Background: Implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM) has proven to deliver major performance improvements in Program efficiency, design quality, constructability, waste reduction, environmental performance, and capital & operational cost management of built environment projects. Yet BIM implementation in low BIM maturity markets, such as the UAE, is limited to technology applications which fail to deliver the full potential of BIM benefits to client originations. Objective: The purpose of this paper is to investigate BIM implementation from a client’s perspective and to present a case study that exhibits a level 2 BIM implementation process in a traditional procurement environment. Methods: The study has used a case study approach combined with a literature review. A critical appraisal of relevant literature is presented to highlight key issues hindering BIM implementation for client organizations, especially in developing BIM markets, such as the UAE. The research is collected using an action research approach within a case study, including project document audit, participation in project collaboration meetings and extensive communication with the project stakeholders. The case study is presented in a practice-oriented research format describing the project details, procurement approach, BIM development & management process and benefits achieved for the project client. Results: The paper presents a structured approach to strategically introduce BIM within a low BIM maturity market, creating partnering relationships, empower the supply chain partners and achieving significant BIM benefits with minimum disruption to existing work practices. The paper highlights that although BIM requires a step-change in the work practices of the construction industry, yet it is possible to successfully implement BIM with traditional procurement settings, which may be a critical feature in a certain market or a client requirement. Conclusion: There is a need for case study based, practice-oriented research work within the domain of BIM implementation. Construction clients in low maturity BIM markets are concerned about the perceived benefits of BIM and its practical implementation within existing business practices, which is addressed in this paper. Overall, the findings of this study are useful for construction industry clients and academia in redefining the existing work practices to incorporate BIM-enabled processes and applications.

Background: Low-code RC shear walls structures house a significant proportion (over 20%) of the inhabitants of Bucharest. Objective: In this research, the seismic performance of a low-code reinforced concrete shear walls structure located in various sites in Bucharest (Romania) is assessed. Methods: The seismic performance is assessed using both static and dynamic nonlinear time-history analyses, as well as detailed sectional analysis of the RC shear walls. Results: The results show that the structure has significant capacity differences in the two principal directions. Moreover, it has been observed that the maximum top displacements obtained from nonlinear time history analyses are larger in the transversal direction. Conclusion: Considering the behaviour of such structures during the 1977 Vrancea earthquake, the fact that these structures are already 40 – 50 years old and given the results of some of the analyses shown in this study, it can be concluded that immediate seismic rehabilitation measures are needed in order to correct, at least partially the structural issues of this section type.

This paper presents the stability analysis of a dike proposed to impound the river flood waters within an estuary near the west coast of south India. The proposed dike will be located within Ashtamudi Lake, the second largest lake in the state of Kerala, India, separating fresh water from brackish water. Constructing a dike at Munro Island portion of Ashtamudi, which is about 9.23 km from Arabian Sea coast, can meet the water demands of the region as well as prevent the sinking of Island during high tide. The river dike is designed to construct artificially as rock filled structures. The stratigraphy in the top 2 m consists of clayey mud underlined by fine to medium sand up to 6 m followed by alternate layers of clay and sand up the investigated depth of 15 m. In this paper, the stability of the dike located in an estuarine environment has been investigated and the factor of safety values have been determined with varying water level conditions and varying properties of the underlying soil. A detailed parametric study using RocScience software is presented, considering all the design conditions. The expected settlement of the dike is estimated considering the soil profile at the location both manually as well as using software Geo5. Both were in good agreement and the maximum possible settlement was found to be less than half a meter.

Background: The Construction Products Regulation (CPR) entered into full force in the European Union (EU) on 1 July 2013 aiming to improve the free movement of construction products. Several EU Commission Reports acknowledge as one of the main shortcomings, the less than active role of Member States in market surveillance and suggest examining and implementing methods for more efficient prioritisation and organisation of market surveillance activities. Objective: The purpose of the paper is to investigate management elements of the Market Surveillance Authorities (MSAs) for construction products in the EU. To this end, and to collect information on the current level of effectiveness of the organisational approach of the MSAs, it is imperative to collect information on the main relevant management activities of the MSAs, i.e. strategic analysis, risk assessment and performance measurement. Methods: The paper presents background information on the level of market surveillance in the EU. In order to provide further insight, a survey was carried out to collect information and views from representatives of the Member States’ MSAs of construction products participating in the EU committee “Administrative Cooperation Group for the Construction Products Regulation” (AdCo-CPR). Results: Through the findings of investigating management perspectives of the MSAs, it can be concluded that currently, market surveillance of construction products in the Member States markets is limited, and MSAs should consider implementing a quality management system to improve the effectiveness of market surveillance activities as well as to create public value. Conclusion: The findings also suggest that further investigation is needed to be related to strategy, risk and performance management of the MSAs in order to enhance performance and effectiveness.

Background: In the rapidly-developed construction industry, labor productivity has improved to a great extent, still, it is low compared with many other industries. The enhancement of labor productivity has become important that attracts much attention and focus from researchers in Vietnam and around the world. Aim: This paper focuses on key factors affecting labor productivity of construction sites in Vietnam by introducing a regression model to evaluate the extent of each factor’s impact on the labor productivity of construction workers. Methods: Ten groups of impacting factors were identified as factors relevant to construction worker, factors relevant to site operation and management, factors relevant to motivation, factors relevant to working time, factors relevant to labor working tools, factors relevant to labor working conditions, factors relevant to working safety, factors relevant to project informations, factors relevant to natural environment, and factors relevant to socio-economic conditions. Results: By referring to research results, Vietnamese construction contractors will be able to come up with workable solutions towards a better performance of construction workers. Conclusion: On that basis, the productivity of construction firms and the workers will be improved correspondingly.

Aim: This study aims to assist in planning the preliminary phases of pre-reconstruction. The pre-reconstruction phase is critically important to the success of any reconstruction effort. Background: The period of reconstruction following armed civilian conflict, military operation or natural disaster is a critical window of opportunity to bring stability and normalcy to a region. Stability not only depends on resilient infrastructure, but also on reliable political systems, a national identity, and an able population to sustain the economy and system of governance. Methods: It presents three foundational dimensions that contribute to creating and fostering a successful post-conflict or post-disaster environment: political reality awareness, cultural property protection, and capacity building. This study also presents a methodology that quantitatively assesses the specific elements that contribute to the success or failure of a planned reconstruction effort. Results: An in-depth understanding of the three dimensions of Political Reality, Cultural Property Protection, and Capacity Building is necessary to ensure a stable environment for any reconstruction operations to succeed without unpredicted obstacles. Conclusion: A systematic methodology of assessing the potential outcomes of an effort can guide planners to evaluate the appropriateness of the effort for the scenario as well as the probability of it achieving success.

Background: Reinforced concrete flat slab is used in a wide range of applications. In addition, reduction of the weight of the concrete used increases the advantages of the flat slab. Objective: The main objective of this work is to study the performance of structurally reinforced foam concrete flat slab exposed to fire under eccentric and concentric loads. Methods: The experimental specimens included eleven tested square slabs with typical dimensions of 150 mm thickness and 1750 mm total length. The column cross section was 200 × 200 mm at the center of the slab. The density of the used lightweight polystyrene foam concrete was 1820 kg/m3. The crack patterns, load-deflection curves, steel strains, deflection during the fire, reduction in deflection during cooling by air, and residual deflection after fire and cooling were investigated. Results: The experimental results showed that the cracking load and maximum load of the tested slab with foam concrete were reduced compared to those of normal concrete. Conclusion: From the analysis of the results, it was found that the fire caused a reduction in the ultimate loads in the case of tested foam concrete slabs compared to that of normal-weight concrete slab. And also, the deformation of the tested foam concrete slab during the fire was increased comparing with normal-weight concrete slab. In a theoretical study, the modification factor for calculating the maximum allowable punching force was evaluated according to the ACI-318 and BS-8110 codes, and the reduction factors of compressive strength during the fire was done.

Background The analysis of elastoplastic systems with hardening (Bouc-Wen systems) under stochastic (seismic) loads needs the evaluation of higher order statistics even in the simplest case of normal distributed input. Objective In this paper, a non-linearization technique is proposed in order to evaluate the moments of any order of the response. Method This technique is developed by means of a nonlinear class of systems whose statistics are a priori known. The parameters of such systems can be chosen in such a way that the two systems are equivalent in a wide sense. Result & Conclusion In the paper, the strategy to obtain the equivalence and the reliability of the results are discussed.

Background: In pallet rack structures, cold-formed steel (CFS) beams and columns are connected through dry joints, so beams can be easily disconnected according to changes of the rack geometric layout. Due to the great variety of connector types and member geometries, recent design codes recommend experimental tests on rack connections to assess their mechanical features. Nevertheless, tests only allow for the overall response of a joint to be evaluated, without providing information about the contribution of each component of the joint to its stiffness and strength. Objective: In this paper, a mechanical model is developed in order to provide useful information about the structural behaviour of rack beam-column connections. Methods: The proposed mechanical model is based on the application of the Component Method (CM) and it allows for the flexural resistance of steel rack connections to be analytically assessed. Analytical results are compared with experimental data from tests performed at the Structures and Materials Testing Laboratory of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Florence. Results: Results show a good agreement with experimental data, highlighting the accuracy of the proposed approach. The mechanical model allows for the weakest component of the joint and its failure mode to be evaluated, and it highlights the importance of an adequate welding between the beam-end section and the connector. Conclusion: The mechanical model provides fundamental information about the influence of structural details on the overall behavior of rack joints, it appears as a complementary method to expensive experimental tests and it can be used to improve the design of rack connections with the goal to increase their structural response.

Background:Modern seismic code design rules are known to be based on capacity design principles. They try to assure the damage to occur in the ductile parts of the structure, such as beam ends while the other have to remain in elastic range. Therefore, in the aftermath of design earthquakes, plastic deformations at member or connection level will imply high repair costs. In the last decades, innovative structural solutions based on the so-called supplementary energy dissipation strategy allow increasing the dissipative capacity of structures through equipping it with special damping devices. In the case of substitution of dissipative zones with dissipative devices the strategy takes the name of substitutive strategy. This is the case of Moment Resisting Frames investigated in this paper, where traditional dissipa-tive zones, are equipped with innovative low damage frictional devices. However, the current version of codes does not provide any rules to design of MRFs equipped with this type of friction joints.Methods:Therefore, this paper reports two design approaches amply investigated and compared. The first one is based on the application of the Beam-to-Column Hierarchy Criterion (BCHC) while the second one exploits the Theory of Plastic Mechanism Control (TPMC). The comparison between them is herein discussed on the basis of the results of nonlinear static and dynamic analyses.Conclusions:Structures equipped with low damage frictional connections show larger drift demand than conventional Moment Resisting Frames. However, differently from traditional structures, the larger displacement demand of MRFs equipped with friction joints does not corre-spond to structural damage, thus allowing the reparability of the structure.