Abstract

Tall structures and towers have captivated humans for thousands of years, and so they are a fact of modern life in cities for a variety of reasons. However, the most challenging design problem is meeting operational performance requirements and maintaining occupant comfort. Not only are the site energy costs high, the attendant environmental consequences of using non-renewable energy sources are great. This fact prompted searchers and designers to advance and fully embrace green and environmentally friendly design. One of the key goals of the green building movement and technique is to reduce the material, constructional, and operational costs of buildings. This goal can be accomplished by drawing on the synergies

between building geometry, material usage, and the local climate demands. Architect Ken Yeang, in his famous book The Green Skyscraper, suggests that in different climate zones, they should be arranged in different locations to reduce the yearly energy consumption of the building. But Yeang’s claim of the structural system parameters have clear implications for structural performance since buildings with asymmetric distribution of stiffness are known to be susceptible to damaging torsional modes of vibration when subjected to wind or earthquake loading. Thus, this study performs thermal and structural analysis to address the implications of different footprints and core placements on energy and structural performance. The results demonstrate that to accomplish Yeang's claim, a supplementary lateral load resistance system is needed, which demands additional structural material. As a result, buildings with an asymmetric distribution of stiffness are the most expensive, which has a negative impact on the building's

environmental and economic aspects.

Jamal Abdul-Nasser is a major trunk road that divides Sebha city into two semi-equal parts. It connects almost all districts with different activities and services in the center of the city. Alongside Jamal Abdul-Nasser Street, exist various types of activities: administrative, educational, commercial, public services and some other activities. Due to its importance, the street carries out the densest traffic movement within the city. This paper tries to study and analyze traffic movement at five intersections on Jamal Abdul-Nasser Street: (1) Al-Nahdha; (2) Khaled IbnAl-Walid; (3) Al-Khotoot; (4) Al-Tijari Bank; (5) Al-Zeraie Bank. Selection of the pre-mentioned intersections referred to their importance as converging points to various important activities and land uses. Data required for the study purposes include intersection characteristics, traffic flow characteristics and traffic composition pattern. The results reveal the significance of taking care of the geometric and regulatory aspects that enable the intersections to perform well with regard the smoothness of traffic flow.

The paper presents new studies on numerical modeling (FEM) for beam-to-column behavior under sagging and hogging bending moment when the framework is exposed to service and unexpected loads that may cause a column loss scenario. This investigation is focused on four bolts end-plate joints with 10 mm thickness which are proven experimentally to have more ductile behavior than other end-plates joints (6, 8 bolts), spite of their weakness to transfer the unexpected loads from the initial state to a residual state of the stable equilibrium, that leads to a failure of limited floor area to adjacent joints when tested experimentally (Saleh, 2014). FEM technique used in this research is an extension of the previous technique and is characterized by the use of a more sophisticated technique than the previous, discovered from the result of continuous research and the use of all the options available in the new version of commercial ABAQUS/CAD software. The elements are designed using multiple layers of specific elements of a brick arranged in such a way that the mesh nodes of the tiles should coincide with certain layers with the top of the shear inlay and in line with reinforcement, not as the former study that used thick shell elements to model the reinforced concrete slab with total negligence of reinforcing steel and bolts between the slap and the beam. This investigation is very complex because of highly nonlinear effects associated with the prediction of joint performance, such as structural imperfections, huge displacements and large rotations, inelastic properties of steel and concrete, bonding effects between steel and concrete, friction between …

This paper presents the mediating effect of information technology (IT) on the relationship between contextual factors and performance of small construction companies. A total of 200 questionnaires were distributed to Malaysian construction firms (G3, G4, and G5). The target respondents were general managers, senior managers, and project managers of construction firms and those who have considerable knowledge of IT implementation in their firms. Sixty-eight completed questionnaires were collected, which indicates a 34% response rate. The three determinants used are the firm contextual factors, IT effectiveness (independent variable), and overall firm performance (dependent variable). The relationship between contextual factors and firm performance was evaluated according to two hypotheses. The first hypothesis suggested a positive relationship between contextual factors and overall firm performance, whereas the second hypothesis suggested a positive relationship between contextual factors and IT effectiveness. IT resource strategy was identified as the most important factor in firm performance. The results indicate a weak positive relationship between contextual factors and overall firm performance. The mediating effects of IT effectiveness on contextual factors and overall firm performance were insignificant.

The paper presents studies on experimental investigation of beam-to-column joint behavior in standard and exceptional events situations. This assessment is done to form a picture of the general the behavior of full scale frameworks at both the level of the global behavior of the framework, in terms of its load-displacement characteristic, and of the local behavior of joints in terms of their moment-rotation characteristics, and evaluates details about the interaction of the joint elements and how they work together in a balanced manner, during exceptional events, this study concerns the joints which are subject to the collapse and also includes the behavior of joints in the neighborhood of the collapse. The intricacy of such investigations appear from nonlinear effects associated with the outlook of joint behavior or functioning, such as structural shortcomings, large displacements and rotations, inelastic properties of steel and concrete materials, the effects between steel and concrete, and slip between concrete and structural steel, through others. The paper addresses these problems using two types of joints flush and extended end-plate with four and eight bolts and provides recommendations and reasoning for the behavioral techniques for the evaluation of joint moment-rotation response when exposed to negative and positive moments together.