Study on Evacuation Strategy of Commercial High-Rise Building under Fire Based on FDS and Pathfinder

With the development of economy and society and the growth of population,the high-rise and multi-function of commercial buildings have become an international trend.But it also poses huge fire hazards.Most of the existing studies’research objects are predominantly high-rise residential buildings,without considering the impact of different functional zones(Standard floor,entertainment zone,office zone,equipment room and so on)and personnel distribution of commercial buildings evacuation.And the influence of using elevators to carry evacuees on the refuge floor on personnel evacuation is rarely studied.In this work,the fire scenario of the Yangtze River InternationalConferenceCenter,a high-rise commercial building,is simulated with the Pyrosim programto get the necessary parameters under various fire scenarios and to calculate the available evacuation time TASET.At the same time,according to the complex functional zone of the commercial high-rise building and the distribution of people in different time periods,a reasonable evacuation strategy is developed and simulated by Pathfinder software.The results indicate that unorganized evacuation will lead individuals to take the erroneous evacuation route,resulting in a vast region of congestion;comprehensive consideration of the time staggering and the reasonable distribution of evacuation routes can significantly improve evacuation efficiency,and the TRSET of night and working hours is 36.6%–55.3%and 49.9%–79.6%of unorganized evacuation,respectively.For the night fire,60%of the people use elevator-refuge floor to evacuate is the optimal strategy;for the fire during working hours,half of the people on standard floors use the elevator to evacuate and people on multifunctional floors evacuate in four batches is the best plan.The results of this study can provide viable solutions and a foundation for analyzing the fire evacuation and safety of big commercial high-rise buildings.

A Stroke-Limitation AMD Control System with Variable Gain and Limited Area for High-Rise Buildings

Collisions between a moving mass and an anti-collision device increase structural responses and threaten structural safety.An active mass damper(AMD)with stroke limitations is often used to avoid collisions.However,a strokelimited AMD control system with a fixed limited area shortens the available AMD stroke and leads to significant control power.To solve this problem,the design approach with variable gain and limited area(VGLA)is proposed in this study.First,the boundary of variable-limited areas is calculated based on the real-time status of the moving mass.The variable gain(VG)expression at the variable limited area is deduced by considering the saturation of AMD stroke.Then,numerical simulations of a stroke-limited AMD control system with VGLA are conducted on a high-rise building structure.These numerical simulations show that the proposed approach has superior strokelimitation performance compared with a stroke-limited AMD control system with a fixed limited area.Finally,the proposed approach is validated through experiments on a four-story steel frame.

A novel control strategy for reproducing the floor motions of high-rise buildings by earthquake-simulating shake tables

To enable the experimental assessment of the seismic performance of full-scale nonstructural elements with multiple engineering parameters(EDPs),a three-layer testbed named Nonstructural Element Simulator on Shake Table(NEST)has been developed.The testbed consists of three consecutive floors of steel structure.The bottom two floors provide a space to accommodate a full-scale room.To fully explore the flexibility of NEST,we propose a novel control strategy to generate the required shake table input time histories for the testbed to track the target floor motions of the buildings of interest with high accuracy.The control strategy contains two parts:an inverse dynamic compensation via simulation of feedback control systems(IDCS)algorithm and an offline iteration procedure based on a refined nonlinear numerical model of the testbed.The key aspects of the control strategy were introduced in this paper.Experimental tests were conducted to simulate the seismic responses of a full-scale office room on the 21^(st)floor of a 42-story high-rise building.The test results show that the proposed control strategy can reproduce the target floor motions of the building of interest with less than 20%errors within the specified frequency range.

Metropolitan Housing Development in Urban Fringe Areas-A Case Study of Three Metropolitan Cities of South Africa: Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane

Purpose:The metropolitan cities of Johannesburg,Ekurhuleni and Tshwane play an important role in the economy of the Gauteng province in South Africa.The region constitutes to 22.4 percent of the total population of South Africa and has a strong presence and contributes in areas of manufacturing sector,financial and business services,retail and wholesale trade,etc.The rapid urban population,increase in the informal settlements and socio-economic opportunities has resulted in considerable urban sprawl in and around the urban fringe areas of these metropolitan cities.The urban fringe areas of these metros often come under the influence of rapid urbanization process and pressures.Coupled with the economical and potential land dynamics and lack of priority of spatial development guidelines,these areas attract rapid and haphazard development from communities and developers.Research Design/Methodology:This research is based on a qualitative approach through a comprehensive literature review that included content analysis of key documents on housing sector such as IDPs(Integrated Development Plans),Municipal Annual Reports,Growth Development Strategies,and among other sectoral documents on housing sector.Some of the key priority issues considered in the housing sector included:eradication of housing backlogs,spatial restructuring of housing,provision of choice in terms of location,tenure and housing typology.Findings:The current paper discusses the approaches of metropolitan housing development processes in three metropolitan cities of South Africa from Gauteng region,namely:Johannesburg,Ekurhuleni and Tshwane.The paper discusses the existing housing sectoral scenario along with the fringe areas in three cities with focus on:formal and informal settlements,housing segregation and the backlogs,current institutional arrangements,role of public private participation,and scope for alternate mechanisms.The paper concludes in discussion on sustainable development options for housing development in urban fringe areas.

Industrialization,Efficiency and Social Housing:Sustainable Prefabrication for the Colombian Social and Cultural Context

This research aims to generate processes of industrialization and qualification of social housing in Colombia through prefabrication,low energy consumption and high environmental quality to reduce the current deficit and improve the quality of life in communities with fewer economic resources.Modular coordination and the use of materials with thermal behaviors,appropriate to the country’s climatic characteristics,reduce production costs,avoid waste and improve the architectural and environmental quality of social housing.Passive cooling strategies,such as controlling solar incursion and generating natural cross ventilation eliminate energy consumption and allow reaching desired standards of comfort.In a context in which traditional construction systems have still not resolved the social housing deficit in Colombia and which generate high costs for energy consumption in the search for thermal comfort,industrialized and efficient construction with high environmental quality provides solutions according to the economic,geographic,social and cultural context in Colombia.

Living in a Condominium Regime:Neighborhood Conflicts in Low-Income Housing,Tijuana,Baja California-A Secondary Publication

This paper analyzes neighborhood conflicts arising from the condominium property regime,under which social housing promoted by Mexican government institutions and private developers is acquired.This regime has facilitated access to housing for the salaried population,but it is far from contributing to the attainment of the right to housing.The research takes as case studies housing complexes located in the city of Tijuana,Baja California,Mexico.The analysis included a mixed methodology.Firstly,similar case studies were analyzed;secondly,a review of the Condominium Property Regime Law was carried out in order to understand its implications.In view of the pandemic situation,a virtual survey was applied to the inhabitants of these areas,as well as interviews with presidents of neighborhood committees of these complexes.From the above,it was found that this form of ownership generates conflicts,reflected in the dissatisfaction of the inhabitants with their housing,disagreements and controversies in their organization and coexistence.The inhabitants have to collectively solve the problems they face,related to the maintenance and use of common areas,insecurity,and cleanliness,among others.In addition,there is a lack of support from local authorities.With this,it is concluded that although the inhabitants have a space that solves their housing problem,it does not manage to be a space that adequately guarantees their right to housing.

A Triple Nexus Water-Energy-Housing (WEH) Framework Modelling towards Improved Decision-Making in Humanitarian Operations

Given the challenges facing most humanitarian operations worldwide, a change of approach is needed to ensure greater sustainability of humanitarian settlements right from the planning stage. Some studies attribute unsustainability to inadequate provision of basic resources and highlight the apparent bottlenecks that prevent access to the meaningful data needed to plan and remedy problems. Most operations have relied on an “ad hoc ism” approach, employing parallel and disconnected data processing methods, resulting in a wide range of data being collected without subsequent prioritization to optimize interconnections that could enhance performance. There have been little efforts to study the trade-offs potentially at stake. This work proposes a new framework enabling all subsystems to operate in a single system and focusing on data processing perspective. To achieve this, this paper proposes a Triple Nexus Framework as an attempt to integrate water, energy, and housing sector data derived from a specific sub-system within the overall system in the application of Model-Based Systems Engineering. Understanding the synergies between water, energy, and housing, Systems Engineering characterizes the triple nexus framework and identifies opportunities for improved decision-making in processing operational data from these sectors. Two scenarios illustrate how an integrated platform could be a gateway to access meaningful operational data in the system and a starting point for modeling integrated human settlement systems. Upon execution, the model is tested for nexus megadata processing, and the optimization simulation yielded 67% satisfactory results, demonstrating that an integrated system could improve sustainability, and that capacity building in service delivery is more than beneficial.

A Study on Factors Influencing Cost Overrun in High-rise Building Construction across India

Cost overrun is a common problem in construction projects worldwide.Most Indian construction projects,particularly those involving high-rise buildings,have had severe cost overruns.For managers,architects,engineers,and contractors,completing building projects within the specified cost budget has become the most important and hard assignment.Since it is common for high-rise building projects to go over budget,the aim of this study is to find out the causes of cost overruns and provide effective measures.The study found 70 cost overrun factors based on a comprehensive literature review and expert opinions.A Google form questionnaire was distributed to 150 construction professionals across India.After following up,101 of the 150 responses were received.A five-point Likert scale was used and the acquired data was analyzed and ranked using the Relative Importance Index(RII)technique.According to the findings of RII,the top ten critical factors influencing cost overruns were frequent change orders during construction by the owner,delay in construction,escalation of material prices,market inflation or deflation,rework,frequent changes in design,inaccurate evaluation of the project timeline,unforeseen ground condition,inaccurate quantity take-off,and delay in progressive payment by the owner.Spearman’s rank correlation test revealed that there is a very significant relationship between the rankings of factors provided by the owner,the consultant,and the contractor.In addition,a factor analysis tool in the SPSS software was also used to categorize the seventy factors into sixteen core components.The top ten critical factors were presented to subject matter experts,and their suggestions were being compiled.These results are expected to help construction professionals minimize cost overruns,improve cost control measures,and initiate future research.

The Challenges in Providing Affordable Housing in Nigeria and the Adequate Sustainable Approaches for Addressing Them

Despite multiple schemes implemented by various governments around the country, affordable housing remains elusive to the average Nigerian. Because the situation is comparable to that of other developing nations, it remains a key concern in these countries’ socioeconomic development. Over 52% of Nigeria’s population has been claimed to live in shanties, squatter communities, and informal settlements. This article, therefore, reviews the challenges to the provision of affordable housing in Nigeria and the Sustainable approaches to address them. The article’s findings were based on a thorough examination of the literature. The article’s findings indicated that sustainable approaches for addressing Nigeria’s affordable housing barriers may best be examined through the economic, ecological, social, institutional, and technical factors. The paper urges the present regime, investors, lawmakers, and private developers in Nigeria to implement these approaches for affordable housing provision. The findings from this article will add to the current body of knowledge by providing important information on affordable housing provision and re-directing research interest towards affordable housing in Nigeria and other developing countries.

Analysis of the Performances of a New Type of Alumina Nanocomposite Structural Material Designed for the Thermal Insulation of High-Rise Buildings

The sol-gel method is used to prepare a new nano-alumina aerogel structure and the thermal properties of this nanomaterial are investigated comprehensively using electron microscope scanning,thermal analysis,X-ray and infrared spectrometer analysis methods.It is found that the composite aerogel alumina material has a multi-level porous nano-network structure.When employed for the thermal insulation of high-rise buildings,the alumina nanocomposite aerogel material can lead to effective energy savings in winter.However,it has almost no energy-saving effect on buildings where energy is consumed for cooling in summer.

The Benefits of Solar Energy on the Provision of Sustainable Affordable Housing in Nigeria

Solar energy is the most abundant form of energy on Earth. Solar energy brings impactful benefits and products that are expected to make homes more reliable, sustainable, and affordable. Thanks to technological advancements like the solar cell, we can gather this energy and turn it into electricity. The construction industry has an exceptional chance of benefiting from this sustainable energy. Many recognised benefits have been spelled forth in the construction industry, such as providing homes with clean energy with no trace of ozone depleting material emission. There are many people in Nigeria who are not linked to the public electric grid, and the energy sector produces and generates less than 58% of the entire amount of energy required. As stated in the Nigeria’s National Energy General Plan, the Sustainable Energy programme aims to enhance the country’s use of solar electricity. This paper focuses on the role of solar energy in the provision of sustainable affordable housing in Nigeria. It considers the description, method, and utilisation of solar energy with a focus on residential and commercial buildings.

Seismic loss assessment of RC high-rise buildings designed according to Eurocode 8

A probabilistic seismic loss assessment of RC high-rise(RCHR)buildings designed according to Eurocode 8 and located in the Southern Euro-Mediterranean zone is presented herein.The loss assessment methodology is based on a comprehensive simulation approach which takes into account ground motion(GM)uncertainty,and the random effects in seismic demand,as well as in predicting the damage states(DSs).The methodology is implemented on three RCHR buildings of 20-story,30-story and 40-story with a core wall structural system.The loss functions described by a cumulative lognormal probability distribution are obtained for two intensity levels for a large set of simulations(NLTHAs)based on 60 GM records with a wide range of magnitude(M),distance to source(R)and different site soil conditions(SS).The losses expressed in percent of building replacement cost for RCHR buildings are obtained.In the estimation of losses,both structural(S)and nonstructural(NS)damage for four DSs are considered.The effect of different GM characteristics(M,R and SS)on the obtained losses are investigated.Finally,the estimated performance of the RCHR buildings are checked to ensure that they fulfill limit state requirements according to Eurocode 8.

Assessment of Compliance to Building Energy Efficiency Strategies in the Development of Housing Estates in FCC, Abuja Nigeria

Compliance to local energy efficiency strategies can significantly reduce energy consumption in buildings and promote sustainability. However, Nigeria Building Energy Efficiency Code (BEEC) seems to be just paper work without enforcement or compliance. Assessment of Compliance to Green Building Energy Efficiency Strategies in the Development of Housing Estates in FCC, Abuja Nigeria was carried out. The compliance of estate buildings to BEEC in the study area was assessed;and the aspects of the building energy efficiency strategies with more compliance were determined. Data were mainly from primary sources such as questionnaire survey, interview with key informants and observation. The study population included all estate developers and building construction professionals. Data were gathered from one hundred and fifty (150) building professionals through questionnaire administration. Data collected were analysed using Z score and ANOVA and presented in tables. Results show that only 18% of respondents agreed that building complied with BEEC, and the Z score for positive affirmation is below average score. There is a significant difference in the integration of different energy efficient management strategies in the estates’ construction at 95% confidence level. The integration of measures such as window to wall ratio and window shading’ were significantly higher than other BEEC strategies such as roof insulation and minimal air condition unit (≤EER/COP of 2.8). Thus, the development of estates in FCC Abuja did not achieve energy efficiency.

Identifying Spatial Heterogeneity in the Effects of High-Tech Firm Density on Housing Prices:Evidence from Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area,China

Innovation capitalization is a new concept in innovation geography research.Extant research on a city scale has proven that innovation is an important factor affecting housing prices and verified that innovation has a capitalization effect.However,few studies investigate the spatial heterogeneity of innovation capitalization.Thus,case verification at the urban agglomeration scale is needed.Therefore,this study proposes a theoretical framework for the spatial heterogeneity of innovation capitalization at the urban agglomeration scale.Examining the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area(GHMGBA),China as a case study,the study investigated the spatial heterogeneity of the influence of high-tech firms,representing innovation,on housing prices.This work verified the spatial heterogeneity of innovation capitalization.The study constructed a data set influencing housing prices,comprising 11 factors in 5 categories(high-tech firms,convenience of living facilities,built environment,the natural environment,and the fundamentals of the districts)for 419 subdistricts in the GHMGBA.On the global scale,the study finds that high-tech firms have a significant and positive influence on housing prices,with the housing price increasing by 0.0156%when high-tech firm density increases by 1%.Furthermore,a semi-geographically weighted regression(SGWR)analysis shows that the influence of high-tech firms on housing prices has spatial heterogeneity.The areas where high-tech firms have a significant and positive influence on housing prices are mainly in the GuangzhouFoshan metropolitan area,western Shenzhen-Dongguan,north-central Zhongshan-Nansha district,and Guangzhou—all areas with densely distributed high-tech firms.These results confirm the spatial heterogeneity of innovation capitalization and the need for further discussion of its scale and spatial limitations.The study offers implications for relevant GHMGBA administrative authorities for spatially differentiated development strategies and housing policies that consider the role of innovation in successful urban development.

An Assessment of Housing Market Renewal in East Lancashire

The paper analyses the impact of the Government Housing Market Renewal(HMR)programme in the UK.It focuses on Burnley,East Lancashire,and on the inner-city neighbourhood of Burnley Wood.The aim of the programme was to rebalance the housing market in places suffering shrinkage.The intention was to renew failing housing markets and reconnect them to regional markets,to improve neighbourhoods and to encourage people to live and work in these areas.One of these was East Lancashire and the author visited Burnley,one of its principal towns,in 2005,as part of a CABE study.The paper describes the Pathfinding policy,the actions being taken and the community's reaction.The author recently returned to Burnley and spoke to some of the same people reported in 2005.This paper documents what has been achieved in the past 7 years.

Architecture as a Means of Developing Social Exchange:Learning from a Danish Case Study of Refurbishment and Urban Transformation in a Disadvantaged Housing Area

Disadvantaged housing areas from the postwar period typically consist of relatively monotonous and monofunctional multi-storey blocks and have a separate traffic system rendering the areas isolated enclaves in the urban fabric.It is argued that this spatial isolation contributes to social isolation,and current refurbishments are therefore aimed at linking the housing areas with the surrounding neighbourhoods to enable social exchange between the residents and people from the surrounding areas.Based on a case study in a Danish social housing area,this paper discusses to what extent architectural development and urban strategic transformations can contribute to enabling social exchange in disadvantaged housing areas.Do neighbours enter the disadvantaged housing area as intended?If so,how does this influence their perception of the housing area?The analysis shows that architectural development and urban transformations are interdependent in establishing a social mix in disadvantaged housing areas.It is argued that refurbishments can reduce the stigma surrounding the housing area and its residents.However,the applicability of such strategies is highly dependent on the local context of the housing area.

Characterization,identification and life prediction of acoustic emission signals of tensile damage for HSR gearbox housing material

Purpose-This study aims to ensure the operation safety of high speed trains,it is necessary to carry out nondestructive monitoring of the tensile damage of the gearbox housing material in rail time,yet the traditional tests of mechanical property can hardly meet this requirement.Design/methodology/approach-In this study the acoustic emission(AE)technology is applied in the tensile tests of the gearbox housing material of an high-speed rail(HSR)train,during which the acoustic signatures are acquired for parameter analysis.Afterward,the support vector machine(SVM)classifier is introduced to identify and classify the characteristic parameters extracted,on which basis the SVM is improved and the weighted support vector machine(WSVM)method is applied to effectively reduce the misidentification of the SVM classifier.Through the study of the law of relations between the characteristic values and the tensile life,a degradation model of the gearbox housing material amid tensile is built.Findings-The results show that the growth rate of the logarithmic hit count of AE signals and that of logarithmic amplitude can well characterize the stage of the material tensile process,and the WSVM method can improve the classification accuracy of the imbalanced data to above 94%.The degradation model built can identify the damage occurred to the HSR gearbox housing material amid the tensile process and predict the service life remains.Originality/value-The results of this study provide new concepts for the life prediction of tensile samples,and more further tests should be conducted to verify the conclusion of this research.

Discussion on Construction Technology and Welding Deformation of High-Rise Steel Frame Structure

Because of urbanization,land resources in China’s cities has become increasingly scarce.Therefore,modern buildings are becoming taller,making high-rise steel frame structures the new favorite of the construction industry.However,the construction of high-rise steel frame structures requires advanced technology.If the construction technology is effectively implemented and the welding techniques of the construction personnel align with the requirements for high-rise steel frame structures,it can help mitigate deformations in the steel structure,thus preserving the overall construction quality of high-rise steel frame structures.To enhance the applicability of steel frame structures in high-rise buildings,this paper focuses on analyzing the optimization path for the construction process of high-rise steel frame structures.It introduces a tailored approach to control welding-induced deformations in steel frame structures,aiming to make a valuable contribution to the advancement of China’s construction industry.

Probabilistic Pre-requisites Contributing to Successful Housing Association Partnering

The necessity to achieve value for money(VFM)has been paramount during the current economic climate,with reductions in investment inducing Housing Associations(HAs)to minimise waste and pursue the maximisation of value.Differing characteristics between HAs and private sector clients have a bearing on the pre-requisites associated with a successful partnering outcome.The purpose of this paper is to assist HAs maximise VFM by increasing the likelihood of a successful partnering outcome through gaining an understanding of the most important pre-requisites to be implemented into the arrangement from a HA perspective.A quantitative analysis was adopted to identify the level of importance placed by HA on the probabilistic pre-requisites that contribute to a successful partnering outcome.The results highlight the most important probabilistic pre-requisites from a HA perspective.The research concluded that the three most importantly ranked pre-requisites that contribute to a successful partnering arrangement,perceived exclusively by HAs,were mutual trust between parties;stakeholder commitment and mutual objectives.The plethora of construction partnering research is predominantly based on the construction industry generally.This research focuses on the specific needs of HAs.The findings therefore enable HAs to differentiate between the most and least important pre-requisites identified within the literature.This will increase the probability of a successful partnering arrangement through the unveiling of the pre-requisites that HAs should focus on implementing.Subsequently,the research will assist HAs maximise VFM during the challenging economic period where investment into social housing has been reduced.