2020 November - 23 articles
While continuous reinforced concrete deep beams with fixed and hinged support conditions are every so often found in structures, little research has focused on their performance. This, in part, can be attributed to the demanding nature of ensuring fi...
Modern heritage buildings designed in the 1950s and 1960s often feature poor seismic performance capacities and may require significant retrofit interventions. A representative case study in Florence, i.e., the edifice housing the Automobile Club Hea...
The seismic assessment of existing school buildings is an important issue in earthquake prone regions; such is the case of the Algarve, which is the southern region of Portugal mainland. Having this problem in mind, the PERSISTAH project (Projetos de...
During the summer, the environmental impact of building operations can be reduced by optimizing ventilation and preventing heat from entering the building. Shades are used to create a comfortable temperature state in interiors without operating mecha...
Sustainable Project Management (SPM) is a novel theme in construction industries of developing countries and very little is known (so far) about the sustainability performance of construction projects in those settings. Accordingly, the quantitative...
Trapezoidal-shaped thin-walled metallic profiled sheets are used in composite floor construction to enable rapid construction and reduce reinforcement and formwork requirements in concrete casting. However, relevant literature reported the early fail...
In countries with high heating demand, waste heat from industrial processes should be carefully utilized in buildings. Finland already has an extensive district heating grid and large amounts of combined heat and power generation. However, despite th...
Windows account for a significant proportion of the total energy lost in buildings. The interaction of window type, Window-to-Wall Ratio (WWR) scheduled and window placement height influence natural lighting and heat transfer through windows. This is...
Off-site construction (OSC) is known as an efficient construction method that could save time and cost, reduce waste of resources, and improve the overall productivity of projects. Coupled with digital technologies associated with the Industry 4.0 co...
This study is devoted to experimentally investigate the seismic behaviour of reinforced concrete (RC) wide beam–column joints equipped with a steel jacketing seismic strengthening solution. To this end, three identical full-scale specimens have been...
Conservation of heritage buildings has become a very important issue in many countries, as it is in Italy, where a great number of existing buildings of historical–artistic importance are seismically vulnerable. To improve existing building beh...
The use of generative design has been suggested to be a novel approach that allows designers to take advantage of computers’ computational capabilities in the exploration of design alternatives. However, the field is still sparsely explored. Therefor...
Several authors have studied construction defects, but no studies were found implementing best practices and control strategies through the implementation of continuous improvement projects. This article shows a procedure based on Continuous Improvem...
Improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings by implementing building automation control strategies (BACS) besides building envelope and energy system retrofitting has been recommended by the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD)...
With the constant expansion of the building sector as a major energy consumer in the modern world, the significance of energy-efficient building systems cannot be more emphasized. Most of the buildings are now equipped with an electric dashboard to r...
Although base isolation is nowadays a well-established seismic-protection technique for both buildings and bridges, and several issues are still open and attract the interest of the research community. Among them, the formulation of computationally e...
The present paper reports an experimental study coupled with a numerical modelling approach to simulate masonry walls strengthened with textile-reinforced mortar (TRM). This innovative reinforcing technique is based on high-strength fibre grids embed...
Optimizing the operating conditions and control set points of the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system in a building is one of the most effective ways to save energy and improve the building’s energy performance. Here, we op...
The paper introduces a new semi-probabilistic methodology for the definition of energy fragility curves suitable for a macro-classification of building stock inspired to and coupled with the widely adopted method of seismic fragility curves. The appr...
Climate change and global warming have triggered a global increase in the use of renewable energy for various purposes. In recent years, the photovoltaic (PV)-system has become one of the most popular renewable energy technologies that captures solar...
The 21st century abounds in modern electronic-information technologies, which are applied in many areas of life. Amongst many modern technologies there is also the Internet of Things (IoT) that is the concept of incorporating objects and devices equi...
Clay brick is a commonly used building material in China. Due to the enormous land destruction and excessive consumption of resources, such as materials and energy in the manufacture of clay brick, it is important to study its overall sustainability,...
Volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from indoor sources are large determinants of the indoor air quality (IAQ) and occupant health. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a panelized engineered wood product often left exposed as an interior surface fi...
