Abstract

The paper presents studies on numerical modelling of beam-to-column joint behaviour in typical service and exceptional design situations. The complexity of such investigations arises from highly nonlinear effects associated with the prediction of joint performance, such as structural imperfections, large displacements and rotations, inelastic properties of steel and concrete, bonding effects between steel and concrete, and slip between concrete and structural steel, among others. The paper addresses these problems and provides validation of numerical modelling techniques trough comparison with experimental data for joints under hogging and sagging moments. © (2012) Trans Tech Publications.

Increasing concern for environment has made building owners and designers to incorporate green design into their building projects. Buildings take about 40 per cent of energy consumption globally and have significant impact on the productivity and wellbeing of the occupants. However, the quality of design team attributes the quality of clients and the characteristics of the building projects have been argued to be the main factors that determine the green design performance of buildings. Therefore, the main objectives of this study are to measure the green design building performance, the quality of client and the attributes of the design team. This study also measures the extent to which the quality of design team attributes, the quality of clients and the characteristics of the building projects affect the green design performance of buildings.The study adopted a triangulation technique that combined both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection.

The design phase is the most important phase in determining the green performance of building projects. The performance of the design team is crucial. The growing importance of sustainability globally necessitates the inclusion of green criteria in the design team selection process. Therefore, a competent design teams is required to have a range of attributes as the basis for design decisions. The propose of this study to identify current green design performance level of design teams of building projects and establish key design attributes influencing green design performance. To achieve mentioned aim a questionnaire survey was conducted to collect dada required. A sample of 274 respondents has been covered under the study, including architects and engineers practicing design and consultancy building sectors. Prior to analysis of data WINSTEPS software were used to determine validity and reliability of date. Descriptive analysis data includes quantitative and qualitative. In general, design team attributes were moderate (3.32). The general design team attributes were high such experience (3.81), communication (3.43) and leadership effectiveness (3.48). However, green attributes of design team were moderate such as green knowledge (2.98), green skills (3.13) and green initiatives (2.84). The result indicates that most design teams have inadequate knowledge and skills to produce high green design performance of building projects. Therefore, to overcome green design complexity, careful selecting design team members and more education and training courses on green building are required to deal with green design requirements.

The aim of this work was to investigate whether the Malaysian current building projects are considered as “Green Designs”. To achieve this aim a questionnaire survey was conducted. A sample of 274 respondents is covered, which included architects and engineers in the building design and consultancy sectors. WINSTEPS software is used in Rasch modeling to determine the validity and reliability of the data. Descriptive data analysis (quantitative and qualitative) is done. The results reveal that design green building performance, in general, energy efficiency, and indoor air quality requirements are considered moderate. The majority of the designed buildings are with low utilization of recycled and reused materials. Moreover, high utilization of regional materials, low consideration to water efficiency requirements and environmental innovations are also moderate. Design team attributes are the key factors to improve green design performance. Client quality play major role to enhance design team attributes. Therefore, effective Design team attributes and client’s qualities may increase performance of the design green building performance in order to enhance building performance and reduce building impact on environment.

Eurocodes [1], [2] cover presently only the so-called basic design situations where the beam-to-column joints are subjected to hogging bending with a negligible influence of the axial force. Design requirements for structural robustness in case of exceptional or extreme actions are being developed in which the joint ductility demand is one of the primary requirement [3][6]. Localized structural damage due to these actions may propagate through a large portion of a structural system causing its entire collapse or the progressive collapse process may be restricted to the relatively small region that is in proportion to the load effects caused. The latter might be provided by design ensuring the ability of transfer the so-called tying forces. Eurocodes do not give any guidelines on how to calculate the tying resistance of joints, mainly because of lack of experimental evidence on the joint ductility under extreme actions. For robust design, joints need to pose the rotation capacity required for inelastic redistribution process to take place on the so-called alternative equilibrium path. The capability of a structure to sustain local damage is evaluated by a notionally conducted removal of its column(s) and checking whether the local damage may be absorbed by the deteriorated structural system. This requires investigations conducted into the behaviour of joint responses to sagging bending accompanied by an axial tying. This paper is concerned with experimental tests of steel and steel-concrete composite sub-frames through which the beam-to-column joint behaviour in typical standard and exceptional design situations is possible to be evaluated. Problems related to the joint strength, stiffness and rotation capacity response under sagging moment in case of the column removal that simulates the frame system behaviour in an exceptional situation are addressed and conclusions drawn.

Various types of pavement deterioration can affect pavement performance, including rutting,

which causes safety and service quality problems on the highways. Rutting, often referred to as

permanent deformation of a pavement surface, causes longitudinal depressions creating

channels in wheel paths. There are many in-service pavement performance databases, but the

Long Term Pavement Performance database (LTTP) is the largest of its kind in the world. It

encompasses data from four different climate zones in North America. Data on flexible

pavements from only the dry freeze zone was included in the scope of the study reported herein.

Regression analysis was performed to develop a rutting model. The proposed model indicates

that the voids in the mineral aggregate (VMA) of hot mixed asphalt is the most important factor

and the positive values of the regression coefficient of VMA implies that rut depth increases

when VMA increases. The other important factors in this model are Marshall stiffness and

freeze index. The negative values of the regression coefficients of Marshall stiffness and freeze

index indicates that the rut depth will decrease when the Marshall stiffness and freeze index

increase.

With the increase inherent technologies and parties involved during the design process of green buildings, Green Design Process (GDP) becomes more complex motion. The selection of a competent Design Team (DT) is essential to overcome the complexity for high performance green design. Certain attributes of the design team are required. The overall objective of this research is to provide the green design team with key attributes that design team should have to be used to improve their design performance of buildings. Furthermore, Internal and external factors influencing these attributes, specifically, Governance system, client quality and Project Nature to be investigated. Design team attributes variables were identified based on literature within the domain of green design team responsibilities. By conducting a questionnaire survey this study identified the common design team attributes and their relative importance to design green buildings. A sample of 277 respondents has been covered under the study, including architects and engineers practicing design and consultancy in Malaysia. Analysis data includes descriptive and quantitative analysis by using SSPS software version 16 was carried out. A correlation and regression models was established to explore the relationship between identified factors. The results showed that the design team needs to comply with certain knowledge and skills that necessary to overcome complexity of the green design process. On the other hand, Clients should consider green design need additional time. Moreover, Governance system and client quality have major influence on design team attributes. An effective approach such as training courses to design team to increase their competency in order to improve green design performance.

 Buildings contribute significantly global environmental problems. Better design can minimize these impacts. Design Green Building (DGB) aims to reduce buildings' impact on the environment. However, the green design performance depends on design team attributes. In addition, the Governance System (GS) and Client Quality (CQ) as external factors have influence on Design Team Attributes (DTA) of green building. Approach: To identify mentioned factors questionnaire survey was conducted to collect dada required. A sample of 277 respondents has been covered under the study, including architects and engineers practicing design and consultancy building sectors. Analysis data includes descriptive and quantitative analysis by using SSPS software version 16 was carried out. A correlation and regression models was established to explore the relationship between identified factors. Results: Architect is most involved one during the design process of green buildings with mean 4.82 followed by mechanical and electrical engineers with mean 4.52 and 4.44 respectively, while structural and civil engineers, interior designers and quantity survivors were 3.71, 3.29 and 2.88 respectively. The most design team attributes were investigated have a significance degree of influence except design team reputation. On the other hand, the other hand, the Governance system and client quality have major influence on these attributes. Conclusion: Involvement and participation of all project stakeholders are required. Design team attributes are the key factors to improve green design performance. Governance system and client quality play major role to enhance design team attributes. Therefore, effective regulations and policies may increase performance of the green Effective design team management device should be applied to implement Design team attributes effectively in order to improve green design team performance.