Advance Researches in Civil Engineering
Volume:2 Issue: 1, Winter 2020

Most major construction projects in the world are based on standard contract conditions for international projects issued by the Fédération Internationale des Ingénieurs-Conseils (FIDIC, or International Federation of Consulting Engineers), which are based on concept law rooted in the common law system. Thus, the stakeholders involved in construction projects in the World need to understand the interpretation of FIDIC provisions against a background of civil law. This literature study will explore the identification of risks that occur in international projects using FIDIC contracts. A systematic review and detailed content analysis of 30 articles selected from respected academics and relevant journals published over the past three decades was carried out. The findings of risk identification are divided into 5 namely (1) Planning and Design, (2) Construction, (3) Operations & Maintenance, (4) Political Environment and (5) Social Economic. This study trying to identify, investigate, and classify the strongest factors that are considered to influence delays in construction projects. From the results of grouping identification, it is found that the greatest risk in FIDIC construction contracts is when the construction work is caused due to the complexity of the problems at the time of the construction, whether the dispute, payment or claims of work results. Recommendations from the authors would be good for the relevant stakeholders the project uses the FIDIC contract to further study the contents of the contract to help reduce or at least minimize the risk of project delays, especially during construction.

The available current research on mechanical behavior of RC structural members strengthened with CFRP material resulting from fire is presented and technically discussed in this paper. This includes design reviews, methods of application and techniques of reinforcing RC members with CFRP. Besides, the review includes the latest developed experimental, numerical, methods and formulation studies. Moreover, most of the studies agreed that there is a need to conduct more parametric numerical analysis in the field for improvement the global thermal response and flexural strength of the RC members strengthened with FRP. Based on the missing research, this review paper propose and suggest a set of very innovative design strategies and methods of application to improve the fire response of FRP laminates in case of fire, such as, (1) a combination design reinforcement technique on RC structural beam members with a combined mechanically anchored 3NSM extruded FRP design, (2) RC structural members external bonded with zigzag shaped FRP strips at the bottom and side soffits, (3) installing steel wire mesh, textile wire mesh and carbon tissues as a reinforcement material in the fire protection layer, (4) testing the fire response of using π-anchor and FRP anchor devices and new shaped memory alloy material in RC structural members strengthened with FRP, (5) u-shaped steel anchorage plate installed in the mid-span of the RC FRP beam, (6) suggesting installing L-shaped steel plate as a form of anchorage tool to support the bottom and the vertical soffits of the extruded FRP and (7) fire response of RC beams strengthened with FRP laminates using 3 different pre-fabricated types of extruded FRP laminates. The aim of this paper is to contribute for a more effective research on this field, leading to a future wide use of this technique in safer RC structures to fire events.

We used two synthetic aperture radar (SAR) datasets with different resolution to monitor the Kermanshah earthquake displacements and the buildings in Sarpole-Zahab town. We have obtained two high resolution dual-polarized (HH and HV) ALOS-2 images in strip map (SM) mode and three dual-polarized (VV and VH) Sentinel-1 images in interferometric wide (IW) mode from ascending orbits. The incidence angle of ALOS-2 and Sentinel-1 datasets were 36.2° and 38.9°, respectively. Temporal baseline of ALOS-2 dataset is 42 days, whereas pre-event and co-seismic temporal baselines of Sentinel-1 dataset are 13 and 18 days, respectively. Human activities after disasters increase and deteriorate the damage proxy maps which sometimes make the damage proxy maps meaningless. Thus, we need post-event images with shortest gaps with the event. Since the revisit cycle of ALOS-2 is rather large, we only use two ALOS-2 images to calculate ground displacement

The aim of this study is to investigate the mutual effect of geometrical properties of steel shear walls on their performance. This study was numerically performed using ABAQUS finite element software for simulation. In this study the effect of the diameter of the openings to the steel shear wall height ratio and the hardeners angles have been studied nonlinearly. The results show that as a result of the opening of the sheet, the shear resistance decreases proportionally to the decrease in its cross-sectional plane, but on the other hand, it increases the steel plate shear wall ductility and the 8% diameter is the largest diameter of opening which has a good effect on shear wall performance and the presence of reinforcing elements such as hardener increases the hardness of the steel shear wall and in this case it shows that using cross hardeners has the most effect in absorbing the energy of steel shear wall.

Widely distributed 111 series, 10 story R.C. frame buildings are constructed during former soviet union in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh province. In current research we illustrate the concept of seismic upgrading of above mentioned buildings, using an Additional Isolated Upper Floor (AIUF). For this purpose, a three dimensional of 111-c R.C. frame building is modeled and analyzed according to Armenian SNIP II-6.02 code, based on 3 soil categories of Rock (Vs>800m/s), Dense Soil (500<Vs<800m/s) and Loose Soil (150<Vs<500m/s) respectively and spectral acceleration level of Sa=0.40g. Later, the AIUF which behaves as a Tuned Mass Damper is added to the model and after tuning for the frequency and damping ratios, Modal Pushover Analysis is carried out on both preliminary and secondary structural models. Finally by the means of FEMA356 guideline, Capacity Spectrum and Performance Point characteristics due to related soil categories are computed for each model, using Armenian SNIP II-6.02 pseudo-acceleration spectrums. The final analysis results show a constant base shear forces with variable displacements during soil degradation, when using Additional Isolated Upper Floor.

On April 5, 2017, an earthquake with moment magnitude of 6.1 occurred Sefid-Sang area about 80 km southeast of Mashhad city in Khorasan-e-Razavi province. In this study, to estimate source parameters and rupture characteristics of the earthquake, the Empirical Green Function (EGF) method and the stochastic finite-fault (SFF) technique were used for strong ground motion simulation. Then the observed records and the simulated graphs by these two methods, were compared. To simulate the earthquake by EGF method, an aftershock with moment magnitude of 4.8 was used as the empirical Green function. The size of the main fault caused by the event was about 10 km in length and 8 km in width. The duration of the rupture in this event was about 18 seconds. The estimated fault plane solution shows reverse mechanism with strike-slip component. Strike, dip and rake of causative fault of the earthquake were determined as 311, 55 and 117 degrees. In addition, the stress drop in this event was calculated to be about 8 bars.