Journal of Architectural Engineering

An earthquake of significant magnitude struck the Vesuvian area in common era (CE) 62. The earth tremors, originated by subterranean winds according to Roman seismology, provoked extensive damage to the buildings of Pompeii. By evaluating collapses and repairs, it was observed that wall overturning was the prevalent type of failure. Lucretius and Seneca dealt with such a masonry loss of equilibrium, which is illustrated in two bas-reliefs discovered in the house of Caecilius Jucundus (Regio V, Insula I, civic number 26) in Pompeii. The improvement of the bond among orthogonal walls; the constraint degree that was increased in the relevant constructive elements, such as the columns; and the widespread use of buttresses were some of the effective technical devices adopted after the CE 62 earthquake, which aimed at consciously mitigating the vulnerability of buildings under seismic action.

Wind hazards are responsible for the majority of hazard losses in the United States; however, little customized information is available to provide actionable information to homeowners to support individual mitigation decision making. Therefore, there is a need for decision support tools to calculate, evaluate, and present the economic benefits of mitigation over variable decision-making time horizons for unique building configurations in specific geographical locations. This paper presents a mitigation recommendation framework that is based on comparison of the economic effectiveness of multiple mitigation scenarios to identify and recommend those with the highest net benefit, NB, and net benefit to lifecycle cost ratio, NBCR. The framework is focused on supporting homeowner decision making through reliance on key inputs, such as mitigation budget and decision-making time horizon, along with specification of building attributes and location. The intended audience of this paper is researchers, design professionals, and loss modelers familiar with basic concepts of wind engineering and loss modeling who are interested in the development of tools and methods that support owner-centered adaptation approaches to resilience. To demonstrate the framework, retrofit mitigation of a wood-framed single family home is considered with a $15,000 budget and a decision-making time horizon of 30 years. The case study resulted in 10 acceptable mitigation options with construction costs ranging between $1,700 and $15,098 and NB ranging between $1,024 and $39,520.

Two roof panel designs for residential applications were developed to span from ridge to soffit without intermediate supports. The two designs, the truss core and the stiffened plate, incorporate both structural and insulation features such that a conditioned attic space can be achieved. The structural component of the truss-core and stiffened-plate panels is fabricated from steel webs laser welded to steel face sheets. The truss core includes an exterior (roof side) and interior (attic side) face sheet, whereas the stiffened plate includes only an interior face sheet. A separate polyurethane foam insulating layer is located on either the panel interior or exterior face. Structural performance requirements are developed from residential building codes for web failure, flexural capacity, and deflection. The structural analysis includes dead, live, and wind loads for all three U.S. climate zones. A model for panel performance was developed and validated through prototype panel tests. Truss-core and stiffened-plate panel designs were identified that satisfy the loading requirements for horizontal spans ranging from 3 to 8 m. Stiffened-plate panels are generally lighter weight than truss-core panels by 10–25%. However, only the truss-core panel satisfies the most extreme loading case for 8-m roof spans.

The design of insulated metal roof panels that meet both the structural and hygrothermal performance requirements for a conditioned attic/roof system is presented. The two panel designs, referred to as the truss core and the stiffened plate, are fabricated from steel-web plates laser welded to steel face sheets and a separate, polyurethane foam insulating layer. The truss core includes an exterior (roof side) and interior (attic side) face sheet, whereas the stiffened plate includes only an interior face sheet. This presentation extends the work presented in a previous paper, which focused on design of the structural component of the panels, to the design of complete panel assemblies that include foam insulation and finish layers. Design for hygrothermal performance of the panels and architectural details for panel-to-panel, ridge, soffit, and gable end-wall joints are provided. Both panels offer options for conventional roof finishes as well as a metal finish. Use of the stiffened-plate panel is restricted to sites with lower wind and snow loads and is preferred for dry climates. The truss-core panel, which is lighter and capable of longer spans, is suitable for a wide range of climates and architectural styles.

The load-bearing light-gauge steel-framed (LSF) wall systems used in buildings are protected against fire by attaching fire-resistant gypsum plasterboard layers on both sides. They are also provided with cavity insulation to improve the thermal comfort of buildings during severe hot and cold weather conditions. However, recent research studies have shown that cavity insulation reduces the fire performance of load-bearing LSF walls. Therefore, researchers at the Queensland University of Technology proposed the use of externally insulated LSF walls and floors where insulation is sandwiched between the inner and outer layers of plasterboard instead of being placed inside the cavity. This article reviews and evaluates the results from the small- and full-scale fire tests and numerical studies performed on such externally insulated wall and floor systems exposed to standard and code-prescribed parametric fire curves. Comparison of the fire-resistance ratings and time–temperature profiles of the cavity-insulated and externally insulated wall and floor systems confirmed the superior fire performance of externally insulated load-bearing LSF walls and floors compared with cavity-insulated systems. The reasons for the superior fire performance are discussed in this article. This research also found that placing the plasterboard joints along the studs had minimum detrimental effects on the fire performance of externally insulated LSF wall systems. Overall, this research recommends the use of externally insulated wall and floor systems instead of cavity-insulated systems because of their thermal comfort and superior fire performance. This article includes the details of an efficient LSF wall construction process based on the use of composite panels consisting of two plasterboard layers with insulation sandwiched between them.

Troubleshooting HVAC-related problems is one of the significant activities of facilities management (FM), in which the services directly affect occupants’ satisfaction, health, and productivity. Because of the complexity of modern HVAC systems and the lack of apparent causes when HVAC-related problems occur, HVAC mechanics need to collect various facility-specific information items to identify the real cause. The current practice lacks systematic approaches for identifying what specific facility information HVAC mechanics should check for in a given work order. Building information models (BIMs) have been used to exchange facilities’ lifecycle information, and automated approaches can be developed to retrieve required information for facility maintenance. The first step toward developing such an approach is to understand what information needs to be included in the BIMs that are used during the facility operation phase (i.e., operational BIM) from the perspective of HVAC troubleshooting, which is the focus of the research presented in this paper. The research method includes shadowing, interviews, and focus groups with HVAC mechanics from three FM groups, and the exploration of existing literature and current computerized systems used by HVAC mechanics. The contribution of this research work is the identification of a generic set of information requirements that should be included in operational BIMs for HVAC troubleshooting. The findings are beneficial for future research studies that enable integration of facilities maintenance information with BIMs and building automation systems for FM purposes, support standardization efforts for data exchange in the architectural/engineering/construction and FM industry, and are valuable to help practitioners understand what information and data sources need to be captured and made available for better management of HVAC maintenance.

The current generation of buildings was designed and built such that the final form of a building turns into a single or monolithic unit. As a result, these buildings are demolished either at the end of their life spans or when they become obsolete in function. Demolition of a building leads to irrecoverable wastage of nonrenewable building materials, which is against the philosophy of sustainable building design. This paper presents the concept of a next-generation building (NGB) system that incorporates sustainability into the process of building design and construction. A brief overview of the philosophy, development, implementation, and barriers of NGB systems is presented. Identifying a gap in the definition of flexibility of existing NGB systems, the concept of structural flexibility is introduced and added to the list of desirable features for future NGB systems. Furthermore, a demountable concrete building system suitable for seismic regions is introduced by applying the concepts of NGB systems. The proposed building structural system comprises standard precast-concrete building components and removable dry steel connections. The proposed building system was developed with the primary motives of demountability and structural flexibility at any stage during the life span of the building. Schematic details of the building structural system and possible dry steel connections between different building components of the proposed building system are reported. The process of demounting and dismantling building components from a two-story building structural system is pictorially presented. The structural flexibility of a proposed building system is also shown for two possible scenarios during the life span of a building. Also, key features of the proposed building system were evaluated against the technical requirements of NGB systems, and the results are presented herein. Finally, advantages of the proposed building system for seismic regions are summarized.

The effectiveness of thermal mass and night ventilation in reducing cooling demand in commercial buildings has long been established. However, the appropriate configuration of facades has been determined for only a few locations without any clear design framework across different climate zones. Research on Australian climate zones is particularly limited, and in general, night ventilation has not often been incorporated in previous research, whereas for most new building designs, the use of economizer cycles is essentially a standard feature in HVAC design. A comprehensive energy analysis was completed in which the impact of external and internally insulated facades with and without thermal mass was investigated. The study considered varying internal loads and covered building locations in cold, mixed, warm, and hot climates around the world, with a particular focus on Australian locations. Although the focus was specifically on Australian cities, selected international climate zones were included for additional relevance. It was demonstrated that high-level comparisons between international climate zones are not sufficient to inform engineers and building designers of requirements for local conditions. Current international research on passive thermal mass, although informative, does not answer all required questions for Australian localities. It was demonstrated that thermal mass has little value in heating-dominated climates, but is more important than insulation in the facade in cooling-dominated climates. With higher internal loads, internally coupled thermal mass became more critical. In hot and warm climates, a composite structure with insulation sandwiched between layers of thermal mass achieved the lowest amount of heating and cooling required.

In this paper, an attempt has been made to study and analyze the integration of residential buildings with photovoltaic (PV) systems. PV panels can be integrated with buildings in various ways (façades, double skin façades, sunshades, rooftops, skylights, etc.), which not only helps in the generation of electricity but also produces thermal heat and daylight. Further, it adds to the aesthetic appeal of the building. More than one-third of the global energy requirement is dedicated to the building sector. About 23% of the total electricity demand accounts for the residential buildings. Integration of a PV system is necessary because it replaces the conventional building materials and at the same time acts as an energy generator to make the building self-sustainable. This reduces the building’s energy demand on the conventional grid and the overall emission of greenhouse gases. It has been found that integration of a semitransparent PV module integrated with the roof at Sodha Bers Complex (SBC) for composite climate at Varanasi, India, provided electrical energy, thermal energy (space heating and domestic hot water heating), and day lighting. The energy payback time (EPBT), energy production factor (EPF), and lifecycle conversion efficiency (LCCE) for ΔT = 8°C and average daily solar radiation = 450 W/m² was obtained as 15.32 years, 19.58 years (for 300 years), and 0.47 years (for 300 years), respectively.

Reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls are used currently around elevator cores in multistory buildings. Although past studies have focused on the modeling of such core walls, there have been no detailed investigations of the influence of the core wall and staircase location on the seismic capacity of a building. In the present study, the structural members of a five-story RC frame building with a symmetric plan are designed to meet the provisions of an Indian building code. Material nonlinearity is incorporated into the model using a lumped plastic hinge approach for beams and columns and a layered shell approach for the core walls. A displacement-controlled nonlinear static analysis is performed for models with a staircase only and for models with both a staircase and an elevator core at different locations in the plan. It is observed that the peak lateral shear force occurs in models with a staircase and an elevator core oriented along the width of the building. In the core wall, the reinforcement layer is observed to reach its yield strength before the maximum compressive stress occurs in the inner core concrete. This indicates desirable underreinforced section behavior in the core wall panel.

Gonbad-e Qābus, with a height of 52.8 m that makes it the tallest pure-brick tower in the world, located in the northern part of Iran, represents one of the most magnificent structures of the early Islamic centuries. This structure is still standing among the chaos of urban life and construction, catching the eyes of beholders even from far distances. This paper summarizes the historical and architectural background of this monumental structure and the important restorations carried out mainly in the past century. Various types of existing and potential structural and architectural damages are classified and elaborated in detail, and for each problem, a series of proposed solutions are presented. Utilizing the nonlinear finite-element simulations and equivalent lateral static force method, it is concluded that Gonbad-e Qābus is vulnerable to seismic demands with a return period of 475 years; therefore, retrofit strategies should be considered to improve its seismic performance.

Because of the growing demand for local skilled professionals to improve the health, energy efficiency, and sustainability of residential and commercial buildings in North Dakota, this case study reports the current situation of higher education relating to buildings in the state’s vicinity, including Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. In this region, 116 programs relating to buildings were found in 41 postsecondary institutions, and both their majors and courses were then studied with frequency lists. The frequency information was analyzed over nine sets of curriculum areas at both graduate and undergraduate levels for the four states. After the current state of buildings in North Dakota was investigated, strategies were then proposed to rectify current issues regarding higher education on buildings, including but not limited to forming a comprehensive and interdisciplinary program on buildings (e.g., architectural engineering), providing more graduate programs, developing more courses in areas that lack adequate coursework, and increasing student enrollment. These strategies will greatly promote the health, energy efficiency, and sustainability for new and existing buildings in the four-state region of Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Earthen building construction is an energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, and sustainable approach. Even though rammed-earth construction is popular in a few countries, it is not widely practiced in many countries, including India. The broader aim of the study was to overcome skepticism toward this ecological construction method and increase the confidence level in the society for practicing the same. The quantities of cement and water needed for stabilization of locally available soil were optimized, and durability was evaluated through weathering tests and dryingshrinkage tests. The strength and elastic properties of the stabilized rammed earth were also assessed. This paper presents a preliminary investigation of finite-element modeling (FEM) of the compression behavior of a rammed-earth prism and its experimental validation.