The Impact of Sea Level Rise on Roadway Design and Evacuation Routes in Delaware

As the global temperature continues to increase, the sea level continues to rise at a rapid rate that has never been seen before. This becomes an issue for many facets of life but one of the most impacted is the transportation infrastructure. Many people living in low elevation coastal areas can become trapped by flooding with no way in or out. With Delaware being a coastal state, this would affect a large portion of the population and will have detrimental effects over time if nothing is done to combat sea level rise. The issue with sea level rise in transportation is that once the roads become flooded, they become virtually unusable and detour routes would be needed. If all the roads in a coastal area were to be affected by sea level rise, the options for detours would become limited. This article looks at direct solutions to combat sea level rise and indirect solutions that would specifically help transportation infrastructure and evacuation routes in Delaware. There is not one solution that can fix every problem, so many solutions are laid out to see what is applicable to each affected area. Some solutions include defense structures that would be put close to the coast, raising the elevation of vulnerable roads throughout the state and including pumping stations to drain the water on the surface of the road. With an understanding of all these solutions around the world, the ultimate conclusion came in the form of a six-step plan that Delaware should take in order to best design against sea level rise in these coastal areas.

Performance-based seismic design of nonstructural building components:The next frontier of earthquake engineering

With the development and implementation of performance-based earthquake engineering,harmonization of performance levels between structural and nonstructural components becomes vital. Even if the structural components of a building achieve a continuous or immediate occupancy performance level after a seismic event,failure of architectural,mechanical or electrical components can lower the performance level of the entire building system. This reduction in performance caused by the vulnerability of nonstructural components has been observed during recent earthquakes worldwide. Moreover,nonstructural damage has limited the functionality of critical facilities,such as hospitals,following major seismic events. The investment in nonstructural components and building contents is far greater than that of structural components and framing. Therefore,it is not surprising that in many past earthquakes,losses from damage to nonstructural components have exceeded losses from structural damage. Furthermore,the failure of nonstructural components can become a safety hazard or can hamper the safe movement of occupants evacuating buildings,or of rescue workers entering buildings. In comparison to structural components and systems,there is relatively limited information on the seismic design of nonstructural components. Basic research work in this area has been sparse,and the available codes and guidelines are usually,for the most part,based on past experiences,engineering judgment and intuition,rather than on objective experimental and analytical results. Often,design engineers are forced to start almost from square one after each earthquake event: to observe what went wrong and to try to prevent repetitions. This is a consequence of the empirical nature of current seismic regulations and guidelines for nonstructural components. This review paper summarizes current knowledge on the seismic design and analysis of nonstructural building components,identifying major knowledge gaps that will need to be filled by future research. Furthermore,considering recent trends in earthquake engineering,the paper explores how performance-based seismic design might be conceived for nonstructural components,drawing on recent developments made in the field of seismic design and hinting at the specific considerations required for nonstructural components.

Peak displacement patterns for the performance-based seismic design of steel eccentrically braced frames

Performance-based seismic design(PBSD) aims to assess structures at different damage states. Since damage can be directly associated to displacements, seismic design with consideration of displacement seems to be logical. In this study, simple formulae to estimate the peak floor displacement patterns of eccentrically braced frames(EBFs) at different performance levels subjected to earthquake ground motions are proposed. These formulae are applicable in a PBSD and especially in direct displacement-based design(DDBD). Parametric study is conducted on a group of 30 EBFs under a set of 15 far field and near field accelerograms which they scaled to different amplitudes to adapt various performance levels. The results of thousands of nonlinear dynamic analyses of EBFs have been post-processed by nonlinear regression analysis in order to recognize the major parameters that influence the peak displacement pattern of these frames. Results show that suggested displacement patterns have relatively good agreement with those acquired by an exact nonlinear dynamic analysis.

Optimization for performance-based design under seismic demands, including social costs

Performance-based design in earthquake engineering is a structural optimization problem that has, as the objective, the determination of design parameters for the minimization of total costs, while at the same time satisfying minimum reliability levels for the specifi ed performance criteria. Total costs include those for construction and structural damage repairs, those associated with non-structural components and the social costs of economic losses, injuries and fatalities. This paper presents a general framework to approach this problem, using a numerical optimization strategy and incorporating the use of neural networks for the evaluation of dynamic responses and the reliability levels achieved for a given set of design parameters. The strategy is applied to an example of a three-story offi ce building. The results show the importance of considering the social costs, and the optimum failure probabilities when minimum reliability constraints are not taken into account.

Probabilistic Performance-Based Optimum Seismic Design Framework: Illustration and Validation

In the field of earthquake engineering,the advent of the performance-based design philosophy,together with the highly uncertain nature of earthquake ground excitations to structures,has brought probabilistic performance-based design to the forefront of seismic design.In order to design structures that explicitly satisfy probabilistic performance criteria,a probabilistic performance-based optimum seismic design(PPBOSD)framework is proposed in this paper by extending the state-of-the-art performance-based earthquake engineering(PBEE)methodology.PBEE is traditionally used for risk evaluation of existing or newly designed structural systems,thus referred to herein as forward PBEE analysis.In contrast,its use for design purposes is limited because design is essentially a more challenging inverse problem.To address this challenge,a decision-making layer is wrapped around the forward PBEE analysis procedure for computer-aided optimum structural design/retrofit accounting for various sources of uncertainty.In this paper,the framework is illustrated and validated using a proof-of-concept problem,namely tuning a simplified nonlinear inelastic single-degreeof-freedom(SDOF)model of a bridge to achieve a target probabilistic loss hazard curve.For this purpose,first the forward PBEE analysis is presented in conjunction with the multilayer Monte Carlo simulation method to estimate the total loss hazard curve efficiently,followed by a sensitivity study to investigate the effects of system(design)parameters on the probabilistic seismic performance of the bridge.The proposed PPBOSD framework is validated by successfully tuning the system parameters of the structure rated for a target probabilistic seismic loss hazard curve.The PPBOSD framework provides a tool that is essential to develop,calibrate and validate simplified probabilistic performance-based design procedures.

Research on performance-based seismic design criteria

The seismic design criterion adopted in the existing seismic design codes is reviewed. It is pointed out that the presently used seismic design criterion is not satisfied with the requirements of nowadays social and economic development. A new performance-based seismic design criterion that is composed of three components is presented in this paper. It can not only effectively control the economic losses and casualty, but also ensure the building's function in proper operation during earthquakes. The three components are: classification of seismic design for buildings, determination of seismic design intensity and/or seismic design ground motion for controlling seismic economic losses and casualties, and determination of the importance factors in terms of service periods of buildings. For controlling the seismic human losses, the idea of socially acceptable casualty level is presented and the 'Optimal Economic Decision Model' and 'Optimal Safe Decision Model' are established. Finally, a new method is recommended for calculating the importance factors of structures by adjusting structures service period on the base of more important structure with longer service period than the conventional ones. Therefore, the more important structure with longer service periods will be designed for higher seismic loads, in case the exceedance probability of seismic hazard in different service period is same.

Multi-Hazard Evaluation Using Cluster Analysis—For Designated Evacuation Centers of Yokohama

Hazard maps are usually prepared for each disaster, including seismic hazard maps, flood hazard maps, and landslide hazard maps. However, when the general public attempts to check their own disaster risk, most are likely not aware of the specific types of disaster. So, first of all, we need to know what kinds of hazards are important. However, the information that integrates multiple hazards is not well maintained, and there are few such studies. On the other hand, in Japan, a lot of hazard information is being released on the Internet. So, we summarized and assessed hazard data that can be accessed online regarding shelters (where evacuees live during disasters) and their catchments (areas assigned to each shelter) in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture. Based on the results, we investigated whether a grouping by cluster analysis would allow for multi-hazard assessment. We used four natural disasters (seismic, flood, tsunami, sediment disaster) and six parameters of other population and senior population. However, since the characteristics of the population and the senior population were almost the same, only population data was used in the final examination. From the cluster analysis, it was found that it is appropriate to group the designated evacuation centers in Yokohama City into six groups. In addition, each of the six groups was found to have explainable characteristics, confirming the effectiveness of multi-hazard creation using cluster analysis. For example, we divided, all hazards are low, both flood and Seismic hazards are high, sediment hazards are high, etc. In many Japanese cities, disaster prevention measures have been constructed in consideration of ground hazards, mainly for earthquake disasters. In this paper, we confirmed the consistency between the evaluation results of the multi-hazard evaluated here and the existing ground hazard map and examined the usefulness of the designated evacuation center. Finally, the validity was confirmed by comparing this result with the ground hazard based on the actual measurement by the past research. In places where the seismic hazard is large, the two are consistent with the fact that the easiness of shaking by actual measurement is also large.

Performance-based global reliability assessment of a high-rise frame-core tube structure subjected to multi-dimensional stochastic earthquakes

When evaluating the seismic safety and reliability of complex engineering structures,it is a critical problem to reasonably consider the randomness and multi-dimensional nature of ground motions.To this end,a proposed modeling strategy of multi-dimensional stochastic earthquakes is addressed in this study.This improved seismic model has several merits that enable it to better provide seismic analyses of structures.Specifically,at first,the ground motion model is compatible with the design response spectrum.Secondly,the evolutionary power spectrum involved in the model and the design response spectrum are constructed accordingly with sufficient consideration of the correlation between different seismic components.Thirdly,the random function-based dimension-reduction representation is applied,by which seismic modeling is established,with three elementary random variables.Numerical simulations of multi-dimensional stochastic ground motions in a specific design scenario indicate the effectiveness of the proposed modeling strategy.Moreover,the multi-dimensional seismic response and the global reliability of a high-rise frame-core tube structure is discussed in detail to further illustrate the engineering applicability of the proposed method.The analytical investigations demonstrate that the suggested stochastic model of multi-dimensional ground motion is available for accurate seismic response analysis and dynamic reliability assessment of complex engineering structures for performance-based seismic resistance design.

Development of Performance-Based Tunnel Evaluation Methodology and Performance Evaluation of Existing Railway Tunnels

The concept of performance-based design, which mainly focuses on mechanical performance, has become the international standard, as in the case for ISO. The standardization of tunnel design has not been achieved because it requires integration of separate specialized fields, such as geotechnical engineering, structural engineering and concrete engineering. It is also required to clarify performance-based criteria for tunnel structures to suit specific use purposes (objectives), establish the concept of survey, planning, design, construction and maintenance based on such criteria, and develop proper management systems for operation and maintenance to suit specific tunnel use purposes. To this end, it is vital to develop a methodology for evaluating and verifying the performance of existing tunnels. This paper presents a new concept of performance requirements for tunnel structures and describes the method of quantitatively evaluating the total performance of existing tunnels in relation to the required performance, assuming the total performance to be based on the Analysis Hierarchy Process.

基于视觉注意机制分析的疏散照明设计方法研究

为改善城市夜间突发情况的人流疏散问题,本文将人的视觉注意机制融入到景观疏散照明设计过程中,基于人的视觉注意力分析,形成了景观疏散照明设计分析方法。在具体的设计流程中,导入TRIZ理论的“物质-场与标准解”问题分析与求解工具,将标准解转为可被景观疏散照明设计应用的设计依据,据此完成设计方案。将方案以VR虚拟仿真场景的方式应用于景观疏散照明设计仿真实验中,请专家用户利用VR设备进入场景对方案进行主观评价以此验证模型的可行性。可知具体的景观疏散照明设计与用户视觉注意机制能够形成匹配,关注用户的注意力可以提升人流疏散效率。

水电工程主厂房防火防烟分区划分的探讨

鉴于《水电工程设计防火规范》修编过程中,对主厂房防火分区、防烟分区和疏散距离存在不同认识,本文从防火设计的基本理念出发,分析了水电工程的特殊性,同时采用性能化设计数模理论,确定了规范中防火分区、防烟分区面积,以及疏散通道长度的依据,探讨了水电工程的特点,为特殊工程防火设计规范编制提供参考。

考虑洪水入侵的地铁站楼梯疏散风险研究

为增强地铁站应对洪涝灾害能力和楼梯设计韧性,基于改进的k-ε模型和洪涝疏散风险评价模型,构建地铁站楼梯上洪水入侵流态数值仿真场景,定量分析坡梯设置、楼梯倾斜度和洪水深度对洪涝疏散风险的影响。研究结果表明:在相同倾斜度(23.2°)和入侵洪水水深(0.3 m)的情况下,相较于楼梯台阶对洪水的阻缓作用,斜坡上洪水流速更快、水深更为平稳,但斜坡具有更高的洪涝疏散风险;洪涝疏散风险与楼梯倾斜度成正相关,疏散风险随着楼梯台阶的降低呈现“前快后缓”特征,斜坡对疏散风险的边际影响更为均匀,而宽大的台阶设置更有利于缓解疏散风险;楼梯上平台入口水深越大,洪涝疏散风险越高;洪水与下平台积水容易产生跳水现象,导致洪涝疏散风险急剧攀升和震荡递减。研究结果可为地铁站科学制定洪涝疏散方案和楼梯设计提供理论指导和管理启示。

国道G228线汕头湾跨海隧道总体设计方案研究

汕头湾跨海隧道作为国道G228汕头段控制性工程,总体设计难度大。为了科学、安全、经济地建设汕头湾跨海隧道,结合两岸城市规划、工程建设环境和环境敏感点等控制因素,采用工程类比、数值计算、模型分析等理论研究方法,对跨海隧道选址、接线、埋深、断面布置、通风及防灾救援等关键问题进行研究和专题论证,得出如下主要结论:1)跨海隧道选址及接线应以城市规划为基础,结合交通特性、路网结构、沿线用地等因素综合确定,是控制风险、降低投资和保障交通功能的关键;2)结合海床演变模型冲刷包络线,盾构段最小覆土不仅要满足掘进及运营期抗浮安全,还要尽量避免长距离穿越上软下硬地层;3)跨海段采用分段纵向+重点排烟的通风方案,解决长距离跨海隧道通风难题;4)盾构段采用人行滑梯或楼梯逃生的纵向疏散模式,明挖段采用横向疏散模式,可保障高地震烈度区跨海隧道的防灾疏散。

会议中心人员疏散设计与模拟评估研究

宁波国际会议中心建筑定位高端,多功能厅体量大、功能复杂,平面空间布局较大,其火灾特性与普通建筑有明显差别。这类建筑人员疏散方式复杂、疏散设计标准借鉴较为空白,对人员进行疏散评估研究成为消防设计中的难题。对此,采用MassMotion软件对3种疏散场景下进行人员疏散模拟分析,并采用FDS软件在3种火灾场景下进行烟气模拟分析。结果表明在多功能厅出口分布均匀且出口数量充足时,各疏散出口整体维持较畅通的状态;结合人员模拟分析数据,得到了人员安全疏散性能评估结果;在可用疏散时间内人员均能实现安全疏散,保证了该区域整体消防安全性能。

应急导向标识国外研究进展

对应急导向标识领域的关键问题进行了详细概述,从应急导向标识的特征以及人类疏散行为的角度出发,探究了目前研究的现状.通过科学知识图谱展示了当前研究的发展进程和结构关系.总结了现有研究的不足之处,梳理并展望了未来应急导向标识领域的相关研究方向,为未来应急导向标识的设计优化提供参考.

基于Pathfinder的石家庄老旧小区户外环境优化设计研究

目前,石家庄市老旧小区户外环境出现空间局促、管理混乱、设施老化等问题,导致老旧小区普遍存在较高的安全隐患,缺乏应对各类灾害的能力。通过实地调研石家庄市老旧小区,归纳其典型老旧小区空间格局及户外环境;结合仿真模拟软件建立模型,模拟人员在小区中疏散情况,总结拥堵特征及人员行为特征;研究小区户外环境与人员疏散效率之间存在的关系,提出针对性优化策略;并使用Pathfinder软件对优化策略进行仿真模拟,验证优化策略可行性。

火灾环境下的超高层建筑标准层疏散走道优化设计

超高层建筑消防疏散问题凸显,现行规范针对疏散走道设计的约束方式仅规定其宽度的最小值,未考虑实际使用人数及空间形态对疏散肌理的影响,其疏散效率难以保证。为提高超高层标准层疏散效率,厘清并建立疏散走道的设计方式及量化指标对人员疏散效率的影响机制,该文以广州利通广场为例抽取原型,通过研究典型标准层烟气蔓延和人员疏散的特点,针对疏散走道的拥堵问题,对其疏散宽度进行不同区域的放大,提出两种疏散走道拓宽模式。使用烟气模拟软件Pyrosim和疏散模拟软件Pathfinder,对其进行火灾环境下人员疏散的模拟,获取烟气蔓延和疏散数据,探寻人员疏散的规律,通过改变各走道拓宽模式下的宽度数值,明确相对合理的走道拓宽设计方式及面积指标,结合超高层标准层一般设计原则,优化设计方案,提出经济、高效的疏散走道空间设计,提升超高层建筑整体疏散效率,为超高层标准层疏散走道设计规范提供指导。

大体量办公建筑消防设计要点

以京东集团西南总部大厦为例,从建筑师的角度解析大体量办公建筑的消防设计,从总平面图设计、中庭设计、大体量单层平面设计以及与之相关的防火分隔和疏散等多个方面,提出建筑专业在消防设计中必要的理念与技巧,总结出大体量办公建筑中典型的消防总体设计思路与具体设计手法,期望能为同类型建筑的消防设计提供实践经验与参考。

海外某新建脱气站场区应急疏散及防火设计分析

中东地区的油气产业不仅对当地经济发展至关重要,还对全球能源供应产生深远的影响。脱气站作为该地区至关重要的油气生产设施,对油气产量的影响至关重要。为确保该地区脱气站设备的完整性和场站人员的生命安全,深入研究分析了脱气站的应急疏散和防火设计,旨在评估脱气站的火灾防范和应急疏散能力,为提升火灾风险管理水平提供合理化建议。

化工装置真空系统设计负荷计算及影响因素探讨

介绍了化工装置中真空系统的气体负荷、空气泄漏率、初始抽气速度、抽气时间等基本概念,概括了真空系统设计负荷确定的主要步骤,总结了真空系统空气泄漏量的估算方法、工艺蒸汽流量及含量的计算方法和初始抽气速率的计算。通过实例计算,总结出减少真空系统的空气漏入量和降低真空系统入口温度是减小真空系统设计负荷的主要方法,为化工装置中常规真空系统设计负荷的确定,提供了思路和方法。