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Buildings, Volume 10, Issue 11

2020 November - 23 articles

Cover Story: A new semi-probabilistic methodology for the definition of energy fragility curves suitable for a macro-classification of building stock inspired and coupled with the seismic fragility curves is proposed. The approach is applied to reinforced concrete residential buildings of the Italian stock. Buildings were classified, modeled and simulated and fragility curves built. By focusing on the interactions between structural and energetic criticalities, it is shown how these curves can be useful for decision-makers to identify priorities and thus improve seismic safety and energy quality. Non-integrated approaches resulted in higher investments and lower efficiency. View this paper
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Articles (23)

  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
4,332 Views
20 Pages

23 November 2020

While continuous reinforced concrete deep beams with fixed and hinged support conditions are every so often found in structures, little research has focused on their performance. This, in part, can be attributed to the demanding nature of ensuring fi...

  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
4,366 Views
17 Pages

Enhanced Seismic Retrofit of a Reinforced Concrete Building of Architectural Interest

  • Gloria Terenzi,
  • Elena Fuso,
  • Stefano Sorace and
  • Iacopo Costoli

21 November 2020

Modern heritage buildings designed in the 1950s and 1960s often feature poor seismic performance capacities and may require significant retrofit interventions. A representative case study in Florence, i.e., the edifice housing the Automobile Club Hea...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
4,654 Views
16 Pages

20 November 2020

The seismic assessment of existing school buildings is an important issue in earthquake prone regions; such is the case of the Algarve, which is the southern region of Portugal mainland. Having this problem in mind, the PERSISTAH project (Projetos de...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
3,415 Views
16 Pages

The Role of Façades in Solar Energy Utilization

  • Valéria V. Horn,
  • Annamária Dudás and
  • Anita Terjék

19 November 2020

During the summer, the environmental impact of building operations can be reduced by optimizing ventilation and preventing heat from entering the building. Shades are used to create a comfortable temperature state in interiors without operating mecha...

  • Article
  • Open Access
12 Citations
10,947 Views
24 Pages

18 November 2020

Trapezoidal-shaped thin-walled metallic profiled sheets are used in composite floor construction to enable rapid construction and reduce reinforcement and formwork requirements in concrete casting. However, relevant literature reported the early fail...

  • Article
  • Open Access
11 Citations
3,778 Views
17 Pages

A Construct Validation Approach for Exploring Sustainability Adoption in Pakistani Construction Projects

  • Mehfooz Ullah,
  • Muhammad Waris Ali Khan,
  • Ammar Hussain,
  • Faisal Rana and
  • Asadullah Khan

18 November 2020

Sustainable Project Management (SPM) is a novel theme in construction industries of developing countries and very little is known (so far) about the sustainability performance of construction projects in those settings. Accordingly, the quantitative...

  • Article
  • Open Access
23 Citations
6,389 Views
19 Pages

17 November 2020

In countries with high heating demand, waste heat from industrial processes should be carefully utilized in buildings. Finland already has an extensive district heating grid and large amounts of combined heat and power generation. However, despite th...

  • Article
  • Open Access
19 Citations
6,981 Views
27 Pages

17 November 2020

Windows account for a significant proportion of the total energy lost in buildings. The interaction of window type, Window-to-Wall Ratio (WWR) scheduled and window placement height influence natural lighting and heat transfer through windows. This is...

  • Review
  • Open Access
310 Citations
33,062 Views
29 Pages

13 November 2020

Off-site construction (OSC) is known as an efficient construction method that could save time and cost, reduce waste of resources, and improve the overall productivity of projects. Coupled with digital technologies associated with the Industry 4.0 co...

  • Article
  • Open Access
11 Citations
3,876 Views
15 Pages

8 November 2020

This study is devoted to experimentally investigate the seismic behaviour of reinforced concrete (RC) wide beam–column joints equipped with a steel jacketing seismic strengthening solution. To this end, three identical full-scale specimens have been...

  • Article
  • Open Access
23 Citations
3,651 Views
27 Pages

Effects of Dissipative Systems on the Seismic Behavior of Irregular Buildings—Two Case Studies

  • Marco Miani,
  • Caterina Di Marco,
  • Giada Frappa and
  • Margherita Pauletta

7 November 2020

Conservation of heritage buildings has become a very important issue in many countries, as it is in Italy, where a great number of existing buildings of historical–artistic importance are seismically vulnerable. To improve existing building beh...

  • Article
  • Open Access
50 Citations
13,303 Views
17 Pages

4 November 2020

The use of generative design has been suggested to be a novel approach that allows designers to take advantage of computers’ computational capabilities in the exploration of design alternatives. However, the field is still sparsely explored. Therefor...

  • Article
  • Open Access
14 Citations
3,932 Views
16 Pages

Methodology for Continuous Improvement Projects in Housing Constructions

  • Patricia del Solar Serrano,
  • Mercedes del Río Merino and
  • Paola Villoria Sáez

3 November 2020

Several authors have studied construction defects, but no studies were found implementing best practices and control strategies through the implementation of continuous improvement projects. This article shows a procedure based on Continuous Improvem...

  • Article
  • Open Access
29 Citations
5,125 Views
26 Pages

3 November 2020

Improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings by implementing building automation control strategies (BACS) besides building envelope and energy system retrofitting has been recommended by the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD)...

  • Article
  • Open Access
25 Citations
5,131 Views
14 Pages

2 November 2020

With the constant expansion of the building sector as a major energy consumer in the modern world, the significance of energy-efficient building systems cannot be more emphasized. Most of the buildings are now equipped with an electric dashboard to r...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
7,816 Views
20 Pages

On the Distribution in Height of Base Shear Forces in Linear Static Analysis of Base-Isolated Structures

  • Adamo Zinco,
  • Fernando Fraternali,
  • Gianmario Benzoni and
  • Enzo Martinelli

1 November 2020

Although base isolation is nowadays a well-established seismic-protection technique for both buildings and bridges, and several issues are still open and attract the interest of the research community. Among them, the formulation of computationally e...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
11 Citations
4,300 Views
21 Pages

Multiscale Numerical Analysis of TRM-Reinforced Masonry under Diagonal Compression Tests

  • Pietro Gulinelli,
  • Alessandra Aprile,
  • Raffaella Rizzoni,
  • Yves-Henri Grunevald and
  • Frédéric Lebon

31 October 2020

The present paper reports an experimental study coupled with a numerical modelling approach to simulate masonry walls strengthened with textile-reinforced mortar (TRM). This innovative reinforcing technique is based on high-strength fibre grids embed...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
3,643 Views
13 Pages

29 October 2020

Optimizing the operating conditions and control set points of the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system in a building is one of the most effective ways to save energy and improve the building’s energy performance. Here, we op...

  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
3,807 Views
27 Pages

A Novel Contribution for Resilient Buildings. Theoretical Fragility Curves: Interaction between Energy and Structural Behavior for Reinforced Concrete Buildings

  • Alessandra De Angelis,
  • Fabrizio Ascione,
  • Rosa Francesca De Masi,
  • Maria Rosaria Pecce and
  • Giuseppe Peter Vanoli

27 October 2020

The paper introduces a new semi-probabilistic methodology for the definition of energy fragility curves suitable for a macro-classification of building stock inspired to and coupled with the widely adopted method of seismic fragility curves. The appr...

  • Review
  • Open Access
45 Citations
7,445 Views
23 Pages

A Critical Appraisal of PV-Systems’ Performance

  • Zainab Usman,
  • Joseph Tah,
  • Henry Abanda and
  • Charles Nche

23 October 2020

Climate change and global warming have triggered a global increase in the use of renewable energy for various purposes. In recent years, the photovoltaic (PV)-system has become one of the most popular renewable energy technologies that captures solar...

  • Article
  • Open Access
14 Citations
4,072 Views
14 Pages

23 October 2020

The 21st century abounds in modern electronic-information technologies, which are applied in many areas of life. Amongst many modern technologies there is also the Internet of Things (IoT) that is the concept of incorporating objects and devices equi...

  • Article
  • Open Access
17 Citations
6,611 Views
17 Pages

22 October 2020

Clay brick is a commonly used building material in China. Due to the enormous land destruction and excessive consumption of resources, such as materials and energy in the manufacture of clay brick, it is important to study its overall sustainability,...

  • Article
  • Open Access
17 Citations
8,272 Views
12 Pages

22 October 2020

Volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from indoor sources are large determinants of the indoor air quality (IAQ) and occupant health. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a panelized engineered wood product often left exposed as an interior surface fi...

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Buildings - ISSN 2075-5309