Sustainable buildings reflect the interest rising of Urbanism sectors in issues of economic development, optimal utilization of natural resources and greater reliance on "renewable" sources of energy. The objective of the research is to identify and Diagnosis the priority of alternatives to sustainable projects with the of relative importance and to review the value engineering indicators in building and the possibility of applying sustainable building standards such as British Standards (BREEAM), US Standards (LEED), Pearl Rating System and Green Pyramid Assessment System. The research is based on four axes. The first axis is the foundations of architectural design to serve the optimum use of the available resources. The second axis is based on the methods of producing building materials with optimum use of natural resources; Third axis: The sustainable use of the building to achieve conservation of the environment using economical sources of energy, waste recycling and maintenance of the building according to the required specifications. The fourth axis, which means Using renewable energies to provide the building with the energy it needs. The literature and researches in the field of research work were reviewed, which included the concept of applying value engineering method in the sustainable buildings and the most important areas of their applications during the stages of completion of the project and what are the basic considerations that should be provided in the construction projects, Which represents the practical aspect in relation to the various stages of the field study, which includes aspects related to the field survey, through the preparation and Configure of questionnaires derived from the theoretical study and interviews and also focused on the indicators and areas of applications during the stages of the project (pre-construction stage, implementation stage, A maintenance and operation, post-construction phase (end of the age of the building) and what are the basic considerations that must be provided in the construction projects. The research provided this results: The Sustainable Buildings Projects location Selection Index is The most important indicators of value engineering for sustainable buildings where relative importance of it is 72%, according to the respondents' answers, conversely the architectural index, with its relative importance of 55%, while the electromechanical index was 68% and the constructional index by 65%. And the development of a waste management program during the process of construction and operation so that this program achieves the minimum recycling and the use of new alternatives to building materials drawing on what has been developed within other areas in the development of the construction industry.
The goal of this study is to determine the impact of ground motion recordings (GMs) selection on the seismic performance evaluation of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. From three GMs in ASCE7-10 to eleven GMs in ASCE7-16, the ASCE7 has upgraded the minimum GMs utilized in seismic analysis, When the GMs are used to evaluate an existing structure, the earthquake load may under or overestimate the structure's capacity. The case study is an existing RC building, dual system, and unsymmetric in-plane and height. Because of these asymmetries, the Non-linear Time History Analysis (NTHA) is the most accurate method. It is performed for 30 GMs in directions X and Y. The GMs were chosen and scaled to meet the Basrah city response spectrum curve (RSC), which is based on the existing Iraqi seismic code. The study parameters that were investigated are included story implication ratio, torsional irregularity index, floor rotation angle, and plastic hinge formation. These parameters are investigated in three cases. The selection of GMs for Case 1 and 2 are based on the ASCE7-10 while Case 3 is based on ASCE7-16. The comparison between cases is shown a considerable difference in structural response could lead to various retrofitting decisions. The findings revealed that existing RC buildings constructed in accordance with ASCE7-10, particularly medium and high-rise structures, should be re-evaluated
Brick as a construction material can be considered one of the most common materials used for a very long time to construct buildings in iraq. The historic building represents one of the most important figures representing the rich history of iraq, which is built with bricks. Due to the aging of this type of building, a necessary improvement and retrofit need to occur. The paper investigates the ability to use different kinds of materials such as cfrp and srg to enhance the brick columns' structural capacity. From the results and discussions, it can be concluded that these materials are suitable to be used for this purpose with some limitations due to brick capacity itself.
ABSTRACT:The gypseous soils are distributed in many regions in Iraq and other countries. Therefore, it is necessary to study the behavior of such soils due to the large damages that affects the structures founded and constructed in or on it.This research is concerned with studying the effect of leaching soil process on the stability of an embankment erected on foundation gypseous soil. The finite element method is adopted in this research. The analyses carried out using a nonlinear, increment, and stress-dependent finite element computer program. The hyperbolic stress-strain parameters used in the finite element analyses are estimated by the data collected from triaxial compression tests of some researchers. The analysis of the embankment problem carried out, shows that the leaching process for foundation gypseous soil increases the displacements and deformations of the embankment and its foundation. Finally, this research necessitate the success using of the finite element method in design and analyses of the important structures and buildings erected on gypseous soils that may expose to the effect of leaching process. This means that there is possibility to predicate the behavior of structure by a powerful means to establish the suitable solutions for any problems that may be occurred as a result of the present gypseous soil.
The difficulty that faces the geotechnical engineers how to find the alternative and effective method to improve bearing capacity and reduce foundation settlement. Therefore, the skirt is considered one of the methods to improving the shallow foundation bearing capacity on different soil. The mechanism of skirt work is confinement soil below the foundation and decrease settlement of the foundation. Soil engineers are worked to devise this method as an alternative to pile foundation for conventional buildings. This paper reviews most of these studies of skirted foundations with different types of soil including laboratory tests, field tests, centrifuge models, numerical method and theoretical analysis; these studies are used in investigation the behaviors skirted foundations.
Construction delays are common problems in civil engineering projects in Arab countries. Because of the importance of this problem, the study reviewed many studies that dealt with the topic of delay in the construction projects of their countries.The study included the delay in projects in Iraq. Jorden, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Yemen, Egypt, Sudan, Algeria and Morocco. The projects included infrastructure facilities, public buildings, housing complexes, water treatment plants, sports facilities, water supply, roads. Quantitative method via a structured questionnaire was implemented in all these studies, the questionnaires were distributed to experienced project parties such as the owner, contractor, consultant and other parties. The relative importance method was used to analyze the results of the questionnaire to obtain the highest ten or five factors with the highest rank which cause delay. The results showed that the groups of contractor and owner has the highest percentage and were repeated several times compared to the rest of the groups.The top five factors causing delay of construction projects in Arab countries are, problems of cash flow and financial by owner, difficulties in financing the project by the contractor, Poor site management and supervision of the contractor, selecting the contractor who has the lowest bid and ineffective planning and scheduling by contractors
Composite beams, made up of a concrete slab and steel in the IPE steel section, are commonly used in bridges and buildings. Their main function is to enhance structural efficiency by merging the compressive strength of concrete with the tensile resistance of steel, thereby improving overall stiffness, ductility, and load-bearing capacity. This study offers an extensive review of the flexural behavior of steel-concrete composite beams, focusing on the interplay of concrete strength, shear connector types, and interaction levels in determining structural performance. It integrates experimental and numerical research to analyze critical parameters, including load-deflection behavior, shear transfer efficiency, and crack propagation at the steel-concrete interface. The study emphasizes the effect of concrete compressive strength, particularly in ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) and lightweight concrete, on stiffness, ductility, and load-bearing capacity while reducing self-weight and enhancing sustainability. The study revealed that fully bonded shear connectors, using CFRP sheets and welded plates, enhance flexural capacity and stiffness. In contrast, partial bonding or pre-debonding reduces performance due to crack propagation. Indented and hot-rolled U-section connectors enhance interaction and minimize slip, while uniform distribution of shear connectors optimizes load capacity and stiffness. Lightweight concrete decreases slab weight without compromising performance, and high-performance materials such as ECC, SFRC, and UHPFRC improve strength and ductility. Numerical modeling, particularly finite element methods, and higher-order beam theories validate experimental results, providing accurate tools for predicting structural behavior under various loading and environmental conditions.
The objective of this paper is reduced the electrical energy which used in air-condition system by replaced the common roofing system by the another which more suitable for hot climate area. The researcher was build (1x1x3)m sample room at 3rd floor in building at Baghdad city (33.2 °N) for 200mm polystiran thermal insulation for other room surfaces and air-conditioner of 0.5 Ton of refrigeration capacity is used to maintain the standard thermal comfort, the roof thermal behavior study for 15 hr/day, at day 21 from five each months (Jan, March, June, July & September). It was found the suggested roofing system reduced the dead load by 300kg/m2 and the electrical energy which used in air-conditioning system reduced by 37% when used open air gap was used, and become 30% when has used closed air gap has used and became 27% relation to ordinary system.
Determining building materials and their types and determining their effect on concrete properties are consistent with the technical and design variables of buildings. From this point of view, the research came to include theoretical studies and empirical tests for some materials, focusing on the aggregate as a basic material involved in the formation of concrete. The first part includes the introduction, research problem, assumptions, importance, and purpose of the research. the second part was to conduct practical experiments by designing different concrete mixtures in the mixing ratios and the type of aggregate until results were reached regarding the resistance of the concrete that was produced as a result of the difference in densities between ordinary aggregate concrete and lightweight aggregate concrete. Through that, for example, the lightweight aggregate with an age of (7) days and a mixing ratio of (1: 2: 4) gave strength to the models used (19.58) Mpa, and for the same mixing ratio and at an age of (28) days, it gave durability ( 22.83) Mpa. When the mixing ratio was changed to (1: 1.5: 3), it was (25.74) MPa and (32.34) MPa at the age of (7) days and (28) days, respectively. These results give an accurate indication that the aggregate is light in weight with similarity to the ordinary aggregate in obtaining concrete with a bearing strength within the approved specifications without guaranteeing the environmental treatments and the resulting loads
The present research aims at the comparison of the production time between the manual and computerized surveying systems. The surveying system consists of data acquisition, processing and plotting the engineering plan and contouring .The current computerised system is designed and tested using the pulse Total Station instrument GPT-2006, P.C. computer, traverse network adjustment computer programs, Auto Cad 2005, 2010 and Surfer- 9 contouring program. The results of the current field experiments showed that the computerized surveying system offers a considerable savings in the data acquisition, processing and plotting times as compared with the manual surveying system, i.e. for traversing , the reduction in the production time is up to (84%), for plan ( up to 74%) and for contouring ( up to 84%). The practical applications of the current research are in the fields of civil engineering projects ( roads, buildings, etc.), irrigation and environmental engineering schemes.