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.
Today waste plastic bottles are spread widely throughout our world especially in Kurdistan, an autonomous region in Iraq. These waste products cause many environmental problems and at the same time some soils are weak and need reinforcement using cheap materials such as Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste plastic bottle. Use of waste plastic bottles as a reinforcement of soil is highly recommended to reduce the amounts of plastic waste, which creates a disposal problem. In this study an attempt was made to use plastic fibres produced from waste bottles to reinforce sandy soil. This can solve both environmental and geotechnical problems. In the research, the effect of plastic fibres content as well as fibre length on shear strength parameters (cohesion and internal friction) were experimentally predicted using the direct shear test method so as to improve bearing capacity of weak soils. The results showed that under low normal stress the inclusion of plastic fibres increased both angle of internal friction and cohesion; however, under high normal stress (greater than 100 kPa) the cohesion increased and the internal friction was roughly unchanged. Also, it was concluded in this study that the suitable amount of fibers that can be added to weak soils is 1% of dry weight of sand.
This paper deals with the nonlinear finite element analysis of two shear-critical concrete dapped-end beams. Reinforced concrete dapped-end beams having nominal shear span to depth ratio values of 0.56 and 0.59, concrete strength 32MPa and 34MPa, and reinforcement ratio via yield strength 2.83MPa and 7.39MPa, that failed in shear have been analyzed using the ‘ANSYS’ program. The ‘ANSYS’ model accounts for the nonlinearity, such as, post cracking tensile stiffness of the concrete, stress transfer across the cracked blocks of concrete. The concrete is modeled using ‘SOLID65’- eight-node brick element, which is capable of simulating the cracking and crushing behavior of brittle materials. The internal reinforcements have been modeled discretely using ‘LINK8’ – 3D spar element. A parametric study is also made to explain the effects of variation of some main parameters such as shear span to depth ratio, concrete compressive strength, and the parameter of main dapped-end reinforcement on the behavior of the beams. From the present modality the capability of the model to capture the critical crack regions, loads and deflections for various types of shear failures in reinforced concrete dapped-end beams have been illustrated. The parametric study shows that the beams shear strength is affected by the shear span to depth ratio, concrete compressive strength and the amount of main reinforcement.