cometadata/datacite-titles-descriptions-related-identifiers huggingface dataset:
DOI: 10.12755/isec.res.2018.7
title: AN EFFECTIVE TECHNIQUE UTILIZING FRCM SYSTEM IN STRENGTHENING RC BEAMS IN SHEAR

description: This paper presents the efficacy of a new technique of fabric reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM) for the strengthening of shear deficient reinforced concrete (RC) beams. This technique involves embedding the FRCM composites in the concrete cover and is referred to as "near surface embedded" FRCM (NSE-FRCM) technique. Five (5) medium scale rectangular RC beams of width ื depth ื length of 150 ื 330 ื 2100 mm were constructed and tested under displacement controlled with three-point loading. One beam was kept unstrengthen as a control specimen whereas the other four beams were strengthened with different types and configurations of the NSE-FRCM system. The test parameters were: (a) geometric configuration (intermittent strips of NSE-FRCM versus full NSE-FRCM plate), and (b) fabric types (carbon versus glass fabrics). The test results indicated that the NSE-FRCM technique can successfully be used to significantly enhance the shear capacity of the strengthened beams. The strengthened specimens exhibited an average enhancement in the shear capacity of 62% over the unstrengthen beam. The full NSE-FRCM plate showed higher enhancement in the shear strength compared to that for the intermittent NSE-FRCM configuration. Moreover, the specimens strengthened with carbon FRCM showed higher shear capacity compared to that with glass FRCM counterparts.
DOI: 10.12755/isec.res.2018.8
title: AN INVESTIGATION INTO CRANE AND SCAFFOLD SAFETY IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

description: The aim of this study is to determine whether construction sites involving cranes and scaffold in Australian large construction sites have been in compliance with the existing Work Health and Safety (WHS) requirements. The research comprises three case studies which investigated the causes of crane and scaffold safety incidents that occurred in New South Wales. The results of the case study on a number of separate sites in Sydney, NSW have shown that without stringent safety procedures in place to abide by the WHS Act and Regulations, major accidents can occur and can cause serious injury and could cause potential fatalities while working with cranes and scaffold. Results also found that a number of limiting factors including communication skill, regular maintenance, safety checks, safety culture and safety investments could contribute to the severity of the incidents.
DOI: 10.12755/isec.res.2018.9
title: ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING IN REHABILITATION AT SOCIAL HOUSING QUARTERS

description: The rehabilitation of social housing quarters is done with the purpose to answer three central questions: (1) to solve the existing anomalies that are often caused by rain water infiltrations through the vertical's building envelope and also through roof, condensation caused by the lack of insulation and poor existent ventilation and existing cracks in building's facades
description: (2) to improve thermal comfort and increase energy efficiency of the buildings
description: (3) to increase the satisfaction and self-esteem of the residents promoting a modern and also high quality architectural intervention at social housing quarters. This study will describe the executed solutions for the rehabilitation of this three social housing quarters, three of the biggest social quarters of the Oporto region, each one with a different intervention in the building envelope.
DOI: 10.12755/isec.res.2018.10
title: ASSESSMENT OF CONTRACTORS' PRACTICES TOWARDS RISKS OUT OF CONTRACTORS CONTROL IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

description: Research has shown that public construction projects in Saudi Arabia have exhibited poor performance for the past three decades. Recent studies have identified the ownership of parties who cause risks and lead to low performance in the Saudi construction industry. These studies identified that contractors are not the main party that cause risks as owners, consultants, and other parties have the major share of causing risks in the industry. The aim of this study is to assess the current risk management and performance measurement practices applied by contractors to minimize risk out of their control (caused by other parties) through conducting a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire survey was sent to contractors who work in public construction projects in Saudi Arabia. The assessment included the contractors' practices in the identification of projects activities and risks, contractors' practices in mitigating other parties' activities and risks, and contractors' practices in measuring the performance of all project parties. The study identified that contractors' current risk management and performance measurement practices are not effective in minimizing projects risks caused by other parties and ineffective in measuring performance of all parties. The study recommends a proactive risk management approach that can help contractors to minimize risks caused by other parties and can measure the performance of all parties in projects.
DOI: 10.12755/isec.res.2018.11
title: BEHAVIOR OF FULLY ENCASED COLD FORMED STEEL JOISTS WITH/WITHOUT WEB OPENINGS: EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION

description: This paper presents an experimental investigation on the behavior of encased light cold-formed steel joists with/without web openings. The study is carried on two sets of composite beams constructed of cold-formed steel joists using I-beam built-up sections. The first set has no web openings while the second set has circular web openings. Each set consists of three beams with various steel section-concrete reinforcing ratio. The constant parameters included in this study are the cross sectional area of the specimen, distribution of web openings in the encased steel I- joist, and the compressive strength of concrete. The tests have been conducted by applying two concentrated identical loads. Consequently, a comparative study is carried out to compare between the behavior of specimens within one set, and a comparison between the specimens of the two sets. This comparison is related to strength, stiffness, ductility, energy absorption capacity and failure modes. Based on the testing results, it is concluded that, the load capacity of the composite beams without web openings is greater than that with web openings for the same steel ratio. But the existence of web openings in the encased steel joists enhances the ductility and the energy absorption of the composite beams. Also using cold formed steel I-joists in the composite beams allow the failure mode to be ductile flexural failure.
DOI: 10.12755/isec.res.2018.12
title: BENEFITS OF REMANUFACTURING THE ECONOMY AS A TRANSITION INTO A GREEN ECONOMY

description: Remanufacturing is the restoration of end of life products to almost new. It is a form of sustainability. The research set out to identify the benefits of remanufacturing to the Nigerian economy which could aid with the transition to green economy. A questionnaire survey was used to establish the benefits of remanufacturing to the Nigerian economy. Data analysis involving mean item score revealed development of an Industrial base, industrialisation to rural areas, boosting of export trade, conservation of natural resources are seen as important benefits of remanufacturing to the Nigerian economy. Factor analysis made known four clusters titled in the order of importance as benefits of remanufacturing environmentally, benefits of remanufacturing to trade, benefits of remanufacturing socially, benefits of remanufacturing to entrepreneurs as this clusters signify the benefits of remanufacturing to the Nigerian economy. Further discussed is the implication of the findings, firstly is the development of an industrial base, which will benefit Nigeria, as Nigeria is an under-industrialised nation. Furthermore, the entrenchment of the development of an industrial base would lead to a boosting of export trade in the form of exporting capital equipment to other countries as well as an inflow of foreign exchange. Lastly revealed is the industrialisation to the rural areas, which will stop the social scourge of rural and urban migration.
DOI: 10.12755/isec.res.2018.13
title: CASE STUDY OF SEISMIC EVALUATION AND STRENGTHENING OF EXISTING LOW-RISE REINFORCED CONCRETE BUILDING

description: All new buildings nowadays have to be designed and executed to overcome any imposed type of loading (lateral/vertical). On a universal scale, the stock of buildings built before 1980's is believed to be many times more than the number of newer buildings in most urban cities. In Beirut, as an example, a large proportion of Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures were constructed in the absence of mandatory earthquake design requirements, and unquestionably recognized as the type of construction most vulnerable to earthquakes. The performed research focused on how to evaluate the status of old building and how to design and execute the convenient seismic strengthening schemes. A case study has been selected to implement the evaluation process and design proposals. Conventional seismic upgrading technique has been assessed like the addition of shear walls in addition to more innovative approach which is the installation of steel bracing system. The strengthening schemes proposed aimed to create an ideal harmonization of the technical, economic and social aspects of the issue in hand. Analysis of the three structural systems (existing, modified with shear walls and with bracing systems) has been performed using the ETABS software including static equivalent, dynamic and pushover analyses. The research sorted out with a comparison between the systems based on different structural criteria followed by general recommendations and suggestions.
DOI: 10.12755/isec.res.2018.14
title: CONSTRUCTABILITY STUDY OF ASPHALT PAVEMENTS INCORPORATING SHALLOW GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

description: The incorporation of geothermal energy in heating and electricity production has rapidly increased during the last three decades. This paper focuses on the use of shallow geothermal energy in asphalt pavement, herein called Ground Coupled Hydronic Asphalt Pavement (GCHAP) system. GCHAP consists of a series of pipes embedded within the asphalt layer coupled with another network of pipes embedded in the soil. A circulating fluid acts to exchange the heat energy between the soil and the asphalt layer. The system can be used for cooling the pavement, which results in decreasing permanent deformation in the summer. This paper presents a study on the constructability and performance of such systems on a large-scale section. Numerical analyses and a pilot study were conducted to select the system design components. A 9.6 x 4 meter GCHAP section was constructed on a municipal road in addition to another control section. The secondary network of pipes was placed three meters below the ground. Sensors were embedded within the GCHAP system to record and compare the temperature of the pavement to that of the control section. The results showed that GCHAP section can decrease the pavement temperature leading to an increase in resistance to permanent deformation. Moreover, the constructability study showed the importance of performing a pilot study before constructing the system to ensure the resilience of the pipes.
DOI: 10.12755/isec.res.2018.15
title: CROWD-SOURCED VISUAL DATA COLLECTION FOR MONITORING INDOOR CONSTRUCTION IN 3D

description: Complete and accurate 3D monitoring of indoor construction progress using visual data is challenging. It requires (a) capturing a large number of overlapping images, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive to collect, and (b) processing using Structure from Motion (SfM) algorithms, which can be computationally expensive. To address these inefficiencies, this paper proposes a hybrid SfM-SLAM 3D reconstruction algorithm along with a decentralized data collection workflow to map indoor construction work locations in 3D and any desired frequency. The hybrid 3D reconstruction method is composed of a pipeline of Structure from Motion (SfM) coupled with Multi-View Stereo (MVS) to generate 3D point clouds and a SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) algorithm to register the separately formed models together. Our SfM and SLAM pipelines are built on binary Oriented FAST and Rotated BRIEF (ORB) descriptors to tightly couple these two seperate reconstruction workflows and enable fast computation. To elaborate the data capture workflow and validate the proposed method, a case study was conducted on a real-world construction site. Compared to state-of-the-art methods, our preliminary results show a decrease in both registration error and processing time, demonstrating the potential of using daily images captured by different trades coupled with weekly walkthrough videos captured by a field engineer for complete 3D visual monitoring of indoor construction operations.
DOI: 10.12755/isec.res.2018.16
title: DELAY IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY: CAUSES, EFFECTS AND MITIGATION MEASURES

description: The main objectives of this paper are to determine the main causes of delays that occur in construction projects in Cyprus and their effects, and suggest measures that can assist in their effective control and reduction. Seeing that no relevant work has been undertaken for the case of Cyprus, a detailed literature review was carried out to identify the most significant causes of delay at the international level. Based on the review, a survey questionnaire was distributed to members of the construction industry of Cyprus. The analysis of the results indicated variations requested by the client, mistakes and missing information from consultants' drawings, and low productivity and inadequate programming of works from the contractor's side to be the main causes of delay. By considering the delay causes analysis specific mitigation measures are proposed that are mainly related to the programming of the works, work progress and productivity monitoring, and the appointment process of the parties involved in a construction project.
DOI: 10.12755/isec.res.2018.17
title: DESIGNING RESILIENT ROOF SYSTEMS

description: Recent powerful climate storms in the USA have the government discussing the need for resilient buildings: Buildings that can withstand severe storms, provide life safety and be quickly repaired. A building's roof is often the first line of defense in the changing climate conditions with its catastrophic natural disasters. The roof, if designed properly, can mitigate the impacts of these emergencies and allow a building to withstand and recover from the disruption caused. Resilience is increasingly being viewed as an important performance objective for governmental, educational, commercial and industrial construction. Interest in resiliency is high and is being actively discussed at all levels of the building industry: Governmental, Codes and Standards and Trade Organizations1, 2, 5 . This paper will review key resilient roof system elements that need to be considered by roof system designers: Best design and detail practices for roofing to achieve resiliency. The needed level of design and detailing will be reviewed. Recommendations to achieve resilient roof systems will be provided.
DOI: 10.12755/isec.res.2018.18
title: DEVELOPMENT OF CONTRACTORS' MITIGATION PRACTICES TOWARDS RISKS OUT OF CONTRACTORS CONTROL IN THE SAUDI CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

description: Research has shown that public construction projects in Saudi Arabia have exhibited poor performance for the past three decades. Recent studies have identified that contractors are not the main party that cause risks as owners, designers, and other parties have the major share of causing risks in the industry. The traditional risk management practices have been ineffective at helping contractors deliver projects on time and within budget while meeting quality expectations. The aim of this study is to develop a risk mitigation model for the contractors to mitigate risks out of contractors' control (caused by other parties). The developed model is validated through identifying contractors' perceptions who work in public construction projects in Saudi of the new approach through conducting a questionnaire survey. The developed model focuses on increasing accountability of project parties through mitigating parties' activities and risks, measuring the activities and risks deviations (time and cost), and identifying sources of deviations. Transparency is utilized in the model through sharing weekly updates of the activities and risks combined with updated information of performance measurements of all project parties. The analysis of the study results showed that project risks will be minimized and performance of projects can be increased if contractors shift their focus using the new model from only managing their own activities and risks to managing all project parties' activities and risks.
DOI: 10.12755/isec.res.2018.19
title: DIVERSITY AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING IN CONSTRUCTION: A MATHEMATICAL MODEL

description: Conventional wisdom in the management literature holds that diversity is positively correlated with performance. Yet, the findings from the construction field indicate that this is not always the case. In an effort to study the interaction between diversity and performance in the construction industry, this paper presents the elements of a theoretical mathematical model to explore the relationship between diversity and knowledge sharing which is a precursor of performance. This model includes five dimensions of diversity: ethnicity, age, experience, language and education. At the heart of the mathematical model is a fuzzy based system that generates the probability of knowledge sharing among members with different demographic attributes. The presented fuzzy system will, in future work, become the foundation of an agent based model used to study the impact of worker interactions on productivity.
DOI: 10.12755/isec.res.2018.20
title: EFFECT OF CONCRETE CREEP ON THE SHORTENING OF VERTICAL ELEMENTS IN HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS

description: Vertical structural elements are commonly subjected to the time-dependent behavior effects caused by creep which causes shortening in these elements in the direction of the load being applied. Significant amount of creep takes place instantaneously with loading and carries on for the long-term dimensions. In high-rise buildings, the axial shortening in columns is inevitable, so it cannot be ignored. The shortening is differential between vertical structural members due to the difference in axial stiffness and load distribution areas on these elements. Conventional structural analysis assumes that all structural loads are instantaneously applied to the entire completed structure. The construction sequence and loading sequence may be different depending on the construction plan. Therefore, the actual structural behavior can be significantly different from the conventional analytical behavior based on the above assumption. The objective of this study is to highlight the effect of concrete creep behavior on the shortening of vertical elements specifically in high-rise buildings. In this study, we will be considering the ACI 209R-92 model. Based on experimental data, a procedure is developed to compute the elastic shortening due to creep. A 250 meters high-rise is studied taking into consideration the stress and modulus of elasticity depending its construction time and height.
DOI: 10.12755/isec.res.2018.21
title: EFFECT OF GRADATION AND REPLACEMENT LEVEL ON ALKALI-SILICA REACTIVITY OF MINERAL FILLERS

description: Mineral fillers are used in concrete for a number of reasons, which include achieving self-consolidation properties. Different fillers are available depending on the type of the original rock. Alkali-silica reaction might occur if the filler is produced from a reactive rock. The present research focuses on evaluating the applicability of the current accelerated mortar bar test, described in ASTM C1260 and CSA A23.2-25A, in evaluating their reactivity. Three different fillers are used: a calcium-carbonate filler, a carbonate silica filler with 27% SiO2, and a siliceous filler produced from reactive aggregate. Two different gradations of the filler obtained from reactive aggregate are tested: 1) Gradation finer than 75 ตm
description: 2) Gradation with 30% passing 150 ตm sieve but is retained on 75 ตm sieve and remaining 70% passing 75 ตm. Results showed that the calcium-carbonate filler and the carbonate silica filler did not show any expansion higher than the non-reactive sand, while the filler obtained from reactive aggregate did not show expansion higher than the control at 14 days for both gradations, with the expansion showing at later age. This might be due to the high surface area of fillers and the reduced permeability affecting the rate of expansion. Hence, the need to extend the testing period beyond the 14-day specified in the standard to be able to see the expansion.
DOI: 10.12755/isec.res.2018.22
title: EFFECTIVENESS OF FRCM SYSTEM IN STRENGTHENING RC BEAMS IN SHEAR USING HYBRID NSE/EB TECHNIQUE

description: This paper presents an experimental study on the efficacy of a recently introduced hybrid "near surface embedded/ externally bonded" NSE/EB fabric reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM). Seven medium scale RC beams, deficient in shear, were constructed and tested under three-point loading. Six beams were strengthened using hybrid NSE/EB-FRCM technique and one beam was left un-strengthened as a reference. Two main test variables were considered
description: viz., strengthening configuration: full versus intermittent strengthening configuration and FRCM type: glass FRCM versus polyparaphenylene benzobisoxazole (PBO). The test results revealed that the hybrid NSE/EB-FRCM strengthening technique is effective in enhancing the shear capacity of the strengthened beams. The strengthened specimens showed an average of 67% higher shear capacity relative to the reference specimen. With regard to the FRCM type, G-FRCM strengthened specimens showed an average of 73% enhancement in the shear capacity, which was 12% higher than the value for PBO-FRCM counterpart. Moreover, the strengthened beams showed higher deflection at the ultimate load than that of the reference specimen. Furthermore, the hybrid NSE/EB-FRCM technique has shown to be a promising alternative to the conventionally used externally bonded FRCM system with the potential to reduce the debonding of FRCM from the concrete substrate.
DOI: 10.12755/isec.res.2018.23
title: EVALUATING PPP PROJECTS USING A LEAN FRAMEWORK

description: A Public Private Partnership (PPP) describes an arrangement between the public and the private sectors for providing a public asset or service. PPPs are characterized by their long-term nature, complex contractual agreements, and distinct risk allocation formulas, all which distinguish them from traditional procurement routes. Performance evaluation is a prerequisite of performance improvement and is vital to the realization of project success, particularly in PPP projects. In fact, the absence of an effective performance evaluation framework in PPPs serves as a trigger for generating below optimum service quality. Although several performance evaluation frameworks exist, they prove more suitable for traditional projects, which highlights the need to account for the unique features of PPPs. This paper first introduces the various perspectives, from the literature, used to classify project success and evaluate performance. The paper then addresses the aforementioned need by introducing a new framework for evaluating project success, using the lean concepts of transformation, flow, and value. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are suggested as part of the framework to serve as performance measures on PPP projects. The introduced lean framework is the first of its kind and fills the gap in PPP research by being one of the few performance evaluation tools customized for PPPs.