Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities

Most of the public school buildings in Turkey and Peru are built according to a small number of template plans. Over the years, these template plans are kept the same while the structural designs are varied with the seismic design codes in force. During recent strong earthquakes in Turkey and Peru, the design concepts and construction styles for these template school buildings have been put to test. In this paper, observed earthquake performances of template reinforced concrete school buildings with moment-frames or moment-frames and shear walls are compared. The comparison reveals choices in design that were successful as well as those that were not. The disastrous results of “captive columns” are demonstrated in illustrations from what has been observed in recent earthquakes in these seismically active countries. It is shown that since 1997 the Peruvian practice has been producing school buildings that perform well during strong earthquakes.

The New Law Court in Naples, Italy is a group of buildings where all the law activities of the city are conducted. Load tests on the structure were required for the final acceptance of the purchaser after the construction was complete. Given the particular type and shape of the structure, traditional load tests were not possible so it was decided: (1) to conduct a dynamic test of the structure; (2) to analyze its dynamic behavior; and (3) to verify its seismic reliability. The investigation focused on the skylight of the central portion of the building complex, formed by steel frames supported by a concrete structure. The structural behavior was quite complex. Frequencies associated with both the global modal shapes of the whole structure (which were often coupled themselves) and the local resonances of single members were identified. The seismic test showed a non-negligible reduction of the first structural frequency when increasing the level of stress. This behavior is related to the contribution given by the nonstructural components which cannot be neglected, when service stresses are low. The structural characterization allowed the calibration of the finite-element model, whose dynamic characteristics were very close to the experimental ones.

This study investigated the effectiveness of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets in protecting reinforced concrete (RC) columns from corrosion of steel reinforcement. Thirty small-scale RC columns and four midscale RC columns were used in this study. The small-scale columns were used for a comprehensive parametric study, whereas the midscale columns were used to evaluate design guidelines proposed based on the results of the small-scale column tests. The test columns were conditioned under an accelerated corrosion process and then tested under uniaxial compression up to failure. The test results showed that although CFRP sheet wrapping decreased the corrosion rate, the corrosion of steel reinforcement could continue to occur, eventually showing a decrease in ultimate axial compression capacity. Design guidelines were proposed based on the small-scale RC column tests and evaluated through a comparison with the test results of midscale RC columns. The proposed design guidelines introduced a concept of effective area to account for the corrosion damage, such as internal cracking and cross-sectional loss of steel reinforcement.

This paper presents the results of field performance tests of 39 in-service corrugated steel highway culverts in Ohio. The culverts had span lengths varying from $3.23\mathrm{m}$ $\left(10.6\mathrm{ft}\right)\text{to}7.04\mathrm{m}$ $\left(23.1\mathrm{ft}\right)$ and backfill soil heights over the crown varying from $0.27\mathrm{m}$ $\left(0.9\mathrm{ft}\right)\text{to}7.47\mathrm{m}$ $\left(24.5\mathrm{ft}\right)$ . Static and dynamic load tests were conducted by driving heavy trucks across the culverts. Static loads were applied at ten different locations above each culvert. Dynamic load tests were conducted at six truck speeds varying from $8\mathrm{km}∕\mathrm{h}$ $(5\mathrm{mi}∕\mathrm{h})\text{to}64\mathrm{km}∕\mathrm{h}$ $(40\mathrm{mi}∕\mathrm{h})$ . A portable instrumentation frame was installed inside each test culvert to monitor deflections. Strains on the culvert walls were also measured at 14 locations using strain gauges. Effects of backfill height and loading conditions are investigated. According to the experimental results, a plot of maximum culvert deflection versus backfill height shows a nonlinear relationship. Maximum static load deflections were found to be consistently larger than the maximum dynamic deflections obtained using the same test truck. Deflections were nearly zero for deep culverts with backfill heights exceeding $4\mathrm{m}$ $\left(13\mathrm{ft}\right)$ . Maximum deflections correlate more closely to equivalent line loads than to total truck weight. The data also indicate that culvert behavior is more difficult to predict when backfill heights are shallow because other factors, such as culvert age and condition and soil type, likely play a significant role.

Deterioration of water mains causes serious problems in major urban communities worldwide. This paper presents the findings of a recent study conducted on pipe-break data in an effort to identify and categorize the key factors that contribute to the deterioration of water mains and examine the applicability of existing deterioration models for water mains in representing actual field conditions. The data used in this paper were collected from a municipality that has a large water distribution network in Canada. The collected data cover $15\text{-}\text{year}$ pipe break records of $432\mathrm{km}$ of water mains. Unlike the common thought by practitioners, the performed analysis reveals that water mains of long lengths do not necessarily have more breaks compared to those of short lengths. The analysis performed using existing models shows that they provide poor representation and inadequate explanation for the deterioration of water mains. The research findings presented in this paper are expected to be useful to academics and practitioners (municipal engineers, consultants, and contractors) in analyzing deterioration trends of water mains.

Annual break rates are often used by municipalities as one of the most important criteria in rating the condition of water mains. This paper presents the development of deterioration models that predict the annual break rates of water mains considering pipe material, diameter, age, and length. The data used in this paper are collected from a Canadian municipality that has a large water distribution network. The collected data cover $15\text{-}\text{year}$ pipe break records of $432\mathrm{km}$ of water mains. Five multiple regression models are developed, which show robust statistical analysis. Twenty percent of break data were randomly selected for validation in which the developed models demonstrate satisfactory results. The research presented in this paper is expected to be useful to academics and practitioners (municipal engineers, consultants, and contractors) in analyzing deterioration trends of water mains.