integrity of the roof slabs. The study concluded that the condition of the drainage filter was essential in protecting the tanks and its intact presence can be used as a strong indication of the structural integrity of the roof RC slabs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.19 no.4 s.68
• /
• pp.161-165
• /
• 2004

Safety and efficiency in the construction of RC structures mainly depends on optimal operation of shore-slat systems. The disasters in RC construction are mainly due to excessive load applied to falsework and premature removal of supports. Development of sufficient compressive strength of early-age connote is essential for the safety of structures during construction. Most of studies on shore-slab interaction have focused on flat slab structures. In this study, load distributions in floor slabs and supports during the construction of shear wall-type RC apartment building structures is investigated using finite element analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.32 no.5
• /
• pp.69-75
• /
• 2017

Structural safety evaluation for static strength of thin plate RC member with high strength concrete is conducted in this study. Static strengths were predicted and compared with the experimental values. Predicted values were calculated by the evaluation formula based on the punching shear behavior and the yield line theory which can appear in the plate members. Static load tests were carried out for the specimens with high strength concrete and the test results were compared with the required performance in design. The comparison results show that the specimens with high strength concrete have sufficient structural safety for flexural and punching shear performance required in design. High strength concrete specimens exhibited excellent strength despite their small thickness. The range of concrete strengths applied in this study was about 60 MPa to 100 MPa.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.193-212
• /
• 2009

The resilience of a city confronted with a terrorist bomb attack is the background of the paper. The resilience strongly depends on vital infrastructure and the physical protection of people. The protection buildings provide in case of an external explosion is one of the important elements in safety assessment. Besides the aspect of protection, buildings facilitate and enable many functions, e.g., offices, data storage, -handling and -transfer, energy supply, banks, shopping malls etc. When a building is damaged, the loss of functions is directly related to the location, amount of damage and the damage level. At TNO Defence, Security and Safety methods are developed to quantify the resilience of city infrastructure systems (Weerheijm et al. 2007b). In this framework, the dynamic response, damage levels and residual bearing capacity of multi-storey RC buildings is studied. The current paper addresses the aspects of dynamic response and progressive collapse, as well as the proposed method to relate the structural damage to a volume-damage parameter, which can be linked to the loss of functionality. After a general introduction to the research programme and progressive collapse, the study of the dynamic response and damage due to blast loading for a single RC element is described. Shock tube experiments on plates are used as a reference to study the possibilities of engineering methods and an explicit finite element code to quantify the response and residual bearing capacity. Next the dynamic response and progressive collapse of a multi storey RC building is studied numerically, using a number of models. Conclusions are drawn on the ability to predict initial blast damage and progressive collapse. Finally the link between the structural damage of a building and its loss of functionality is described, which is essential input for the envisaged method to quantify the resilience of city infrastructure.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.439-451
• /
• 2015

This study analyzed the isolation effect for a 15-story reinforced concrete (RC) building with regard to changes in the beam-column stiffness ratio and the difference in the vibration period between the superstructure and an isolation layer in order to provide basic data that are needed to devise a framework for the design of isolated RC buildings. First, this analytical study proposes to design RC building frames by securing an isolation period that is at least 2.5 times longer than the natural vibration period of a superstructure and configuring a target isolation period that is 3.0 s or longer. To verify the proposed plan, shaking table tests were conducted on a scaled-down model of 15-story RC building installed with laminated rubber bearings. The experimental results indicate that the tested isolated structure, which complied with the proposed conditions, exhibited an almost constant response distribution, verifying that the behavior of the structure improved in terms of usability. The RC building's response to inter-story drift (which causes structural damage) was reduced by about one-third that of a non-isolated structure, thereby confirming that the safety of such a superstructure can be achieved through the building's improved seismic performance.