Journal of Architectural Engineering

This paper reviews the issue related to maintainability of building and discusses works of researchers worldwide. The paper offers two approaches that could be integrated with the concepts of maintainability to augment building performance throughout its economic life. The two approaches are: (1) total quality approach via performance audit and (2) life cycle cost (LCC) approach. Various systems constructed to enhance quality delivery and maintainability of buildings were also discussed. An attempt to integrate building performance and LCC in Singapore to improve the maintainability of buildings was presented.

This paper investigates the collapse of masonry buttresses under concentrated lateral loads. A fracture forms at the collapse state, significantly decreasing the resistance to overturning. Conventional analysis assumes that a masonry buttress acts monolithically to resist lateral loads. The current paper demonstrates that this approach is clearly unsafe, and the possibility of a fracture at the collapse state must be considered in the design and assessment of masonry buttresses. By treating the masonry as a continuum, infinitely strong in compression, with no resistance to tension and no possibility for sliding, the writers demonstrate the form of the fracture and determine the critical failure load for typical buttress forms. This approach follows in the tradition of limit analysis of masonry structures as developed by Heyman. General methods are proposed for the overturning analysis of masonry buttresses, and calculation examples are provided. Finally, methods for evaluating the safety of existing buttresses are presented and discussed.

This research compares the work process at a construction site with the original construction schedule using point-cloud records that were retrieved using a long-range 3D laser scanner. The comparison was used to quantify the differences as a reference for the verification and modification of the original building design. This study compared 4D computer models with 3D clouds of a campus building. The differences could easily be identified from the perspectives and elevations of different views. To determine the degree of progress more precisely, a slice of clouds was defined to show the differences when compared with a cross section of a computer model. The format of the point cloud provided a new way to inspect construction progress.

This paper describes a proposed energy-efficient retrofit of a heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning system for a school building in southeastern Wyoming. The existing system consists of six conventional constant air volume heating and ventilating units with heat provided by a gas-fired hot water boiler. The proposed replacement is a novel system application that consists of a geothermal heat pump (GHP) system with a supplemental solar thermal collector array. Ventilation air heat recovery and variable-speed pumping are also included. Innovative design of both the ground loop and the interior building loop are accomplished using a whole system approach. System simulation analyses show a simple payback period of less than 10 years. An extra benefit of the GHP system not accounted for in the economic analysis is added cooling capability.

Theoretical and computational studies of supply chains are confined mainly to buyer-supplier dyads. Evaluation of more tiers in the construction sector specifically is also rare, perhaps in part because short-term partnerships are typical. However, supplier selection in residential construction is often conducted in support of multiple subdivision tracts over a comparatively long time-horizon. This paper describes the lumber supply chain for residential construction, extending from the homebuyer to the lumber company. A particular case for a real builder is examined in which a builder adopted a pricing strategy to control their lumber cost risk. The strategy included minimum time periods of fixed pricing, insulating the builder from price fluctuations during those periods. Consideration of supply-chain lead times allows financial risk modeling for the builder-framer/lumber yard–lumber company portion of the supply chain in order to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of this strategy. Historical records of lumber prices were used to conduct Monte Carlo simulations of three tiers of the supply chain. The pricing strategy is shown to result in a risk premium generally in excess of the true commodity price risk.