Civil Engineering Dimension (E-Journal)
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An Evaluation of Industrial Facilities Defects in Selected Industrial Estates in Lagos State, Nigeria
Get PDFThe study appraised the state of industrial facilities in selected industrial estates established between 1957 and 1981 in Lagos State by examining the nature and causes of facilities’ defects in the selected industrial estates. The buildings sampled were load bearing sandcrete block wall (1%), concrete framed structure (83%) and steel framed structure (16%). Data were sourced using structured questionnaire administered on the staff of maintenance department of 35 building materials and plastic manufacturing industries purposively selected and located in 18 industrial estates. Data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistic. The study found the structural elements of the buildings, i.e. foundations, beams, walls, and floors satisfactory. Using the mean response analysis, the result showed that the most severe factors responsible for industrial facilities’ defects were combined effects of geo-climatic factors (2.35), combined effects of biological agencies (2.15), corrosion (1.98), and physical aggression on the facilities (1.71)
Trust to Contractor in Housing Construction
Get PDFTrust is the willingness to rely upon the actions of others, to be dependent upon them, and thus to be vulnerable to their actions. In housing construction, where contract is usually awarded without tender, trust of the developer to the contractor is a very important factor. This paper studies trust relationship, specifically on the developer’s side to contractor. Trust is measured by identifying three major factors: characteristics, how to build, and the benefits of trust. Fifteen respondents from fifteen housing developers in West Surabaya, Indonesia, participated in the questionnaire survey. The results indicated that characteristics of trust depend on the credibility of the contractor, which is the depth of its experience. Trust can be built by creating team compatibility and aligning issues; and behaving professionally. Trust can help the contractor accelerate in solving the problem in construction
Travel Time Estimation and Prediction using Mobile Phones: A Cost Effective Method for Developing Countries
Get PDFConventional data collection methods lack real time information and involve excessive cost of installation and maintenance. A real-time, low cost travel time data collection system can be developed using mobile phones. This project examines the use of mobile phones for travel time prediction of public transit vehicles and develops a dynamic travel time prediction model. Personnel were employed in public transit vehicles with mobile phones and these mobile phones were tracked continuously. Space information of the mobile phones represents the position of the buses and movement pattern of these mobile phones in turn represents the movement pattern of the public buses. The starting and arrival time at sections obtained from the cellular database were used to get the travel time and speed. Results obtained were statistically significant and it shows that use of mobile phone for travel time data collection is a low cost data collection technique for Indian cities
Integration of Theory of Planned Behavior and Norm Activation Model on Student Behavior Model Using Cars for Traveling to Campus
Get PDFAlthough there are clear environmental, economic, and social drawbacks in using private vehicles, students still choose cars to get to campus. This study reports an investigation of psychological factors influencing this behavior from the perspective of the Theory of Planned Behavior and Norm Activation Model. Students from three different university campuses in Surabaya, Indonesia, (n = 312) completed a survey on their car commuting behavior. Results indicated that perceived behavioral control and personal norm were the strongest factors that influence behavioral intention. Attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and personal norm explain 62.7% variance of the behavioral intention. In turn, behavioral intention explains 42.5% of the variance of the actual car use. Implications of these findings are that in order to alter the use of car, university should implement both structural and psychological interventions. Effective interventions should be designed to raise the awareness of negative aspects of car use
Correlations between Damage Indices and Seismic Parameters for Near-Field Earthquake Records
Get PDFDamage assessments of concrete structures are essential to determine their seismic performances under earthquake events. In this paper, six three bays two dimensional concrete frames, five to ten story high, were analyzed under 30 near-field earthquake records by nonlinear dynamic analyses. The seismic performances were evaluated using two important overall damage indices which are: the modified Park-Ang index and the maximum softening damage index. The correlations between several seismic parameters and the two damage indices of the six concrete frames were determined using Spearman correlation coefficient. In the end, the values of correlations between seismic parameters and these two damage indices were compared and discussed. Subsequently, seismic parameters that have the strongest and the fairest correlation were presented. The numerical results of correlations have shown that Velocity Spectrum Intensity (VSI) has a strong interdependency with two overall structural damage indices (the modified Park-Ang model and the maximum softening damage) for all of the reinforced concrete frames
Design Aspect of including Infill Wall in RC Frame Design*
Get PDFThis study compares analysis and design of a four story reinforced concrete (RC) frame structure with infill wall at upper levels and open at basement level. For the analysis, the RC frame are modeled as open frame (MOF) and infilled-frames using six compression only cross diagonal strut (MIF-Strut), and infilled frame using shell elements (MIF-Shell). Another model, MIF-Full, is created by adding walls at basement level of the MIF-Strut to study the effect of wall discontinuity. All three dimensional models are loaded with gravity load and quake load appropriate for South Bali region. Results show that the infilled-frame models are 4.8 times stiffer than MOF in the wall direction. Perpendicular to the wall, however, the stiffness increase is 29%. Soft storey mechanism exists in the absence of wall at basement level, regardless of reasonable column dimensions
Numerical Prediction of Differences in Micromechanical Fracture Sequence in Notched and Un-Notched Wires for Civil Engineering Applications
Get PDFThe need to employ simulation-based investigations of fracture of civil engineering structures has been emphasised recently in literature. In this paper, three dimensional finite element simulations revealed that the cup and cone fracture process in channel-shaped notched wire for civil engineering applications begins with a slant fracture at the root of the outer edge of the channel-shaped notch and follows a slant to flat fracture sequence. These results demonstrate that the fracture origin in cup and cone fracture in notched wires for civil engineering applications does not necessarily begin with a flat fracture at the center of the wire and does not necessarily follows the flat to slant fracture sequence or propagation generally reported in literature. These results further demonstrate the need to employ simulation-based methodologies in conjunction with or as an alternative to purely experimental fractographic analysis for an accurate failure analysis of wires used for civil engineering applications
An Original Testing Apparatus for Rapid Pull-Out Test
Get PDFPull-out test is commonly used to investigate the pull-out behavior of geotextile reinforcement embedded in soil. It is also used by different authors to propose interface friction angles values. Unfortunately these works mainly deal with cyclic loadings with reference to seismic action, which are believed to be different to the load exposed to reinforced earthworks due to lateral impacts. Therefore an original rapid pull-out test apparatus is proposed in this study. This article assess the proposed test method in addressing the rapid pull-out response of a geotextile embedded in soil. The testing apparatus allows investigating shear velocities within the range of 0.1 to 1.2 m/s. This test method seems promising in addressing the response of soil-geotextile interfaces under dynamic loadings. Nevertheless, improvements concerning the testing apparatus are still required. The loading system could be modified to avoid oscillations and specific equipment should be added to increase the normal stress
Extreme Rainfall Indices for Tropical Monsoon Countries in Southeast Asia
Get PDFSoutheast Asian countries have the possibility to have rainfall and number of extreme rainfall event change due to future climate variation. This paper proposed three extreme rainfall indices as a modification of climate extremes indices from CLIMDEX Project by researchers at the Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC), the University of New South Wales (UNSW). The proposed indices aim to be used as a parameter for observing extreme rainfall events in tropical monsoon countries. Eleven extreme precipitation indices from CLIMDEX Project and the three proposed extreme precipitation for tropical monsoon countries are systematically analyzed based on data of daily rainfall from meteorological stations in Bangkok and Jakarta. Mann-Kendall test was used to observe the trend of extreme rainfall. In general, the analysis of a total of 14 extreme indices show both Bangkok and Jakarta received more rainfall during rainy season and less rainfall during dry season. Specifically, a significant increasing trend of extreme rainfall indices (R60 and R80) was revealed using the proposed indices
SWOT Analysis of Housing Co-operatives in South Africa
Get PDFWhile South Africa has the necessary legislative and policy frameworks in housing and other sectors that could have contributed to the development of co-operative housing approach, little is done to promote it. To that end, this paper provides the SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of 6 housing co-operatives in South Africa. Based on the data generated from the multi-case study conducted and the administration of self addressed questionnaires, a SWOT analysis was done in order to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the housing co-operatives, with a view to developing sustainable strategies. Results from the study shows that the housing co-operatives are faced with many threats arising from the external environment and many weaknesses arising from the inadequate internal resources and circumstances. One of the strategies proposed is that there should be formulation and implementation of appropriate policies and legislation beneficial to the housing co-operatives by the government