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.

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.

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.

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.

Effect of Lead-Rubber Bearing Isolators in Reducing Seismic Damage for a High-Rise Building in Comparison with Normal Shear Wall System

Seismic earthquakes are a real danger for the construction evolution of high rise buildings.The rate of earthquakes around the world is noteworthy in a wide range of construction areas.In this study,we present the dynamic behavior of a high-rise RC building with dynamic isolators(lead-rubber-bearing),in comparison with a traditional shear wall system of the same building.Seismic isolation has been introduced in building construction to increase the structural stability and to protect the non-structural components against the damaging effects of an earthquake.In order to clarify the influence of incorporating lead rubber bearing isolators in the seismic response and in reducing seismic damages;a comparative study is performed between a fixed base system(shear wall system)and an isolated base system(Lead Rubber Bearing)on an irregular high rise reinforced concrete(RC)building located in Beirut consisting of 48 storeys almost asymmetric orthogonally.For this purpose,a non-linear analysis of a real earthquake acceleration record(EI Centro seismic signal)is conducted,so that the mode shapes,the damping ratio and the natural frequencies of the two models are obtained using ETABS software.The results prove a substantial elongation of the building period,as well as a reduction in the building displacement,the roof acceleration,the inter-storey drift ratio and the base shear force of isolated building relative to fixed-base building.This study proves that this technology is applicable to high rise buildings with acceptable results.

Seismic fragility of flexible pipeline connections in a base isolated medical building

Flexible pipelines are often used to connect hard pipes from a foundation to a superstructure to accommodate large deformation in the base isolation layer during an earthquake. Although Chinese seismic design guidelines suggest several confi gurations, they are diff erent from the designs that have been proven in practice, e.g., Japanese styles, and extensive experimental investigation into their seismic performance is required. Three types of seals, rubber-, metal- and asbestinebased, were tested quasi-statically with infi lled pressurized water at 2.5 MPa. The asbestine-based seal leaked at a smaller deformation than the other two types of seals. Based on the test results, three damage states were defi ned and the deformation capacity was estimated. To evaluate their performance, a three-dimensional model of a base-isolated medical building was developed using OpenSees, with the fl exible pipelines simulated by a mechanical model calibrated from the experimental data. A probabilistic seismic demand model and the fragility function of the fl exible pipelines were then developed to evaluate the seismic performance.

Quantitative investigation on collapse margin of steel high-rise buildings subjected to extremely severe earthquakes

Reponses of structures subjected to severe earthquakes sometimes significantly surpass what was considered in the design.It is important to investigate the failure mechanism and collapse margin of structures beyond design,especially for high-rise buildings.In this study,steel high-rise buildings using either square concrete-filled-tube（CFT） columns or steel tube columns are designed.A detailed three-dimensional（3 D） structural model is developed to analyze the seismic behavior of a steel high-rise towards a complete collapse.The effectiveness is verified by both component tests and a full-scale shaking table test.The collapse margin,which is defined as the ratio of PGA between the collapse level to the design major earthquake level（Level 2）,is quantified by a series of numerical simulations using incremental dynamic analyses（IDA）.The baseline building using CFT columns collapsed with a weak first story mechanism and presented a collapse margin ranging from 10 to 20.The significant variation in the collapse margin was caused by the different characteristics of the input ground motions.The building using equivalent steel columns collapsed earlier due to the significant shortening of the locally buckled columns,exhibiting only 57% of the collapse margin of the baseline building.The influence of reducing the height of the first story was quite significant.The shortened first story not only enlarged the collapse margin by 20%,but also changed the collapse mode.

Numerical Study of Flow and Gas Diffusion in the Near-Wake behind an Isolated Building

To assist validation of the experimental data of urban pollution dispersion, the effect of an isolated building on the flow and gaseous diffusion in the wake region have been investigated numerically in the neutrally stratified rough-walled turbulent boundary layer. Numerical studies were carried out using Computational Fluid Dynamics （CFD） models. The CFD models used for the simulation were based on the steady-state Reynolds-Average Navier-Stoke equations （RANS） with κ-ε turbulence models; standard κ-ε and RNG κ-ε models. Inlet conditions and boundary conditions were specified numerically to the best information available for each fluid modeling simulation. A gas pollutant was emitted from a point source within the recirculation cavity behind the building model. The accuracy of these simulations was examined by comparing the predicted results with wind tunnel experimental data. It was confirmed that simulation using the model accurately reproduces the velocity and concentration diffusion fields with a fine-mish resolution in the near wake region. Results indicated that there is a good agreement between the numerical simulation and the wind tunnel experiment for both wind flow and concentration diffusion. The results of this work can help to improve the understanding of mechanisms of and simulation of pollutant transport in an urban environment.

Vibration Control of a High-Rise Building Structure:Theory and Experiment

In this study,an innovative solution is developed for vibration suppression of the high-rise building.The infinite dimensional system model has been presented for describing high-rise building structures which have a large inertial load with the help of the Hamilton’s principle.On the basis of this system model and with the use of the Lyapunov’s direct method,a boundary controller is proposed and the closed-loop system is uniformly bounded in the time domain.Finally,by using the Smart Structure laboratory platform which is produced by Quancer,we conduct a set of experiments and find that the designed method is resultful.

Reduced order observer based identification of base isolated buildings

The objective of this study is to identify system parameters from the recorded response of base isolated buildings,such as USC hospital building,during the 1994 Northridge earthquake.Full state measurements are not available for identification.Additionally,the response is nonlinear due to the yielding of the lead-rubber bearings.Two new approaches are presented in this paper to solve the aforementioned problems.First,a reduced order observer is used to estimate the unmeasured states.Second,a least squares technique with time segments is developed to identify the piece-wise linear system properties.The observer is used to estimate the initial conditions needed for the time segmented identification.A series of equivalent linear system parameters are identified in different time segments.It is shown that the change in system parameters,such as frequencies and damping ratios,due to nonlinear behavior of the lead-rubber bearings,are reliably estimated using the presented technique.It is shown that the response was reduced due to yielding of the lead-rubber bearings and period lengthening.

Multi-hazard performance assessment of a transfer-plate high-rise building

Many urban areas are located in regions of moderate seismicity and are subjected to strong wind. Buildings in these regions are often designed without seismic provisions. As a result, in the event of an earthquake, the potential for damage and loss of lives may not be known. In this paper, the performance of a typical high-rise building with a thick transfer plate （TP）, which is one type of building structure commonly found in Hong Kong, is assessed against both earthquake and wind hazards. Seismic- and wind-resistant performance objectives are first reviewed based on relevant codes and design guidelines for high-rise buildings. After a brief introduction of wind-resistant design of the building, various methodologies, including equivalent static load analysis （ESLA）, response spectrum analysis （RSA）, pushover analysis （POA）, linear and nonlinear time-history analysis （LTHA and NTHA）, are employed to assess the seismic performance of the building when subjected to frequent earthquakes, design based earthquakes and maximum credible earthquakes. The effects of design wind and seismic action with a common 50-year return period are also compared. The results indicate that most performance objectives can be satisfied by the building, but there are some objectives, such as inter-story drift ratio, that cannot be achieved when subjected to the frequent earthquakes. It is concluded that in addition to wind, seismic action may need to be explicitly considered in the design of buildings in regions of moderate seismicity.

Effects of high modes on the wind-induced response of super high-rise buildings

For super high-rise buildings, the vibration period of the basic mode is several seconds, and it is very close to the period of the fluctuating wind. The damping of super high-rise buildings is low, so super high-rise buildings are very sensitive to fluctuating wind. The wind load is one of the key loads in the design of super high-rise buildings. It is known that only the basic mode is needed in the wind-response analysis of tall buildings. However, for super high-rise buildings, especially for the acceleration response, because of the frequency amplification of the high modes, the high modes and the mode coupling may need to be considered. Three typical super high-rise projects with the SMPSS in wind tunnel tests and the random vibration theory method were used to analyze the effect of high modes on the wind-induced response. The conclusions can be drawn as follows. First, for the displacement response, the basic mode is dominant, and the high modes can be neglected. Second, for the acceleration response, the high modes and the mode coupling should be considered. Lastly, the strain energy of modes can only give the vibration energy distribution of the high-rise building, and it cannot describe the local wind-induced vibration of high-rise buildings, especially for the top acceleration response.

A review on research of fire dynamics in high-rise buildings

Since serious fire occurred frequently in recent years, fire safety of high-rise building has attracted extensive attention. A National Basic Research Program （973 program） of China has been set up by Ministry of Science and Technology （MOST） of China in 2012 to meet the research requirements of fire safety in high-rise buildings. This paper reviews the current state of art of research on fire dynamics of high-rise buildings, including the up-to-date progress of this project. The following three subjects on fire dynamics of high-rise buildings are addressed in this review： the ejected flame and fire plume behavior over facade out of the compartment window, the flame spread behavior over facade thermal insulation materiMs, and the buoyancy-driven smoke transportation characteristics along long vertical channels in high-rise buildings. Prospective future works are discussed and summarized.

Numerical Simulation of Wind Field Characteristics around Two Adjacent High-Rise Buildings

This paper based on Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations standard ?model [1];the surface pressure on the wind field around two adjacent high-rise buildings was numerically simulated with software Fluent. The results show that with the influence of adjacent high-rise building, numerical simulation is a good way to study the wind field around high-rise building and the distribution of wind pressure on building’ surface. The pressures on the windward surface are positive with the maximum at 2/3 H height and have lower values on the top and bottom. The pressures on the leeward surface and two sides were negative. Due to the serious flow separation at the corner of building’s windward, the wind field has a high turbulent kinetic energy.

Seismic performance of high-rise buildings in selected regions in Saudi Arabia according to different seismic codes

The design code for each country is revised and updated based on an expected zone’s seismic intensities,geotechnical site classifications,structural systems,construction materials and methods of construction in order to provide more realistic considerations of seismic demand,seismic response,and seismic capacity.Based on the aforementioned provisions,structures designed according to different seismic codes may yield different performances for the same level of hazard.This study aims to investigate and compare the induced responses related to the earthquake-resistant design of reinforced concrete(RC)buildings according to the Saudi building code(SBC-301),American code(ASCE-7),uniform building code(UBC-97),and European code(EC-8).In order to account for the provision regarding the hazard specification and its effect on the induced seismic responses,four regions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with different seismic levels are selected.The code provisions related to the specification of site classification and its effect on the induced design base shear are investigated as well.Significant differences are observed in the induced responses with the variation in seismic design codes for the considered seismic hazards and site classifications.

Simulation of the response of base-isolated buildings under earthquake excitations considering soil flexibility

The accurate analysis of the seismic response of isolated structures requires incorporation of the flexibility of supporting soil. However, it is often customary to idealize the soil as rigid during the analysis of such structures. In this paper, seismic response time history analyses of base-isolated buildings modelled as linear single degree-of-freedom （SDOF） and multi degree-of-freedom （MDOF） systems with linear and nonlinear base models considering and ignoring the flexibility of supporting soil are conducted. The flexibility of supporting soil is modelled through a lumped parameter model consisting of swaying and rocking spring-dashpots. In the analysis, a large number of parametric studies for different earthquake excitations with three different peak ground acceleration （PGA） levels, different natural periods of the building models, and different shear wave velocities in the soil are considered. For the isolation system, laminated rubber bearings （LRBs） as well as high damping rubber bearings （HDRBs） are used. Responses of the isolated buildings with and without SSI are compared under different ground motions leading to the following conclusions： （1） soil flexibility may considerably influence the stiff superstructure response and may only slightly influence the response of the flexible structures; （2） the use of HDRBs for the isolation system induces higher structural peak responses with SSI compared to the system with LRBs; （3） although the peak response is affected by the incorporation of soil flexibility, it appears insensitive to the variation of shear wave velocity in the soil; （4） the response amplifications of the SDOF system become closer to unit with the increase in the natural period of the building, indicating an inverse relationship between SSI effects and natural periods for all the considered ground motions, base isolations and shear wave velocities; （5） the incorporation of SSI increases the number of significant cycles of large amplitude accelerations for all the stories, especially for earthquakes with low and moderate PGA levels; and （6） buildings with a linear LRB base-isolation system exhibit larger differences in displacement and acceleration amplifications, especially at the level of the lower stories.

High-rise building fire pre-warning model based on the support vector regression

Aiming at reducing the deficiency of the traditional fire pre-warning algorithms and the intelligent fire pre-warning algorithms such as artificial neural network,and then to improve the accuracy of fire prewarning for high-rise buildings,a composite fire pre-warning controller is designed according to the characteristic（ nonlinear,less historical data,many influence factors）,also a high-rise building fire pre-warning model is set up based on the support vector regression（ SV R）. Then the wood fire standard history data is applied to make empirical analysis. The research results can provide a reliable decision support framework for high-rise building fire pre-warning.

Recent developments in seismically isolated buildings in Japan

The Building Standard Law of Japan and related Enforcement Order and Notifications have been substantially revised since the year 2000 to introduce a performance-based regulatory and deregulation system for building control systems. Up to then,time-history analyses were mandatory for isolated buildings and had to be specially approved by the Minster of the Ministry of Construction (MOC).Simplified design procedures based on the equivalent linear method for seismically isolated buildings have been issued as'Notification 2009-Structnral calculation procedure for buildings with seismic isolation'from MOC,and are now integrated into the Ministry of Land,Infrastructure,and Transportation (MLIT).Along with Notification 2009,'Notification 1446 of year 2000-Standard for specifications and test methods for seismic isolation devices'was also issued.Buildings with heights equal to or less than 60m and that are designed according to these Notifications,including base isolated buildings,only need approval from local building officials,and no longer require the special approval of the Minister of MLIT.This paper summarizes:1) some statistics related to buildings with seismic isolation completed up to the end of 2001; 2) simplified design procedures required by Notification 2009 of year 2000;and 3) performance of seismic isolation devices required by Notification 1446 of year 2000.