Article
Engineering, Civil
Nouman Khattak, Hossein Derakhshan, David P. Thambiratnam, Nimal Jayantha Perera
Summary: This paper presents a literature review and typological study of unreinforced masonry buildings in Queensland, Australia. Important features that influence the behavior of these buildings during earthquakes were documented, and specific typologies were recommended for future seismic assessment studies.
Article
Engineering, Geological
Damian N. Grant, Jamie Dennis, Richard Sturt, Giovanni Milan, David McLennan, Pedro Negrette, Rene da Costa, Michele Palmieri
Summary: This paper demonstrates the use of non-linear finite element models for developing fragility functions for buildings, specifically focusing on unreinforced masonry buildings in the Groningen region of the Netherlands. Through regression analysis and combining results from multiple index buildings, fragility functions were successfully developed for the URM terraced house typology.
BULLETIN OF EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING
(2021)
Review
Construction & Building Technology
Anabel B. Abulencia, Ma. Beatrice D. Villoria, Roneh Glenn D. Libre, Pauline Rose J. Quiatchon, Ithan Jessemar R. Dollente, Ernesto J. Guades, Michael Angelo B. Promentilla, Lessandro Estelito O. Garciano, Jason Maximino C. Ongpeng
Summary: This paper discusses the state-of-the-art knowledge development on applying geopolymers in unreinforced masonry (URM) structures, covering topics such as geopolymers and their components, material characterization, geopolymers as a strengthening and restoration material, fiber-reinforced geopolymers, and their application to URM structures. It highlights the potential of geopolymers as a sustainable alternative to ordinary Portland cement, but points out the need for further research on their mechanical and physical properties as a restoration material for URM structures.
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Massimiliano Gioffre, Nicola Cavalagli, Vittorio Gusella, Chiara Pepi
Summary: Confined masonry is a simple and effective construction technology in seismic areas, but there have been few studies on its behavior under seismic loads. This study compared the dynamic response of two different construction systems through shaking-table tests and found that confined masonry performs better in withstanding dynamic loads.
CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Xi Li, Rita Esposito
Summary: The present work aims to characterize the material properties of multi-wythe masonry infrastructure through core testing method, providing insights on mechanical properties and testing strategy for these structures. The study reveals that the mechanical properties of masonry vary with environmental conditions, and core testing method is effective in evaluating multi-wythe masonry. Overall, this research provides initial understanding on the mechanical properties of multi-wythe masonry urban infrastructure and offers guidance for sampling and testing strategy.
CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Semih Gonen, Bora Pulatsu, Ece Erdogmus, Paulo B. Lourenco, Serdar Soyoz
Summary: This study investigates the influence of uncertainty in material properties on the behavior and capacity of stone masonry walls. The results show that considering the spatial variability of material properties is important in stochastic analysis to reduce the variation in strength and displacement capacity of the walls. The study also identifies the influence of correlation among joint parameters on the strength and failure mode of the walls.
CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Civil
Seyed Rahman Seyed Rezaee, Masoud Soltani, Morteza Nikooravesh
Summary: This study investigated the efficiency of shotcrete retrofitting method for seismic rehabilitation of conventional unreinforced and confined masonry walls. The results showed that shotcrete retrofitting significantly enhanced the lateral strength and post-peak behavior of the masonry walls, improving their seismic performance and increasing their lifespan.
ENGINEERING STRUCTURES
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Civil
M. K. Howlader, M. J. Masia, M. C. Griffith
Summary: This study utilized both DIC and traditional LVDT techniques to accurately measure deformations in unreinforced masonry walls with openings under in-plane loading and pre-compression. The findings provided insights into the integrity of pier and spandrel structures through cracking analyses during cyclic loading.
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Ram Krishna Mazumder, Sohel Rana, Abdullahi M. Salman
Summary: This paper proposes a fuzzy synthetic-based first level seismic risk evaluation technique for identifying relatively risky unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings in urban areas, using 14 risk factors categorized into five indexes. The majority of the buildings in the case study showed high to very high levels of risk, indicating the need for prioritizing seismic rehabilitation efforts. The proposed method provides a simple and effective approach for identifying and addressing high-risk URM buildings in urban settlements.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2021)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Bowen Liu, Anastasios Drougkas, Vasilis Sarhosis
Summary: This study presents a systematic framework for assessing the material characteristics of brickwork masonry arch bridges. Extensive laboratory tests were conducted to characterize the properties of bricks, mortar, and backfill materials. Tests at different scales were performed to determine the strength, modulus, and bonding properties of the materials. The experimental campaign also included tests to identify frictional properties and fatigue behavior. The results from these experiments can be used to calibrate numerical models for assessing masonry arch bridges.
CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Luigi Biolzi, Sara Cattaneo, Pietro Crespi, Manuela Scamardo, Navid Vafa
Summary: Steel reinforced plasters (SRP) are widely adopted for their low costs and effectiveness in strengthening masonry structures. This study presents a comprehensive experimental program on brickwork walls strengthened with SRPs, analyzing the in-plane behavior under cyclic diagonal compression loading. The results show that SRPs significantly improve the strength and deformation capacity of the walls, with plaster thickness affecting ductility. The connectors used to tie the steel mesh to the walls play a crucial role in preventing instability phenomena.
CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Civil
D. Malomo, M. J. DeJong
Summary: A novel Finite-Distinct macroelement model is developed to efficiently simulate out-of-plane failure in unreinforced masonry structures, combining the efficiency of simplified modeling strategies with the multifaceted capabilities of discontinuum-based methods. The model accurately reproduces load-displacement curves and failure mechanisms observed in experimental tests, providing valuable insights for structural analysis and design.
ENGINEERING STRUCTURES
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Multidisciplinary
R. D. F. Moreira, M. F. S. F. de Moura, F. G. A. Silva, J. P. A. Reina
Summary: In this study, the fatigue/fracture behavior of bi-material Aluminum/CFRP bonded joints was investigated using the modified Paris law. Data reduction schemes based on the equivalent crack length concept were developed for different types of tests. The coefficients of the modified Paris law for each test were obtained by fitting a power law to the crack growth rate. The results showed good agreement between the compliance versus number of cycles curves and the fatigue lives predicted numerically and experimentally.
COMPOSITES PART B-ENGINEERING
(2022)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Q. Albu-Jasim, Z. Medina-Cetina, A. Muliana
Summary: This paper discusses the identification and characterization of material parameters of a concrete damage plasticity constitutive model and explores the method of retrieving optimal model parameters using a quasi-brittle constitutive model through the study of material properties of mortar, bricks, and concrete.
MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES
(2022)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Chaofeng Wang, Sarah Elizabeth Antos, Luis Miguel Triveno
Summary: Mitigation of seismic risk is a challenge for over 70 countries worldwide. Masonry buildings are vulnerable to earthquakes and require reinforcement. An automated workflow using street-view images and deep learning techniques can efficiently detect and classify these buildings, allowing for large-scale screenings and retrofitting efforts.
AUTOMATION IN CONSTRUCTION
(2021)
Review
Engineering, Civil
R. Esposito, M. A. N. Hendriks
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND CIVIL ENGINEERING
(2019)
Article
Engineering, Geological
Rita Esposito, Francesco Messali, Geert J. P. Ravenshorst, H. Roel Schipper, Jan G. Rots
BULLETIN OF EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING
(2019)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Samira Jafari, Jan G. Rots, Rita Esposito
CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING MATERIALS
(2019)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Luis Javier Sanchez-Aparicio, Monica Herrero-Huerta, Rita Esposito, Hugo Roel Schipper, Diego Gonzalez-Aguilera
Article
Engineering, Geological
F. Messali, R. Esposito, G. J. P. Ravenshorst, J. G. Rots
BULLETIN OF EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING
(2020)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Samira Jafari, Jan G. Rots, Rita Esposito
CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING MATERIALS
(2020)
Review
Engineering, Civil
Lang-Zi Chang, Francesco Messali, Rita Esposito
Article
Engineering, Mechanical
Anastasios Drougkas, Rita Esposito, Francesco Messali, Vasilis Sarhosis
Summary: Masonry panels in buildings are susceptible to in-plane actions from seismicity and soil subsidence, making the development of accurate prediction models for damage and force capacity necessary. The models for standalone masonry piers and walls with openings account for various potential damage and failure modes, showing high accuracy when compared to experimental cases.
JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING MECHANICS
(2021)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Lang-Zi Chang, Jan G. Rots, Rita Esposito
Summary: This study investigates the influence of openings on the two-way bending capacity of unreinforced masonry walls. Experimental and numerical results show that the arrangement and size of openings significantly affect the bending capacity of the walls. Increases in opening size and aspect ratio lead to higher bending capacity.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2022)
Article
Mechanics
Yubao Zhou, Lambertus J. Sluys, Rita Esposito
Summary: This study comprehensively investigates various meanfield homogenization schemes for the three-dimensional orthotropic elastic properties of masonry and proposes an improved micro-mechanical model that accurately evaluates the elastic properties of different types of masonry. The proposed model shows better performance when the stiffness ratios are high, which is of major importance for nonlinear analysis of masonry.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF MECHANICS A-SOLIDS
(2022)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Maria B. Gaggero, Rita Esposito
Summary: The in-situ characterization of masonry's flexural bond behaviour is crucial for assessing existing buildings, as the brick-to-mortar bond often leads to cracking and failure. However, the reliability of on-site testing of flexural bond strength is often questioned due to operator variability. This study compares different testing set-ups and explores the influence of specimen type on flexural bond strength assessment, providing preliminary correlation factors and introducing a new test set-up for post-peak response.
MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES
(2023)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Maria B. Gaggero, Paul A. Korswagen, Rita Esposito, Jan G. Rots
Summary: Innovative solutions are needed to retrofit existing structures as traditional strategies fail to address serviceability and ultimate limit states effectively. This study presents a preliminary experimental campaign at TU Delft that investigates an innovative structural glass window for strengthening masonry buildings. The prototype showed improvements in initial stiffness, force capacity, and ductility, providing a basis for future numerical studies to further refine the proposed strategy.
Article
Engineering, Civil
Ka Ho Lee, Anjali Mehrotra, Rita Esposito
Summary: This study investigates the performance of bed joint reinforced repointing for masonry walls under settlement and seismic loading through finite element modelling. The detailed brick-to-brick model and the continuum damage model were found to be inaccurate and limited in simulating the strengthened wall.
ENGINEERING STRUCTURES
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Xi Li, Rita Esposito
Summary: The present work aims to characterize the material properties of multi-wythe masonry infrastructure through core testing method, providing insights on mechanical properties and testing strategy for these structures. The study reveals that the mechanical properties of masonry vary with environmental conditions, and core testing method is effective in evaluating multi-wythe masonry. Overall, this research provides initial understanding on the mechanical properties of multi-wythe masonry urban infrastructure and offers guidance for sampling and testing strategy.
CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Jawad Ahmad, Zhiguang Zhou
Summary: The addition of steel fibers and marble waste has a positive impact on the performance of self-compacting concrete (SCC) in aggressive environments, improving its mechanical properties, durability, and microstructure.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Kyungjae Lee, Hyunwoo Lim
Summary: Building energy code updates induce correlations among building parameters, which can affect data analysis. This study investigates the impact of these correlations through sensitivity analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA).
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
M. I. Nizovtsev, A. N. Sterlyagov
Summary: The effect of adding a layer of phase change material on the thermal inertia properties of the outer wall in lightweight building was numerically studied. It was found that in the regime of indoor air conditioning, adding a layer of paraffin in a foamed polyurethane wall can significantly reduce heat flux fluctuations on the inner wall surface. Additionally, locating the phase change material on the inner surface of the wall in the regime of daily in-phase fluctuations in the indoor and outdoor air temperatures produces the best effect.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Mingzhen Wang, Eric Hu, Lei Chen
Summary: This study proposes an innovative and sustainable condenser-cooling approach called Radiation-enhanced Thermal Diode Tank (RTDT) to assist in energy-saving for Refrigeration and Air-conditioning (RAC) systems. The research finds that the RTDT-RAC system can save up to 40% energy compared to the reference RAC system, with a higher Coefficient of Performance (COP) of 5.34. Additionally, the parametric analysis shows that regions with larger day and night ambient temperature differences, higher room temperature setpoints, and increased RHP radiative surface areas can effectively increase energy savings.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Hua Zhang, Xinyue Liu, Linjian Ma, Zeng Li
Summary: This study aims to investigate the impact of polypropylene (PP) fibers and aggregate contents on the mechanical performance of coral aggregate concrete (CASC). The results revealed that increasing the PP fiber contents and gravel replacement ratio significantly improved the dynamic compressive strength and toughness of CASC, while excessive fiber can have a detrimental effect. The study also developed a dynamic constitutive model that accurately predicted the stress-strain curve and mechanical properties of CASC.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Navid Moghaddas-Zadeh, Mahmood Farzaneh-Gord, William P. Bahnfleth
Summary: This study presents a general procedure for designing a hybrid chiller network using a Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm to determine the optimal configuration and chiller loading distribution. Life cycle cost analysis is used to select the optimal configuration. Simulations show that the best energy and economic choices depend on the natural gas and electricity price ratio.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Carolina Briceno, Miguel Azenha, Graca Vasconcelos, Paulo B. Lourenco
Summary: The conditioning of the brick units has an influence on the shear bond behavior of the unit-mortar interface. Longer immersion time improves the shear bond properties, while the cohesion values of premixed mortars are affected by the conditioning time.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Seong-Yong Cheon, Hye-Jin Cho, Jae-Weon Jeong
Summary: A dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS) assisted by an isothermal dehumidifier and an indirect evaporative cooler is proposed, and its energy-saving potential is evaluated based on detailed simulations. The results indicate that despite the free cooling operation by the indirect evaporative cooler, the proposed system consumes 10% more operating energy due to the low coefficient of performance (COP) of the isothermal dehumidifier. Improvements in the COP of the isothermal dehumidifier are required for comparable energy performance.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Xiaochen Ma, Wenchao Shi, Hongxing Yang
Summary: The actual wetting factor of the plate surface and the movement of spray droplets are important factors in the performance of indirect evaporative cooling (IEC) systems. A 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model that considers these factors is proposed in this study. The model accurately predicts the performance of IEC systems and provides insights for further improvement.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Panagiota Theodoropoulou, Eleonora Brembilla, Roel Schipper, Christian Louter
Summary: This study develops an optimized glare-based control strategy for Venetian blinds in real-life buildings, aiming to improve visual conditions while saving energy. The results show that the optimized algorithm can significantly improve visual conditions for different activities in the building, although it may increase the use of electric lighting in certain cases.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Nari Yoon, Leslie Norford, Michael Wetter, Ali Malkawi
Summary: This study developed an analytical model for window operation schedules that leverages natural ventilation for different airflow rates, thermal masses, and climate variations. The research demonstrated that proper window scheduling can significantly reduce indoor temperature and save energy.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Haoran Cheng, Denghu Jing
Summary: This study investigated the reinforcement and compressive behavior of rat-trap bond walls using steel plate frames. The results showed that the steel plate frame effectively enhanced the compressive peak load of the wall, and increasing the steel plate thickness improved compressive strength and confinement effect. Nonlinear relations were observed between the preload ratio and the peak load, and local buckling of the steel plate frame was affected by the preload ratio. Finite element models were used to verify the experimental results, and calculation formulas for predicting the compressive peak load were developed and found to be accurate.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Bangyu Cheng, Jinlong Yang, Yucheng Fan, Zhi Ni, Ziyan Hang, Bowen Zeng, Huanxun Liu, Chuang Feng
Summary: This study investigates the property-microstructure relationships in graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) reinforced cement composites (GNPRCCs) using three-dimensional finite element modeling and experiments. The results reveal that GNPs aligned at 45 degrees have the most significant impact on enhancing load-bearing capacity and damage resistance of the composites. A larger GNP diameter-to-thickness ratio is beneficial for crack bridging and propagation control. The orientation and porosity of pores have significant effects on the damage behaviors of the composites, while pore shape shows negligible effects. These findings provide key guidelines for optimizing microstructural features and improving the performance and durability of construction materials.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Patrick N. Lemougna, Arnold Ismailov, Erkki Levanen, Pekka Tanskanen, Juho Yliniemi, Katja Kilpimaa, Mirja Illikainen
Summary: This study investigates the effect of glass wool waste on the sintering properties of kaolinitic and illitic clays in the ceramic industry. It was found that the addition of glass wool increased compressive strength at lower temperatures, while the addition of spodumene tailings mitigated firing shrinkage at higher temperatures.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Duidi Wu, Shuangdui Wu, Qianyou Zhao, Shuo Zhang, Jin Qi, Jie Hu, Borong Lin
Summary: This study proposes an intelligent elevator information system (IEIS) based on computer vision technology, which monitors elevator occupancy and guides demand-driven operation optimization to achieve energy-efficient management and efficient operation.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2024)
