Evacuation egress in high rise building: Review of the current design evacuation solution

In the aftermath of the September 11th attack, design of tall buildings particularly in the aspect of safety systems and structural robustness, arguably the most crucial issues that is deliberated till to date. Concerning the safety systems specifically on evacuation egress, many novels and innovative evacuation solutions for high rise buildings that have been researched and put forward, for instances Platform Rescue Systems (PRS), Controlled Descent Devices (CDD) and Escape Chutes. Still, the practicability of the existing proposed egress systems to be implemented in the real-life situation and its compliance with the tall building design legislation remain unknown. For developing countries such as Malaysia and United Arab Emirates, tall buildings play a role as an iconic landmark. While countries like China and Hong Kong, tall building is needed due to the scarcity of land and high populations. As more than one hundred tall structure exists in the world, and will be increasing by 2020; therefore, it is urgently needed that existing engineering practices in designing tall building to be reviewed with respect to evacuation egress. The main objective of this paper is to create awareness among developers, consultants and contractors that proper evacuation egress in tall building design and development is a must. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the existing engineering practices on tall building evacuation planning systems and design. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the currently proposed systems and its consideration amongst structural and safety engineers are also reported

Evacuation egress in high rise building: Review of the current design evacuation solution

In the aftermath of the September 11th attack, design of tall buildings particularly in the aspect of safety systems and structural robustness, arguably the most crucial issues that is deliberated till to date. Concerning the safety systems specifically on evacuation egress, many novels and innovative evacuation solutions for high rise buildings that have been researched and put forward, for instances Platform Rescue Systems (PRS), Controlled Descent Devices (CDD) and Escape Chutes. Still, the practicability of the existing proposed egress systems to be implemented in the real-life situation and its compliance with the tall building design legislation remain unknown. For developing countries such as Malaysia and United Arab Emirates, tall buildings play a role as an iconic landmark. While countries like China and Hong Kong, tall building is needed due to the scarcity of land and high populations. As more than one hundred tall structure exists in the world, and will be increasing by 2020; therefore, it is urgently needed that existing engineering practices in designing tall building to be reviewed with respect to evacuation egress. The main objective of this paper is to create awareness among developers, consultants and contractors that proper evacuation egress in tall building design and development is a must. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the existing engineering practices on tall building evacuation planning systems and design. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the currently proposed systems and its consideration amongst structural and safety engineers are also reported

Concrete using sawdust as partial replacement of sand : Is it strong and does not endanger health?

This study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of concrete using sawdust to partially replace the river sand which could reduce both environmental problems and construction cost. In this study, sawdust concrete has been produced where the river sand is replaced with sawdust by 5%, 10% and 15% of the total sand volume. Both wet concrete and hardened concrete (cubes specimens) were tested through material testing and cube testing to obtain the most optimum sawdust concrete design. In addition, specimens have also been tested in environmental laboratory to identify the extent of hazardous use of sawdust to consumer health. This is because the dust used is the waste taken from the unknown root of the level of cleanliness. The result shows that the most optimum design for producing sawdust concrete is that with 10% replacement of river sand. The result is based on the compressive strength obtained. The results of environmental study also show that this sawdust concrete is free from any harmful to health contaminants

Concrete using sawdust as partial replacement of sand : Is it strong and does not endanger health?

This study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of concrete using sawdust to partially replace the river sand which could reduce both environmental problems and construction cost. In this study, sawdust concrete has been produced where the river sand is replaced with sawdust by 5%, 10% and 15% of the total sand volume. Both wet concrete and hardened concrete (cubes specimens) were tested through material testing and cube testing to obtain the most optimum sawdust concrete design. In addition, specimens have also been tested in environmental laboratory to identify the extent of hazardous use of sawdust to consumer health. This is because the dust used is the waste taken from the unknown root of the level of cleanliness. The result shows that the most optimum design for producing sawdust concrete is that with 10% replacement of river sand. The result is based on the compressive strength obtained. The results of environmental study also show that this sawdust concrete is free from any harmful to health contaminants