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An interactive menu driven microcomputer program is presented for elastic and inelastic earthquake response spectrum analysis of multistorey and multibay buildings. The program is written in Advanced BASIC on an IBM Personal Computer with one disk drive. The program can perform the following:

Three different configurations of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) were fabricated by changing the storey height and their orientations. The purpose of this study is to find the effect of storey height and orientation on the performance of wind turbines. The multistory VAWT has three storeys. The first configuration had increased middle storey height, with 0–90-0 orientation of blades. Wherein the second turbine had equal storey heights. The third configuration had increased middle storey height with 0–120-240 orientation of blades. The blades were tested numerically and experimentally.

In this research work, prototypes of innovative multistory VAWT were built with different configurations and orientations. Three configurations of three-storey VAWT were fabricated by varying the height of storey of turbines. The orientations were made by keeping the storeys orthogonal to each other. Multistory VAWT was tested numerically and experimentally. ANSYS Fluent was used for computational fluid dynamic analysis of VAWT. K-epsilon model was used for numerical analysis of wind turbine. Experimentation was carried out in a wind tunnel for different tip speed ratios (TSR).

The three configurations of innovative multistory VAWT were tested numerically and experimentally for different TSR. It has been found that the VAWT with equal storey height had a better performance as compared to the other two configurations with increased middle storey height. The power coefficient of equal storey height VAWT was about 22%, wherein the power coefficient of turbines with reduced upper and lower storey height was between 5%–8%.

The research work of multi-storey VAWT is very novel and original. The findings of the research will contribute to the existing work done in the field of VAWT. This will help other researchers to have insight into the development of multistory VAWT. The effect of storey height and configuration of multi-storey VAWT is studied numerically and experimentally, which concludes that the performance of equal storey is superior as compared to other configurations.

The multi-storey concept of VAWT was developed to counter the problem of wind direction. The blades of each storey were arranged orthogonal to each other. This helped to harness wind power irrespective of the direction of the wind. This will make the VAWT more sustainable and financially viable for domestic use.

The turbines are specially designed for remotely located housed in rural areas where the power grid is not yet reached. Users can install the turbine on their rooftop and harness wind power of 100 W capacity. This will help them to make their life easy.

This research work is very original and first of a kind. The multistory concept of the wind turbine was checked for the effect of storey height and orientations of blades on its performance. Different configurations and orientations of the vertical axis were designed and developed for the first time.

The purpose of this paper is to expand the theory on multistory cultural change by showing how a dominant narrative on construction safety dynamically interrelates and is contested on multiple intertextual levels in an organizational field of organizations contributing to the recovery of houses in an earthquake region.

An ethnoventionist research approach was adopted in which interpretation of data to find narratives and designing interventions went hand-in-hand.

We found four distinctive composite narratives besides the dominant narrative to which five actors refer in their accounts, thereby contributing to three types of story patterns. These narratives disclose the taken-for-granted ideas and beliefs that characterize the challenge of changing organizational culture. One intervention, which intended multiple stories to touch the surface, was highlighted as a multistory intervention.

Further research could extend the knowledge on other change interventions that contribute to multistory cultural change processes.

Adopting an ethnoventionist approach to provide deep insights on an unfolding cultural change process for both scholars and practitioners.

This paper aims to provide an exemplary application of an indicative post-occupancy evaluation (POE) on an organizational multistorey residential apartment building.

This research comprises of mixed qualitative and quantitative approaches. The methodology commences with a review of the recent literature, identification of performance elements, conduct of walk-through, distribution and collection of users' surveys and the development of short and long-term recommendations, where an adequate sample of users were approached for conducting a focus group interview session.

The research identifies 74 performance elements that were clustered into technical, namely (thermal, acoustic and visual comforts, indoor air quality and safety and security), functional, namely (design adequacy, finishing, furnishing, fittings and equipment and building surroundings) dimensions and behavioral, namely (apartment building attributes and managerial and logistical support). The questionnaire survey aimed to solicit users' opinions upon the occupied case study residential facility.

The research identifies areas of occupants' satisfaction and dissatisfaction in a typical multistorey residential building, as a part of a community housings for a mega organization, located in Saudi Arabia. The identification of these areas serves as a lesson learned for future developments, design considerations and implications. Hence, improving the well-being and comfort of its employees.

The prevention through design (PtD) concept has been widely recognized as one of the most effective approaches to eliminate or reduce construction site hazards. It encourages engineers and architects to consider occupational safety and health during the planning and design phases. Nevertheless, the implementation of PtD is often inhibited because designers lack adequate knowledge about construction safety and the construction process, and limited design-for-safety tools and procedures are available for designers to use. The purpose of this paper is to provide designers a tool for assessing construction risks during early phases of multistory building projects at an activity level and on a daily basis in a 4D environment. By using the tool, proactive measures could be taken in the design and planning phase to reduce site hazards.

The proposed method consists of four steps including risk quantification at a design element level, 4D model integration with risk values, risk assessment, and design alternative selection and model acceptance. A case study was carried out to test and verify the proposed method.

The proposed tool has the capability to assess the safety risk for an entire multistory project and visualize safety risk in a particular time period, work space and task prior to construction. It benefits designers in conducting risk assessments and selecting design alternatives concerning safety. Contractors could also utilize the visualization and simulation results of the 4D model for site safety planning so that a range of risk mitigation strategies could be implemented during construction.

The study provides an innovative PtD tool targeting designers as primary end-users. The proposed tool helps designers assess construction risks and has potential to incorporate the top levels of the hierarchy of risk controls.

Based on the conceptual design of seismic resistance in buildings, this study aims to put forward a new construction structure energy-saving block structure with invisible multiribbed frame.

The structure is composed of energy-saving block wall panels with invisible multiribbed frames, lightweight partition wall plates and cast-in-place reinforced concrete floor slabs. The structure design is simple and the construction is convenient and fast. The comprehensive economic index of the structure is better than that of brick-and-concrete composite construction. The self-weight of the energy-saving blocks that make up the wall is only about 25% of that of solid clay bricks. The thermal insulation and energy-saving effects of the structure can meet the national energy-saving requirements of buildings.

This new structure meets the requirements of national technology and economy, wall deformation, thermal insulation and energy-saving, and can be used mainly for multistory and mid- to high-rise residential buildings. For the core components of the new structure energy-saving block and invisible multiribbed frame composite wall, as the axial compression ratio increases in the test parameters range, the peak bearing capacity and ductility of the wall increase and the initial stiffness of the wall decreases. The axial compression ratio has a significant effect on the energy dissipation capacity of the wall. The displacement ductility coefficients ν are all greater than 2, indicating the optimal seismic performance of the wall.

This structure is a new, economical, lightweight, energy-saving, seismic resistant, multistory and mid- to high-rise structure that fully conforms to national conditions.

This paper explores breakthroughs or ‘lift‐off’ moments in learning involving several teacher/researchers and their students in China. The data come from teaching and research situations centring on teaching and learning English as a foreign language (EFL). An analysis of the language features of the data and their effects explores learning by tracing movement from initial impasses to breakthrough moments, as participants interact, shift ground and discover new learning. Definition of these lift‐off moments and ways of knowing centres in a sense of discovery that pushes learning forward and simultaneously pulls together life experiences in new directions for specific pedagogical insights, self‐assessment and identity conclusions, and recognition of the power of inquiry. In particular, the paper explores the potential contribution of narrative forms of collaborative inquiry in learning, as evident in two contrasting exemplars, the first coconstructed in face‐to‐face interviews or conversational settings, and the second, thesis supervision by the distance learning one‐to‐one format of emailing. These documented interchanges between two Chinese postgraduate EFL teachers and their research coursework teacher and supervisor come from a wide data bank of exemplars collected over many years, and from linguistically diverse contexts.

This article aims to address an outstanding problem dealing with the structure and its foundation.

Differential settlement between foundation units of a multistory structure has been responsible for serious damage to buildings and often catastrophic failure and loss of life. The dynamic changes in the loading conditions of the structure, and the variability of the underlying ground due to environmental changes, are causing the undesirable differential settlement, which is manifested in the form of additional stresses in beams, columns and distortion of the structure elements. The structural response to the differential settlements depends on the type of the structure (concrete or steel), type of beam-to-column connections (rigid or semi-rigid), number of floors and the spans of the beams in the building. This paper presents the results of a numerical model, which was developed using the finite element technique and the software “ABAQUS” to analyze a nine-floor steel structure. The model was capable to capture the stresses and the strains developed in beams and columns and the relationships of moment–settlement and rotation–settlement for the structural during the differential settlement of its foundation. After validating of the model, data were produced for a wide range of governing parameters for rigid and semi-rigid connections and accordingly the mode of failure. The results can be used as a guideline for the design of steel structures.

Results are useful for those design steel structures.

This study is based on the experimental and numerical data of the authors.

This study provides a guideline for the design of steel structures.

This is the original research developed by the authors.

This study aims to explore and analyze the disparities in the distribution of housing types and characteristics among households in Saudi Arabia, taking into consideration the regional perspective.

This study uses quantitative data obtained from the General Authority for Statistics, specifically from the Saudi 2022 Statistical Census. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (percentages) as well as inferential statistics, including correlation analysis (Pearson correlation) and t-tests.

The study found a distinct preference among Saudis for villas, with 85.3% choosing this housing type, while only 14.7% of non-Saudis opted for villas. The statistical analysis confirmed the significance of housing type for Saudi citizens (t = 2.561, p = 0.037), while non-Saudis did not show a statistically significant preference (t = 1.703, p = 0.132). The Pearson correlation results revealed a moderate positive correlation (r = 0.641, p = 0.009) between regional landmass and the number of houses, and a very strong positive relationship (r = 0.984) between population and the number of houses across the 13 regions. As expected, with increasing population, there was a significant increase in the number of houses (p = 0.001).

This study fills a research gap by investigating regional disparities in housing characteristics in Saudi Arabia. The findings are valuable for policymakers, housing developers and the housing market in understanding these disparities. The insights from this research can inform decision-making to promote equitable access to housing types and foster social inclusivity in the housing sector.

Almost design code is required for repairability of the buildings after a major earthquake. One such idea is “directed-damage design” (DDD), which means guiding the damage to some pre-decided parts of the structural system. To use the DDD idea for creation of repairable buildings, in this study, a structural system with seesaw motion with respect to a central massive support has been considered for steel buildings with square plan, and the bottom ends of the all circumferential columns at the lowest story have been equipped with double-ADAS (DADAS) dampers, which dissipate a great portion of the seismic input energy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the hysteretic behavior of DADAS dampers by using finite element analysis. At first, a set of regular steel multistory buildings with five stories have been designed based on the conventional code provisions. Then, the structures of the designed buildings have been changed into the structure with seesaw motion by using, at the base level of the building, a massive central column, eliminating other middle columns, and equipping circumferential columns with DADAS dampers.

For repairability buildings in the last three mentioned studies a set of orthogonal strong girders, in the form of grid, has been used. In the present study, the number of bays in the considered building is four in both directions. A major modification has been made in the yielding-plate energy dissipating elements of the circumferential columns, which makes their manufacturing and installation much practical as illustrated in the following sections of the paper.

In the proposed rocking structural system for regular multistory steel buildings, creation of the possibility of rocking motion has been done by using a space truss resting on a huge central hinge support at base level with a series of circumferential energy dissipating columns at that level.

One such idea is DDD idea, which means guiding the damage to some pre-decided parts of the structural system.