Journal of Architectural Engineering

This paper presents the results of impact tests on a roof system constructed with expanded metal mesh welded to a steel frame. The roof system was designed to be installed on a masonry structure that will protect an emergency power generator at a special-needs hurricane shelter during 177 km/h winds. The structure and roof system must meet the windborne debris impact criteria for large missiles from ASTM Standards E1996-09 and E1886-05, which state that the system must resist penetration by a nominal $51\times 102 \text{mm}$ lumber plank weighing 4.08 kg traveling at 54.7 km/h. Several impacts on the metal mesh were made by firing lumber missiles from an air cannon. The typical damage was mesh deformation and mesh tearing at the impact location and at the welds. The results showed that the tested roof system meets the impact criteria for all tested weld spacings. A smaller weld spacing of 102–229 mm was found to work best in the system, whereas a larger weld spacing of 508 or 762 mm resulted in weld failure that left the system with much less redundancy in the connections.

In the context of the search for an efficient structural shape to cover the Dutch Maritime Museum courtyard in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the authors briefly discuss the driving design factors that influenced the earliest glass roof coverings. The trends that emerged during the late 20th and early 21st century in the design of skeletal steel glass shells are exposed. These design developments range from sculptural to geometric and structural intentions. The discussion of the competition design development of the Dutch Maritime Museum steel glass shell roof shows the quest for a structurally efficient catenary form based on a poetic geometric idea. This paper presents a construction-driven design methodology that slightly adapts the numerical form found catenary shape with the objective of achieving planarity in all the triangulated, four-sided and five-sided mesh faces. The challenge of facet planarity is gracefully solved by an analytical origami approach and presented. This approach is compared with finding the Maxwell reciprocal network diagram. The final faceted shape shows elegance and structural efficiency.

This article presents a simple linear damage accumulation model that may have applicability for predicting damage from sustained winds in double-sided acrylic foam tape used to attach curtain wall glazing panels to buildings. The purpose of this model is to investigate the possible cumulative effects of years of wind-induced stresses that are less than the peak stress expected during a 3-s gust, as specified in current design guidelines established by the structural glazing industry and adopted by the manufacturer of these structural glazing tapes. Several representative wind histories are selected to provide input data for the model. These wind histories provide multiple years of average wind speeds over either 10-min or 1-h recording intervals, depending on the source. Each entry in a wind speed history is converted to stress on the glazing adhesive tape on assumed window dimensions using the standard wind loading design equations of ASCE 7-05. A creep rupture prediction equation, developed from a creep rupture master curve obtained by experimentally evaluating 3M VHB G23F acrylic foam tape, provides the time to failure as a function of applied tensile creep stress. Using a linear damage accumulation model, fractions of life used at each entry are combined into a total percentage of life used. Based on evidence that cyclic loading may be less significant than sustained stress events, the effect of cyclic fatigue was not considered in this study. The model developed does not provide evidence that the industry established design procedure is unsafe using the selected wind speed histories, provided sufficient safety factors are used. The model does suggest, however, that the accumulation of damage from sustained wind speeds, especially winds from storm events, could present a mode of failure that merits examination along with the more traditional peak wind speed design procedure currently in use by the structural glazing industry and employed by the vendor. The approach may have applications for other time-dependent glazing sealants as well.

Calculating stresses in structural glass components is essential for design, but is especially complex for customized components like point-supported glass (PSG) balustrades. Stress concentrations are introduced at the discontinuities of the plates precisely where boundary conditions elicit maximum field stresses. Further complicating design, most published stress data for glass components are based on annealed, edge-supported glass experiments—with limited applicability to fully tempered (FT), PSG applications. This article presents experimental and numerical results for a typical application of FT glass as a PSG structural balustrade. Strain data from six FT, monolithic glass balusters loaded to both service and ultimate conditions indicates 55.2-MPa stresses at service load and 155-MPa stresses at failure. Additionally, a design algorithm is developed, using beam theory with stress concentration factors to establish preliminary thickness for use in an optimized numerical analysis to calculate stresses. Comparison of numerical and experimental data leads to the conclusion that FT, PSG balustrades are most accurately idealized by solid linear elements and translation-fixed, rotation-permitted boundary conditions at the support node.

Sustainable building (SB) and its assessment schemes are the key to achieve sustainable growth in an urban zone. An attempt is made to develop sustainability global weight (${\lambda }_i$) of various parameters for the assessment of SBs. An analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to derive sustainability global weight (${\lambda }_i$) for all contributing parameters: environmental, social, economic, and cultural. Consultants from various regions of India were asked to give their responses on an AHP-based questionnaire. Based on 37 valid responses from consultants, the global weight of parameters is derived by a geometric mean method along with an aggregation of individual priorities approach. Consultants have ranked renewable energy, optimum energy performance, water-use reduction, reduced wastewater generation, and energy accountability as the five most crucial parameters. Findings of this paper can be helpful to designers and developers to achieve real sustainable development in developing countries similar to India.

This paper presents the development and implementation of shading and lighting control schemes in an airport building. The airport has several perimeter zones with large glass facades that receive excessive solar gains throughout the year. Starting from a large southwest zone, illuminance sensors were installed in strategic positions and interior daylight levels were monitored under various sky conditions and shade positions. Analysis of the results allowed derivation of reliable correlations between ceiling and work plane illuminances, which were used to develop control schemes for shading and lighting operation. After successful implementation, the project moved to the next phase, which included all the perimeter zones in the airport. In this phase, only one sensor was installed on the ceiling of each zone, and illuminance levels were predicted using simulation models and validated with a few manual measurements. The developed control schemes were implemented in all perimeter zones of the airport. The study also includes simulation results for the potential energy savings owing to reduced lighting and cooling energy demand.

Construction of commercial buildings has an environmental impact because of emissions from nonroad equipment. Construction produces 7% of the U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, of which 76% originates from engines. However, there has not been an established methodology for estimating construction activity emissions at the project level for buildings and other constructed facilities. Therefore, determining where and when construction produces emissions is important, necessitating that emissions inventories (i.e., databases of project emissions by type, cost, etc.) be developed to quantify these emissions. The pollutants addressed in this paper include carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrogen oxides (NO_x), total hydrocarbons (THC), carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter (PM), and sulfur dioxide (SO₂). This paper presents a methodology that provides a direct link between building construction activities and emissions. The use of this methodology is demonstrated for a commercial building case study, thereby providing quantified emissions predictions for various levels of detail (i.e., construction activity, construction cost division, and overall project). Using this methodology, both fuel use and emissions can be determined at any stage of the planning, designing, and building process with increasing levels of precision being obtained as the project progresses. The methodology demonstrates the ability to link key quantitative indicators of specific building construction activities to emission rates for specific types of equipment used in construction. The case study results illustrate that emissions during construction are highly episodic, with site work activities and equipment contributing large proportions of overall project emissions.