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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.

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.

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.

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.

Aims to propose a new dynamic model for the solution of the three‐dimensional structural analysis problem of a non‐linear (non‐symmetrical) structure which is subjected under seismic forces.

This problem is reduced to the solution of a system of ordinary differential equations of the second kind and such a system is numerically solved by using a special kind of finite elements and by solving the corresponding eigenvalues‐eigenvectors problem.

The proposed finite element method is much smaller in degree of freedom size than commercial software, as classical linear stiffness matrices of three‐dimensional beam element have six degrees of freedom per node.

Future research should concentrate on the application of the new dynamic model to solve more complicated forms of non‐symmetrical structures.

Practical implications are given to structural analysis problems to the determination of the eigenvalues‐eigenvectors. As an example, an application is given to the determination of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a 15‐floor building consisting of reinforced concrete and subjected to an horizontal seismic vibration.

The new dynamic model which is proposed is addressed to researchers of dynamic analysis and civil engineers.

The purpose of this research is to conduct a comparative analysis of the views of architects and urban designers in the West and the Middle East on whether the COVID-19 pandemic could affect architecture and urban design shortly and what is the future of our home design? A further purpose was to explore and explain how the pandemic will change the future of architecture and urban design by reviewing, analyzing and synthesizing different and related viewpoints to create a grounded theory, hoping to provide some insight for the entire world.

Different research methods were used to achieve the research purposes including grounded theory, desk reviews, reviewing the limited existing literature and semi-structured interviews.

This research found that most surveyed architects believed that the COVID-19 pandemic would affect the future of architecture and urban design and help to create new design features. Future concentration will be in living, working, learning, leisure and teaching spaces. All future designs should be independent, self-sufficient in terms of power and water usage and using nonrenewable energy sources. The home design should focus on the interior design, transparency, open to the inside (introverted spaces), quality of life, natural daylighting and ventilation, healthy indoor air quality, use of plants and natural materials, green roof, the relationships between indoor and outdoor spaces and quality of building materials. Additionally, transitional space is an important primary entry point to the home. Moreover, folding furniture may be a solution to enlarge the room when needed and turn it into multifunctional spaces. The home office will no longer be a small desk, chair and lamp located at the small corner anywhere. The future home office should be equipped with all the necessary technology. The open-plan design trend and the concept of flow space will not exist anymore. The pandemic will encourage the use of touchless and smart technologies in design and construction. There is a need to separate heating and ventilation systems in detached houses and multistory buildings to avoid infectious diseases. Social norms have changed over a few weeks of social distancing. Therefore, we can change the system of negative habits, old traditions and society’s bad behaviors.

This research raises many proactive ideas, and the results are relevant to all actors in the construction sector, as it contains findings of understanding how the interaction of people with the built external or internal environment evolved during the pandemic process. In this sense, it will provide socio and economic benefits for the society in terms of seeking an answer to the question of “how should we design” for possible new bad scenarios to evolve the spaces in the “lockdown” situation. This research discusses how to make our homes comfortable and ready for an extraordinary time, suggested a practical design solution based on construction technologies.

This research links theory to practice, and it facilitates the adaptation to the current situation. It has a high impact on society, as it guides designers to rethink spaces that can help occupants face the COVID-19 pandemic challenges. Therefore, it should create and implement architectural design guidelines for health and safety. The architects should think about how to create and organize multifunctional, flexible, aesthetical, healthy and clean spaces under the new roles of interaction and social distancing. Architects should incorporate technological and innovations from different fields to organize spaces, promote public health and enhance the quality of life.

Architecture and urban design suddenly become medical, and we can use the built environment as a way to control epidemic spread. Additionally, and by reviewing the literature, there is no published qualitative research that has been explored on how the COVID-19 pandemic will change the future of architecture and urban design, but there are some personal viewpoints and short interviews. This topic is a new growing concern and becoming a top social topic and priority for policymaking in the world. The topic is important in terms of design input for designers to create new living spaces, as it includes the views and observations of architects from the east and west to the pandemic process. We have all been encouraged to reimagine the space in which we live, how the place fits our needs, how we use it and enjoy it during the pandemic. Therefore, this paper appeals to an international readership by linking the COVID-19 situation to architectural design.

This study examined data from 13 international tall residential timber building case studies to increase our understanding of the emerging global trends.

Data were collected through literature surveys and case studies to examine the architectural, structural and constructional points of view to contribute to knowledge about the increasing high-rise timber constructions globally.

The main findings of this study indicated that: (1) central cores were the most preferred type 10 of core arrangements; (2) frequent use of prismatic forms with rectilinear plans and regular extrusions were identified; (3) the floor-to-floor heights range between 2.81 and 3.30 m with an average of 3 m; (4) the dominance of massive timber use over hybrid construction was observed; (5) the most used structural system was the shear wall system; (6) generally, fire resistance in primary and secondary structural elements exceeded the minimum values specified in the building codes; (7) the reference sound insulation values used for airborne and impact sounds had an average of 50 and 56 dB, respectively.

There is no study in the literature that comprehensively examines the main architectural and structural design considerations of contemporary tall residential timber buildings.