Strength reduction factors for wind and earthquake effects

Strength reduction factors (SRFs) are typically estimated for seismic events ignoring the influence of wind. However, considering that strong earthquakes are commonly followed by a number of moderate to strong aftershocks and that wind is constantly flowing, often with low to medium intensity but occasionally reaching high speeds, then the assumption of using only earthquake ground records to determine SRFs seems questionable. In this paper it is shown that the combined action of strong winds and earthquakes, however low its probability of occurrence, would considerably increase the ductility demand of buildings and cause a decrease in SRFs calculated by ignoring wind. The paper examines the non-linear performance of single-degree-of-freedom systems subject to various levels of winds and earthquake load and deals with the estimation of SRFs associated with those multi-hazard scenarios.</jats:p

Crop lodging induced by wind and rain

A methodology to estimate wind and rain effects on the fourmain growth crops in the United Kingdom is presented. The method is basedon simulated weather scenarios acting on synthetic plants over a periodof thirty years. The environmental data is generated with the UKCP09Weather Generator considering future climate scenarios whereas plants aremodelled as simple oscillators characterised by their mass, stiffness anddamping. The joint probability of occurrence of wind and rain areestimated together with the conditions in which lodging would occur. Thepaper shows that the dynamic response of plants varies with season beingthe three months of the year the most critical whilst the plants'performances define crop failure velocities ranging between 4 ms-1 and 23ms-1 and associated failure rates of 50% and 5% per unitary velocity

Circular Economy in the Building Sector:Investigating Awareness, Attitudes, Barriers, and Enablers through a Case Study in Saudi Arabia

The adoption of circular economy (CE) holds significant potential to mitigate the challenges posed by the conventional linear economic model. The building sector in Saudi Arabia continues experiencing rapid growth, often marked by a consistent annual rise in the number of projects. The incorporation of CE principles into this expansion presents opportunities to optimize resource utilization, minimize waste generation, and enhance overall environmental sustainability. This study explores the current levels of awareness, perception, and implementation of CE principles among local building sector stakeholders and assesses the potential for CE expansion in the region. Additionally, it seeks to rank the identified barriers and enablers while exploring the interconnected relationships between such barriers. A literature review was conducted to explore the CE barriers and enablers. This was followed by an online survey which was conducted amongst 139 respondents from diverse stakeholder groups. A relative importance index (RII) was employed to rank the barriers and enablers, and the findings were subjected to statistical analysis using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The outcomes of this study highlight a significant lack of awareness regarding CE principles among stakeholders, with a very low implementation rate. To break this inertia and encourage the adoption of CE practices, this study suggests the need for CE- supportive policy and legislation, and the provision of financial incentives

A Systematic Literature Review of the Adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) on Life Cycle Cost (LCC)

The need for embedding sustainability in construction development contributed to the introduction of Building information Modelling (BIM) to be adopted into the Life Cycle Cost (LCC) process. Through BIM, project information used during design can be shared to estimate the project’s end of life costs. LCC enables to assess the overall cost of an asset (building) through its life cycle via functionalities including the original investment costs, maintenance expenses, operating expenses, and the remaining value of the asset at the end of its life. The objective of this paper is to discuss the merging of BIM into LCC through four prevalent aspects; methodology, design software used, benefits, and challenges. A total of 20 studies were reviewed upon filtering process using PRISMA method. These studies discussed at least one of the aspects mentioned and contributed to the information regarding BIM and LCC. This paper thus aims to expanding studies on BIM adoption on LCC through the collected information sourced from peer-reviewed publications