Seismic Evaluation Methods for Fire Protection Sprinkler Piping Systems in Buildings

An improved design and simplified evaluation technique for waveguide microcalorimeter is presented in this paper. The design is based on a traditional twin-line microcalorimeter for calibrating thermistor mounts but with a proposed novel modification. In the improved design, another thermistor is added to measure the temperature change of the thermal isolation waveguide section. A simplified evaluation method is also proposed to minimize the S-parameter measurements for obtaining the effective efficiency of the mount. The measurement model and its detailed derivation are discussed. The capability of the improved design and proposed evaluation technique has been assessed through a recent consultative committee for electricity and magnetism key comparison.

Experimental study of seismic performance of base-isolated frames with U-shaped hysteretic energy-dissipating devices

Health facilities have complex morphologies with high concentrated energy requirements, therefore, solar power generation integrated in such buildings can be a significant contribution, but its proper implementation requires relating volumetric, demands and technologies. Methods used today to determine solar installations usually do not involve architectural, energy and economic aspects in a single process, which reduces the chances of the designer or consultant to address the implementation in an efficient manner, both in existing buildings, and in the early stages of design. This paper reviews currently suggested procedures to install solar equipment, identifying missing analysis, in order to present a comprehensive methodology in the hospitalization unit of the Hospital Clinico del Sur, Concepcion, Chile. This process allowed to detect potentials of the envelope, and to evaluate three combined distributions of thermal and photovoltaic equipment on roof deck; determining an alternative with 131 thermal panels and 196 photovoltaic panels that can satisfy up to 70% of the domestic hot water supply and 91% of lighting, recovering the initial investment at 7.8 years. All of which determines a more complete analysis of the solar implementation, incorporating an assessment of the energy performance, collecting surfaces, technical feasibility and economic evaluation that can contribute substantially in the functional needs, and suggest volumes and systems in new hospital buildings with greater active solar possibilities.

Seismic performance of prefabricated sheathed cold-formed thin-walled steel buildings: Shake table test and numerical analyses

The Shanghai Tower is a newly built 127-story and 632 m high super tall building. As of April 2017, it was ranked as the second tallest building in the world. Its main structural system is a mega-frame-tube-outrigger system with six outrigger trusses along the height. Due to its unique structural configuration, a series of field and laboratory model tests have been conducted to better understand its dynamic characteristics. Before its construction, a scaled model of the tower was tested on a shake table, and the results were used to refine the design of the tower. At the completion of the construction, full-scale ambient vibration tests were performed. A Bayesian method was used to perform operational modal analysis from the shake table and full-scale ambient vibration tests. The most probable value of the modal parameters and the associated posterior uncertainties were calculated using this method. The first eight modes were identified, including three translational modes in each principal direction and two torsional modes. Using these results, the dynamic characteristics and associated uncertainties obtained from the two tests were investigated and compared in this paper. Due to the scaling of the model, there are some discrepancies between the natural frequencies obtained from two different tests, but the identified mode shapes matched very well. Although the structure was designed in a very innovative manner, its dynamic characteristics are similar to regular tall buildings. The results from this investigation provide valuable information for an ongoing condition assessment of this super tall building.

This paper describes the design and installation of a fire-fighting system in a high-rise building, the SAMA Residential Tower in Palestine. A sprinkler system, a standpipe system, a fire hose cabinet, a landing valve, externally accessible fire hydrants, and a Siamese connection are all included in this system. Additionally, it complies with NFPA 13, 14, and 20 codes, as well as those of the Palestinian and Jordanian governments. Hydraulic calculations were performed manually and confirmed using Elite Fire Protection software. The layouts were developed using AutoCAD, and 3D modeling was created in Revit to optimize the placement of components. All zones of the building will be protected by this integrated approach, which ensures reliable flow, sufficient pressure, and code compliance. In the application of an integrated design workflow, the coordination between fire protection components was improved, design errors were reduced, and implementation accuracy was enhanced. As a result of systematic validation between manual hydraulic calculations and software outputs, pressure and flow assurance was also more reliable. As a result, there was a clear increase in efficiency and performance for high-rise firefighting systems.

The several phenomena involved in theoretical prediction of the far-field sound radiation attenuation from an acoustically lined duct were studied. These include absorption by the suppressor, termination reflections, and far-field radiation. Extensive parametric studies show that the suppressor absorption performance can be correlated with mode cut-off ratio or angle of propagation. The other phenomena can be shown to depend explicitly upon mode cut-off ratio. A complete system can thus be generated which can be used to evaluate aircraft sound suppressors and which can be related to the sound source through the cut-off ratio-acoustic power distribution. Although the method is most fully developed for inlet suppressors, several aft radiated noise phenomena are also discussed. This simplified suppressor design and evaluation method is summarized, the recent improvements in the technique are presented, and areas where further refinement is necessary are discussed. Noise suppressor data from engine experiments are compared with the theoretical calculations.

既往の研究において,石油系炭化水素の土壌汚染評価手法の開発を目的として,ガソリン等の主成分であるアルカン類の発光バクテリアに及ぼす急性毒性影響が評価された。一方,アルカン類は微生物分解によりアルコール類を生成することが知られている。そこで,本研究では,アルコール類の発光バクテリアに及ぼす急性毒性影響について調べるとともに,生成したアルコール類共存下でのアルカン類の土壌汚染評価に及ぼす影響について検討を行った。アルコール濃度100 vol%の検液の急性毒性影響の強さは,メタノール<エタノール<2-メチル-1-プロパノール<2-プロパノール<1-プロパノール<2-メチル-2-プロパノール<1-ブタノール≒2-ブタノールであった。この結果は,発光バクテリアに及ぼす急性毒性影響は,直鎖アルコールでは炭素数が高いほど強く,また分岐型よりも直鎖型のアルコールの方が強いことを示している。一方,本研究で試験されたアルコール類は低濃度(検液中の濃度で1 vol%)の場合,発光バクテリアに対して急性毒性影響を及ぼさないことが示された。本研究の結果から,汚染土壌から石油系炭化水素を抽出する溶媒としてメタノールを使用する本手法においては,汚染土壌中にアルコール類が低濃度で存在していたとしても,アルカン類など石油系炭化水素の土壌汚染評価に影響を与えないと考えられる。

See related article, pp 691–696 The golden standard for prehypertension and hypertension in childhood is based on sex-, age-, and height-specific 90th (or ≥120/80 mm Hg) and 95th percentiles of blood pressure (BP), respectively.1 This reflects the current setting that hypertension definitions in childhood are driven by statistical methods, not by outcome variables. Unfortunately, this golden standard results in 476 sex-, age-, and height-specific cutoffs to assess the 95th percentile of systolic or diastolic BP in children between 1 and 17 years. Consequently, this multivariate approach results in a complex and cumbersome decision process up to the level that diagnoses are commonly not made or result in inaccurate qualification.2 To further illustrate this, the diagnosis of (pre)hypertension was only mentioned in 26% of 507 (pre)hypertension children or adolescents in the medical file in the Hansen study.2 Specific characteristics like the age, height, obesity-related diagnoses, and the magnitude and number of abnormal BP readings improved the odds that the diagnosis was mentioned in the electronic medical file.2 Because of this and similar observations, it is reasonable to search for strategies to improve correct diagnosis and recognition. The development of easier tools to diagnose (pre)-hypertension by simplified thresholds is one of these strategies. In this issue of the journal, Xi et al3 reported on a prediction analysis of adult hypertension and subclinical cardiovascular outcomes (carotid intima–media thickness, pulse wave velocity, left ventricular mass, at the age of 26–48 years) from the Bogalusa Heart Study and, hereby, compared the golden standard percentile approach to a simplified approach. This simplified approach applied age-based thresholds for prehypertension …

In order to evaluate applicability and validity of Reference Stress Method (RSM) to actual component, comparisons of J-integral obtained from RSM with experiment were carried out. Load-controlled fatigue and creep-fatigue tests were carried out to obtain experimental J-integral in a previous report. The perforated plate made of SUS304 was employed as a specimen, and the experiments were carried out at 550℃ in the air. The reference stresses were calculated by using FEM and net sectional stress. As a result, it was shown that RSM can estimate J-integral accurately when crack length was small. However under creep-fatigue condition, fatigue J-integral range evaluated by RSM was excessively compared with experimental results because of variation of material properties affected by creep.

ObjectivesTo trial a simplified, time and cost-saving method for remote evaluation of fellowship applications and compare this with existing panel review processes by analysing concordance between funding decisions, and the...

In this paper, creep-fatigue behavior of Hastelloy XR, candidate material for High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR), was clarified based on experimental data of uniaxial round bar specimen and perforated plate at 950℃. Applicability of creep-fatigue life evaluation methods for these data was also examined. In the strain-controlled uniaxial creep-fatigue tests with hold time up to 30 min, rapid relaxation due to creep was observed. The stress after relaxation during hold time was almost within 20% of the initial stress. In the creep-fatigue tests of perforated plate on the basis nominal-strain control, stress relaxation during hold time was slower than that in uniaxial tests, due to the effect of elastic-follow-up behavior. The life reduction of perforated plate was about 1/5, larger reduction when compared with that in the uniaxial tests. In the uniaxial tests, predicted lives on the basis of the linear damage rule of fatigue and creep were almost within a factor of 3 of experimental life, for both cases of time-fraction and ductility exhaustion rules for creep damage. In the perforated plate test, predicted lives, on the basis of the detailed inelastic analysis were also within a factor of 3 of experimental life. An applicability of a simplified creep-fatigue life evaluation method based on elastic analysis to the perforated plate was discussed.

As petroleum-based fuels such as gasoline are themselves mixtures of many types of petroleum hydrocarbons, evaluating soil pollution with gasoline using luminous bacteria, is almost synonymous with evaluating combined toxicity of different types of petroleum hydrocarbons (such as n-alkanes). Acute toxicity test using luminous bacteria was performed on mixtures of two-component and threecomponent alkanes in which n-alkanes having 5 to 12 carbon atoms were arbitrarily combined. The obtained test results were evaluated for the combined toxicity effects using the acute toxicity data of alkane single component obtained in the previous study. From the comparison of the measured combined toxicity value and the combined toxicity value calculated using the single toxicity value of individual alkanes at the reaction time of 60 minutes, applying a square root sum of squares formula was clarified to be more reproducible than doing a simple additive formula. Additionally, a good correlation was found between the logarithmic value of the combined toxicity value based on the 50％ effect concentration and the measured combined toxicity value obtained at the reaction time of 60 minutes.

To evaluate quantitatively the performance of cushioning materials, a cushion curve is indispensable. However, the desired cushioning effect may sometimes be absent when we use the cushion curve to design a transport package. In addition, to plot the cushion curve, massive dynamic compression tests are traditionally necessary. Thus, large amounts of labor and material resources are required. Therefore, we used expanded polyethylene and laminated-board cushion as test materials to represent typical cushioning materials, and proposed simplified performance evaluation methods based on certain dynamic compression tests. An analysis of the experimental results showed that to obtain a more accurate packaging design, the shearing effect must be taken into account when using the cushion curve; For both plastic and paper cushions, new proposed performance evaluation methods significantly reduce the number of dynamic compression tests needed to accurately evaluate an actual packaging design.

Structural integrity of the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) is one of the main considerations regarding safety and lifetime of Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) since this component is considered as not reasonably replaceable. Brittle fracture risk associated with the embrittlement of RPV steel in irradiated areas is the main potential damage. In France, deterministic integrity assessment for RPV is based on the crack initiation stage. The stability of an under-clad postulated flaw in the core area is currently evaluated under a Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS) through a fracture mechanics simplified method. One of the axes of EDF’s implemented strategy for NPP lifetime extension is the improvement of the deterministic approach with regards to the input data and methods so as to reduce conservatisms. In this context, 3D finite element elastic-plastic calculations with flaw modelling have been carried out recently in order to quantify the enhancement provided by a more realistic approach in the most severe events. The aim of this paper is to present both simplified and 3D modelling flaw stability evaluation methods and the results obtained by running a small break LOCA event.