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Go to Editorial ManagerThe objective of the present paper is to evaluate the effects of the soil-structure interaction on the seismic evaluation in the building when a framed building is supported on raft foundation. Also the foundation-soil interaction effect has been considered by replacing it with equivalent springs. Nonlinear static pushover analyses of eight-storey reinforced concrete hospital building located at Delhi-India has been performed using the Capacity Spectrum Method of ATC-40. The deformations define the state of damage in the structure through three limit states of the NEHRP Guidelines and the FEMA-356 have been used to evaluate the performance level of the building for drift, the plastic hinge stage of the crack and shear under the condition of the fixed base and the effect of the soil-structure interaction. The performance of the building and individual components has been estimated for Design Basis Earthquake and Maximum Considered Earthquake. The weight of the slab was distributed as triangular and trapezoidal loads to the surrounding beams as per IS 456:2000. The weight of the brick masonry was distributed uniformly on the beams. The results show that the soil structure interaction has marked effect on the roof displacement, storey drift, design base shear, effective damping and crack pattern for beams and columns while there is a minor effect on the torsional behavior of the building. The building is more critical in the performance level when considering the soil flexibility.
The present work is aimed to reduce the annual electric energy consumption in a residential building in Basrah city through introducing a standardized rule for the annual electrical consumption for the cooling and heating purposes. This work will concentrate on all parameters which help to go toward the optimum use of thermally efficient house. The building energy analysis program e-Quest was used to simulate the annual energy consumption for a typical residential house built with different types of building materials. Transfer function cooling load calculation was used. The results showed that for the Base- House, the thermal transmission through the walls and roof constitutes more than half of the total peak cooling load. It was found that a house built with thermo-stone causes 5.9% reduction of the annual cooling energy consumption, and 12.4% in the annual heating energy consumption. However, insulating the Base- House causes a significant reduction in the air conditioning equipment capacity and consequently reduction in cooling energy consumption by 23%, and reduces the heating energy consumption by 42.8%. Finally this work presents a useful planning to developed building design which reduces the electrical energy consumption.
The goal of the present paper is to study the adequacy of torsional provisions in the international buildings code (IBC) for irregular building taken into account effect of the angles of seismic attacks. The responses of the frame-shear-wall twelve- story asymmetric building under earthquake loading by using equivalent lateral force procedure and dynamic response spectrum analysis have been studied intensively in this present research paper. This study performs static and dynamic response analyses of building models under earthquake ground motions compatible with the design response spectrum defined in the international buildings code. The dynamic response spectrum was scaled according to the code static base shear. The static and dynamic base shear with different angles of seismic attacks has been calculated. The scaling factors, angles of seismic attacks, accidental storey torsions, storey shear, dynamic and static base shear have been evaluated here. The torsional moment at different storey levels for dynamic analysis has been estimated and compared with the static values.
Human beings are facing an unprecedented rise in temperature rates not recorded for years. HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems have been created and enhanced to solve this issue. Cooling load must be estimated with accepted methodologies before designing an efficient and effective air conditioning system. Companies, researchers, institutions, and others advise and develop many cooling load calculation methods. Each one of these methods has its advantages and disadvantages and may give a slightly different result for the same case. For each building, whether it was residential or commercial buildings, gyms, or shopping malls, before making the decision on (HVAC) systems to be used, both heating and cooling loads should be obtained as correctly as possible to minimize expenses as possible. Since the HVAC system consumes the most energy in an air-conditioned building, an accurate method of cooling load estimation is necessary. Consequently, an energy-efficient air conditioning system reduces greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere while also saving money on electricity. Two cases have been compared and studied, one in Dubai UAE, and the other in Baghdad Iraq. Three different methods, HAP, hand calculation method (CLTD/SCL/CLF), and MS-EXCEL E20 form sheet were used to compare the accuracy of the results for cooling load. Results of E20 and HAP are very close to each other with high accuracy for peak load, the big difference can be found between the CLTD method and the other two methods. The value of the maximum difference percentage was found between CLTD and E20 equals 3.28% and 7.96%, on the other hand, the lowest difference was equals to 0.3% and 1.51% between HAP and E20 results for Baghdad and Dubai respectively. Traditional and local materials came from local factories, used in buildings played a big effect on the results, which may not match those materials stated in the ASHRAE or CARRIER tables, which need to be considered in the results and calculation procedure. However, all methods have a percentage of difference but all results are within the accepted range and are applicable for practical cases. Of course, this percentage is minimal with some methods and maximum with others.
Visual pollution refers to the negative impact of various environmental elements on the visual experience of individuals and the quality of the surroundings. This includes unsightly buildings and other man-made structures that disrupt natural beauty. The design of building facades plays a significant role in determining visual pollution. This study aimed to assess the impact of facade design on visual pollution by testing which facade design considerations most contribute to visual pollution in Peshawa-Qazi Street (100 m) in Erbil City. An online survey was conducted with 283 participants in six architectural departments within engineering colleges and other online engineering platforms in Erbil, Duhok, and Suleimani. Respondents included architectural students from the 3rd to 5th stage, academic staff, and professional architects. They rated the impact of individual facade elements, contextual integration, and other factors on visual pollution. A one-sample T-test was used to compare mean scores to a test value of (2.5). Results showed that all three categories of façade design considerations significantly increase visual pollution compared to the test value (p < 0.05). Considerations regarding the overall context of a facade had the most significant impact (mean of 1.93 higher than the test value), followed by other factors (mean of 1.79 higher) and individual elements (mean of 0.71 higher). To decrease visual pollution, it is recommended to the policymakers and municipalities to develop regulations, façade design guidelines and for architects to follow the principles of architectural form and composition regarding the integration of building facades with their surroundings, façade practical considerations, and refined composition of façade elements.
In this research ,the sediment load in Shat Al- Gharaf River , lies in the south of Iraq ,has been studied . Two empirical formulas those have been presented by ; Bagnold and Van Rijin were adopted as a deterministic equations for computing the sediment discharge in selected reaches of river . The application of these equations requires to do different hydraulic , sediment , and geometric measurements for the selected reaches . Accordingly , thirteen sections along the river within a study area have been adopted . After analyzing the available data , a new formula for estimating the suspended sediment load in Shat Al-Gharaf was developed , depending on the data for ten sections of this river and by using SPSS program , the determination coefficient of the new formula was (R 2 =0.94) . The validity of the established formula has been verified using some well related (i.e., nearly the same hydraulics and geometrical circumstances) of field data over the world was selected from published literatures [8] these are : Colorado river data of the U.S.B.R.(1958) ,River data from Leopold (1969) , and India canal data of Chaudry et.al.(1970). As well as ,those observed in the remaining three sections of present river , the verification shows a good agreement . The results of the adopted two formulas and the new formula were compared with field measurements using Discrepancy Ratio (bais) method . The suggested new formula gave the best results where 50% of data located within a discrepancy ratio close to one and 30% of data located within an error ±20% , that is refer to suitability adoption this formula as a deterministic equation to estimate the sediment load in Shat Al-Garaf river within a study reach .
In several countries, residential buildings are responsible for high energy consumption. The majority of energy is consumed on air conditioning to ensure maximum indoor comfort. In Iraq, the demand for electricity increases significantly, especially during the summer for cooling purposes. In this paper, two technologies are proposed for buildings to reduce the cooling load. These approaches included the use of phase- changing materials (PCM) in different locations in the walls and roof, in addition to roof shading by galvanized iron. The effects of these proposals were simulated in the latest software tool (designbuilder) and compared with the standard building model. The results were clear when PCM was installed on the outer surface of the wall and roof, which achieved the highest reduction in the cooling load of about 18 %. While the roof shading method using corrugated galvanized iron proved its effectiveness by decreasing the cooling load to 5 % compared to the standard case.
The finite element method is used to simulate the soil vibration behavior due to the Basrah-Baghdad passenger train and its effect on a targeted building in the Al-Ma'qal quarter, Basrah governorate. Three-dimensional dynamic elastic analyses are performed to calculate the particle velocities for a train speed of 120 km/hr. The effectiveness of screening using active (10 m long) open trench barriers with variable depth (2 m - 5 m) and width (0.4 m - 0.8 m), is being studied. For a given trench width (0.4 m), the results of the parametric study revealed a considerable effect of trench depth where the screening capability near the trench is increased by (10.4 %, 26.1 %, 36.3 %) due to a (50 %, 100 %, 150 %) increase in depth. The results are less sensitive to the variation in trench width. The screening capability of a double open (0.4 m × 10 m × 2 m) trench system was also investigated, where a mitigation improvement of (36.4 %) was achieved. The vibration mitigation using single and double trench systems, filled with (40 %) rubber content mixture, was also analyzed. It is concluded that using the additional passive trench increases the mitigation of the single system by around 19.1 %. An important finding is that the (40 % rubber + 60 % native cohesive soil) mixture proved to be a good filling material, since the infilled-trench systems produced comparable screening ratios to the open systems, where (97.7 %) and (85.4 %) were accomplished for the single and double systems, respectively.
Solar chimney (SC) together with earth to air heat exchanger (EAHE) is being employed as a low-energy consuming technique to remove undesirable interior heat from a building in the hot seasons. A numerical program "FLUENT 6.3 code" of an earth to air heat exchanger (EAHE) is studied for predicting the outlet air temperature and cooling potential of these devices in Basrah climate. Theoretical analyses have been conducted in order to investigate the ventilation in a solar chimney. The investigation into the viability of Low Energy Earth Pipe Cooling Technology in providing thermal comfort in Basrah. The demand for air-conditioning in buildings in Basrah affects the country escalating energy consumption. Therefore, this investigation was intended to seek for an alternative passive cooling to air-conditioning. The passive technology, where the ground was used as a heat sink to produce cooler air, has not been investigated systematically in hot and humid countries. A sub-soil temperature model adapted for the specific conditions in Basrah is presented and its output compared with CFD modeling. The results have shown that the potential of Earth Pipe is providing lower output temperature of air inlet to the room. We found that the resulting temperature at the buried pipe outlet decreases with increasing pipe length, decreasing pipe diameter, decreasing mass flow rate of flowing air in the pipe and increasing depths up to 4m.
Several governments around the world announced new strategies regarding their construction industry. These strategies focus on reducing construction projects' time, cost and improving their impact on the environment. To achieving these goals within the proposed time scale, these authorities advise their stakeholders to start to implement different methods in project delivery such as Building Information Modeling (BIM), Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), Geographic Information System (GIS), and many more. All these new technologies and methods will reduce human errors in the project lifecycle which will lead to reducing project waste. In addition, this will pave the road to automation in construction. Automation will help to mitigate the huge number of clashes and mistakes. Iraq an oil-depended country suffering from economic crises due to the considerable reduction in oil prices. This struggle must enforce the government to use this opportunity to solve current project problems such as project delays and budgets overrun and rethink how to reduce construction project time and cost. However, the applicability and understanding of these new methods and technologies need to be explored first among the Iraqi construction industry. This paper will investigate the understanding of automation in construction among different disciplines working with different experiences in the Iraq construction industry. The method of survey was used to sightsee their view regarding automation in construction understanding, benefits, and the challenges. The results reveal that there a positive view in terms of understating the meaning of automation in construction. In addition, several benefits are identified as the most effective gains if these new methods are implemented. Furthermore, more than a few challenges also have been acknowledged that need to be considered to increase the successfulness of implementing automation in construction.
The problem of construction debris has been emerged as one of the most important environmental problems in the Iraqi governorates due to higher rates of population growth and the need for the establishment of new construction projects to rebuilding Iraq. Therefore, this research aims to estimate the quantity of construction debris in Basra governorate and suggested method for recycling the homogeneous to rubble material that can be used in the building after admixing with cement. The study estimated the quantity of this debris in Basra during the study period, amounting to a full year up to 177.907 tons, that is equivalent to an average of 0.06 tons/m². And recycling of debris concrete to give the results of the usual approach to the concrete and be within the limits allowed in the code of Iraq and the U.S. and can be used in the production of non-loading concrete blocks.
The study investigates the behaviour of reinforced concrete corner joints under monotonically increasing loads which tend to increase the right angle between the two joint members. The experimental results for two case studies are considered, and the ANSYS computer code is employed to create three-dimensional models for corner joints within the context of the finite element method. The effect of reinforcement details at the corner joint is studied for commonly used detailing systems, and the nonlinear response is traced throughout the entire load range up to failure. The results obtained are generally in good agreement with the experiments, and show that the detailing system has a significant effect on corner joint behaviour, with efficiencies ranging from as low as 54% up to 147%.
Safwan-Zubair area is regarded as one of the important agricultural areas in Basrah province, South of Iraq. The aim of this study is to predict groundwater level in this area using ANNs model. The data required for building the ANNs model are generated using MODFLOW model (V.5.3). MODFLOW model was calibrated based on field measurements of groundwater level in 13 monitoring wells during a period of one year (Nov./2013 to Oct/2014). The neural network toolbox available in MATLAB version 7.1 (2010B) was used to develop the ANN models. Three layers feed-forward network with Log- sigmoid transfer function was used. The networks were trained using Levenberg-Marquradt back-propagation algorithm. The ANN modes are divided into two groups, each of four models. The input data of the first group include hydraulic heads, while, the input data of the second group include hydraulic heads and recharge rates. Based on results of this study it was found that; the best ANN model for predicting groundwater levels in the study area is obtained when the input data includes hydraulic heads and recharge rates of two successive months preceding the target month, the best structure of ANN model is of three layers feed-forward network type composes of two hidden layers, each of ten nodes, and the including of recharge rates as input data, beside the hydraulic heads has improved slightly the results.
Sublime is considered one of the significant concepts in the recent architectural thought; it has emerged clearly as a mean of creating the highest levels of continuity in architecture, especially in contemporary architectural movements. The importance of sublime especially has emerged. Many architectural studies dealt with concept of sublime in architecture is different and various ways according to the trend of each study; this shows the importance of studying the concept of sublime in the architectural field in general. This study tries to focus on the utilization of the sublime as heritage continuity system in Islamic Architecture because it’s important in the generation of sublimity of architectural models. The paper discusses the importance of this concept and its utilization in the designs, in order to explore the particular problem which has been represented as (The absence of a specific imagination of methods and strategies for achieving sublimation).Thus the objectives of the paper has been formed by building a theoretical framework consisting of two main items of detailed theoretical field which specifies sublime as a concept ,Firstly, Then the application of the important Islamic Architectural products in Mashhad Architecture as a model, Secondly, Finally, concluding utilization of sublime as dogmatically system in Mashhad Architecture, Thirdly, after discussing the results to formulate the conclusions in the end.
In this proposed study, all environmental factors affecting the aboveground and buried pipes, such as solar radiation and temperature, and soil temperature, have been studied on the characteristics of flow inside the aboveground and underground pipelines by building a mathematical model using MATLAB based on energy balance equations. From the mathematical model, the effect of solar radiation on the aboveground section of the pipeline is significate. During March and an inlet temperature of 34 °C, the pipeline outlet fluid temperature will rise to 50 °C. Other parameters affecting the aboveground section of the pipeline, such as ambient temperature and wind speed, have a much smaller effect on the fluid temperature, and the temperature difference is approximately 4 °C between the highest and lowest pipeline outlet fluid temperature. The result for the underground section of the pipeline showed that the main affecting parameter on the fluid temperature is the burry depth of the pipeline, the deeper the pipeline depth the lower the temperature variation and the lower fluid temperature can be seen, at 1 meter of bury depth the minimum and maximum fluid temperature was 18 °C and 36 °C respectively, and at 5 meters of bury depth, the minimum and maximum fluid temperature was 26 °C and 31 °C respectively. This study also checks different process parameters. Some of these are fluid flow, pipe diameter, and pipe material. The effect of the fluid flow and pipe diameter has a similar impact on the fluid temperature (while fixing all the other parameters), the higher the fluid flow or the smaller the pipe diameter resulted in a better heat transfer and more considerable temperature difference, and vice versa. The final process parameter, pipe material, had little to no effect on the fluid temperature variation.
The investigation of the indoor electromagnetic propagation has been performed at the unlicensed industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band, which has gained increased attention recently due to high data rate communication systems developed to operate in it. The effect of the incidence angle and materials thicknesses on the reflection coefficients for both horizontal and vertical polarization has been studied. Two-dimensional ray-tracing model has been suggested to simulate the influence of buildings electromagnetic properties on indoor radio channel characteristics, such as signal level, rms delay spread, and coherence bandwidth. Results show that the influence of the permittivity is more important than the influence of the order of reflection considered for the ray- tracing model. It is also shown that, compared with power level, rms delay spread is more sensitive to the building dielectric parameters. Maximum rms delay spread is dependent mainly on the reflectivity of the walls which dependent on the dielectric parameters.