Prioritizing the Main Elements of Quality Costs in Design-Build Mass-Housing Projects

Reducing the cost of quality in mass-housing projects can reduce the overall cost and can also result in increasing profitability or the possibility of getting more projects due to the lower price offered in the tenders. The first step to reduce the cost of quality is to identify different elements, determine their impact on the final product quality and then prioritize them. In this study, questionnaires and structured interviews with experienced construction professionals were employed to identify and prioritize the fundamental elements using the P-A-F (prevention, evaluation, and failure) method, one of the most well-known methods for categorizing quality costs. The results indicate a high impact of preventive activities and the low impact of external failure activities on final product quality. According to the results, the use of experienced specialists and skilled workers is more effective than in-service training of inexperienced forces. Corrective actions of non-conformities and design improvements have a significant impact on final product quality. The new approach to COQ elements ranking, used in this research, can help decision-makers to prioritize the most effective activities in construction projects to increase final quality with an optimum quality cost

Low cost wireless EEG system for medical and non-medical applications

In this paper, the design and implementation of wireless data transmission and low power consumption of a low cost electroencephalogram (EEG) to monitor the brainwave signals for medical and non-medical applications is presented. It can be used in smart city applications such as for brain-computer interface in industrial and transportation applications or intelligent wireless wearable EEG solutions for daily life applications. The wireless EEG wearable system is designed, simulated, constructed and tested to monitor the brainwave signals. The Zigbee module was used to construct the wireless data transmission system. The experimental results show that the proposed EEG system was successfully developed and tested. Its total coast is cheaper compared to the commercial EEG system

バム強震観測点周辺の建築物被害

The post-earthquake investigations of the Bam, Iran earthquake of Dec. 26, 2003 were conducted by the Joint Reconnaissance Team of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the Japan Association for Earthquake Engineering (JAEE), the Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ) and the Japan Society for Civil Engineers (JSCE) in collaboration with the International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES) from Feb. 23 2004 to Mar. 4 2004. This paper reports the results of a damage evaluation of buildings around the Bam Seismological Observatory operated by the Building and Housing Research Center (BHRC). The results show that many residential houses in the investigated area were seismically vulnerable structures such as adobe and simple masonry structures. Poor construction quality was also found in some of the investigated buildings designed according to the current Iranian seismic code. Moreover, a good correlation between wall area ratio and damage levels was observed. Therefore, wall area ratio may be applicable for evaluating seismic capacity and screening retrofit candidates

Investigation on the Vertical Vibration Characteristics of Actual Structure for Earthquake Observation records and Impactor Test.

科研費報告書収録論文(課題番号:11650573・基盤研究(C)(2)・H11～H12/研究代表者:源栄, 正人/衝撃波発生装置を用いた構造物を用いた構造物-地盤系の振動試験に関する基礎的研究

Evaluation of Single Lane Parallel-Type Entrance Ramp Terminal Using Vehicle Dynamics Model for Freeways

Providing an appropriate length of highway entrance ramps is an important feature that should be considered in freeway design. The recommended minimum acceleration lane length in the Green Book of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is currently used for designing entrance ramp terminals. However, in some cases, traffic congestion and crashes are observed when heavy trucks enter freeways, which indicates they could not accelerate enough and did not reach the merge speed at the end of the acceleration lane. Therefore, several scenarios were simulated using a dynamic simulation model (TruckSim) for heavy vehicles with weight to power ratios of 61, 67, 86, and 108 (kg/kW) and grades of zero, ±3, and ±5%. Subsequently, a linear regression model was presented to calculate acceleration lane lengths. The results showed that the acceleration rate of heavy vehicles is not adequate, especially in upgrades. For example, at +5% upgrades, heavy trucks cannot accelerate to the merge speed mentioned in the AASHTO. Conversely, the acceleration rate of heavy vehicles increased in downgrades; therefore, some heavy vehicles were able to achieve merge speed along the proposed length of AASHTO

Building Damage around Bam Seismological Observatory Following the Bam, Iran Earthquake of Dec. 26, 2003

The post-earthquake investigations of the Bam, Iran earthquake of Dec. 26, 2003 were conducted by the Joint Reconnaissance Team of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the Japan Association for Earthquake Engineering (JAEE), the Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ) and the Japan Society for Civil Engineers (JSCE) in collaboration with the International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES) from Feb. 23 2004 to Mar. 4 2004. This paper reports the results of a damage evaluation of buildings around the Bam Seismological Observatory operated by the Building and Housing Research Center (BHRC). The results show that many residential houses in the investigated area were seismically vulnerable structures such as adobe and simple masonry structures. Poor construction quality was also found in some of the investigated buildings designed according to the current Iranian seismic code. Moreover, a good correlation between wall area ratio and damage levels was observed. Therefore, wall area ratio may be applicable for evaluating seismic capacity and screening retrofit candidates