As a component of the regulatory structure controlling building construction and land development in Australia, the system of building regulation was reformed during a period of significant restructuring of the Australian economy. The microeconomic reforms aimed to find efficiencies in government and industry sectors, and with respect to the latter, facilitate the development of competitive trade structures across national and global markets. The research provides a critical narrative account of the development and outcomes of the microeconomic reform of building regulation between 1990 and 2003. The microeconomic reform process is examined in the context of the vastly differing approaches of two Australian states, Victoria and New South Wales, with respect to the national reform agenda which was initiated and led by the Commonwealth government in response to the increasing globalization of the national economy. An understanding of what happened and why and how t he states differed with respect to the national reform agenda enabled the outcomes of the reforms to be examined for their impact upon government, industry and the community. The regulation of building construction is a constitutional responsibility of the state governments and has traditionally been controlled by local government. However, control is increasingly being centralized at the national level, in response to international pressures to adopt performance-based regulations, standards and governance systems that accord to neoliberal ideology. This has resulted in a reduction of state and local government involvement in certain building control functions with a commensurate increased role for the private sector; an increase in the complexity and quantity of regulatory instruments; a reduction in government accountability for the standard of building construction; the development of structures to facilitate competitive intranational and international trade in construction-related goods and services and a reduction in the quality and standard of buildings. The principal benefits of the reforms have accrued to industry and to government and the least benefits have accrued to the community/consumer.

Building energy performance has always been important in the cold climate of Sweden, Norway and Finland. To meet the goal that all new buildings should be nearly zero-energy buildings by 2020, set in the EU directive 2010/31/EU [1] on the energy performance of buildings (EPBD recast), the building sector in Europe now faces a transition towards buildings with improved energy performance. In such a transition, a discussion is needed about the objective of the improvement – why, or to what end, the building energy performance should be improved. The objective of improving building energy performance is often a political decision, but scientific research can contribute with knowledge on how the objectives can be achieved. This thesis addresses how the indicators used in the requirements used to achieve building energy performance in Sweden, Norway, and Finland, and the methods used to evaluate these requirements, reflect building energy performance. It also addresses difficulties in achieving comparable and verifiable indicators in evaluations of building energy performance. The research objective has two parts: to review, compare, and discuss (i) requirements and (ii) evaluation methods used to achieve energy performance of residential buildings in Sweden, Norway and Finland. The work in this thesis includes reviews of the requirements used in national building codes and passive house criteria to achieve building energy performance, of methods used to evaluate compliance with such requirements, and of methods used specifically to evaluate the indicator Envelope Air Tightness. The results show that different sets of indicators are used to achieve building energy performance in the studied building codes and passive house criteria. The methods used to evaluate compliance with requirements used to achieve building energy performance are also different, but calculation methods are generally more often used than measurement methods. The calculation- and measurement methods used are often simple. A methodology to analyze the deviation between predictions- and measurements of building energy performance (the performance gap) was developed, to investigate the effects of different evaluation methods on different indicators used to achieve building energy performance. The methodology was tested in a case-study. This study indicated that the choice of method affects which parts of the performance gap reflected in the indicators Supplied Energy (see Terminology), Net Energy (see Terminology), and Overall U-value. Among the reviewed methods to evaluate air tightness, the Fan/Blower Door Pressurization is well known and preferred by professionals in the field. The results in this thesis may be useful when choosing indicators and evaluation methods to achieve different objectives of improving building energy performance and in the quest towards comparable and verifiable indicators used to achieve building energy performance. / Increasing Energy Efficiency in Buildings (IEEB) / Sustainable Buildings for the High North (SBHN)

Most of the reinforced concrete systems are monolithic. During construction, concrete from the bottom of the deepest beam to the top of slab, is placed at once. Therefore the slab serves as the top flange of the beams. Such a beam is referred to as T-beam. In a floor system made of T-beams, the compressive stress is a maximum over the web, dropping between the webs. The distribution of compressive stress on the flange depends on the relative dimensions of the cross section, span length, support and loading conditions. For simplification, the varying distribution of compressive stress can be replaced by an equivalent uniform distribution. This gives us an effective flange width, which is smaller than the real flange width. In various codes there are recommendations for effective flange width formulas. But these formulas are expressed only in terms of span length or flange and web thicknesses and ignore the other important variables. In this thesis, three-dimensional finite element analysis has been carried out on continuous T-beams under different loading conditions to assess the effective flange width based on displacement criterion. The formulation is based on a combination of the elementary bending theory and the finite element method, accommodating partial interaction in between. The beam spacing, beam span length, total depth of the beam, the web and the flange thicknesses are considered as independent variables. Depending on the type of loading, the numerical value of the moment of inertia of the transformed beam crosssection and hence the effective flange width are calculated. The input data and the finite element displacement results are then used in a nonlinear regression analysis and two explicit design formulas for effective flange width have been derived. Comparisons are made between the proposed formulas and the ACI, Eurocode, TS-500 and BS-8110 code recommendations.

The turbulent nature of the wind flow coupled with additional turbulence created by the wind-building interaction result in highly non-uniform, fluctuating wind-loading on building envelopes. This is true even for simple rectangular symmetric buildings. Building codes and standards should reflect the information on which they are based as closely as possible, and this should be achieved without making the building codes too complicated and/or bulky. However, given the complexity of wind loading on low-rise buildings, its codification can be difficult, and it often entails significant inconsistencies. This required the development of alternative design methods, such as the Database-Assisted-Design (DAD) methodology, that can produce more accurate and risk-consistent estimates of wind loads or their effects. In this dissertation, the DAD methodology for rigid-structures has been further developed into a design tool capable of automatically helping to size member cross sections that closely meet codified strength and serviceability requirements. This was achieved by the integration of the wind engineering and structural engineering phases of designing for wind and gravity loads. Results obtained using this method showed DAD’s potential for practical use in structural design. Different methods of synthesizing aerodynamic and climatological data were investigated, and the effects of internal pressure in structural design were also studied in the context of DAD. This dissertation also addressed the issues of (i) insufficiently comprehensive aerodynamic databases for various types of building shapes, and (ii) the large volume (in size) of existing aerodynamic databases, that can significantly affect the extent to which the DAD methodology is used in engineering practice. This research is part of an initiative to renew the way we evaluate wind loads and perform designs. It is transformative insofar as it enables designs that are safe and economical owing to the risk-consistency inherent in DAD, meaning that enough structural muscle is provided to assure safe behavior, while fat is automatically eliminated in the interest of economy and CO2 footprint reduction.

The Mississippi River Valley, is hardly known as an earthquake zone, but may in fact be a natural disaster just waiting to happen. Historical records and paleoseismic investigations have shown that large magnitude earthquakes have occurred in the area and there are constantly microquakes all along the New Madrid Fault System. The inhabitants of the Midwest are living in a death trap so long society doesn’t preoperly prepare for earthquakes. The study presented here aims to prove that, as predicting earthquakes is difficult to the point of impossible, the only serious alternative is to reinforce existing buildings and infrastructure and make sure all new developments are seismically safe. The conclusion reached is, that although expensive, building earthquake safe and retrofitting existing buildings, is for the high risk areas by far cheaper than doing nothing when, not if, a new large magnitude earthquake occurs. For a city in the high risk area, the cost of retrofitting the current structures was 13 billion dollar to be compared with the 100 billion dollars in lost lives and properties of a worst case scenario.

National studies suggest that eighty percent of existing code professionals are expected to retire within the next fifteen years. As part of this research, it was determined that approximately half of all licensed building inspectors in the State of Utah will reach retirement age within the next ten years. As building inspectors make up a large part of the Code Professional Industry this demographic was selected as the focus of this research. The purpose of this research project was to assess the urgent need for new entrants into the Code Professional Industry in Utah. As part of this research, trends within the local industry over a 20 year period were evaluated. A statewide survey of over 300 licensed building inspectors was conducted to investigate the demographics of the industry, and gain first-hand insight from individual code professionals. This research was successful in quantifying the size of the Code Professional Industry in Utah, and numbering the populations of certified professionals in each individual code discipline. In addition, projected losses were established within each code discipline, discovering many disciplines in which over 50% of current professionals would be lost within a ten year period. In addition projections were made contrasting the number of code professionals leaving the industry versus the small anticipated number of individuals entering the industry. This research conclusively predicts a steady and dramatic decline in the number of licensed code professionals, unless the industry actively works toward addressing the issue. The group of aging code professionals possess a level of knowledge and experience not easily replaced. This study was based on an extensive statewide survey of licensed building inspectors in Utah, and collected opinions, concerns and insights directly from the Code Professional Industry. The findings of this study provide a unique look at this specialized industry within a single state. The lessons learned likely apply to populations of code professionals in other locations. This study concluded that a combination of phased retirement, modified work duties and mentoring programs would be of great benefit to the Code Professional Industry, by allowing the transfer of knowledge between the outgoing generation and the future generation of code professionals.

<p dir="ltr">Fire is an extreme event that can lead to failure of structural components and potentially collapse of the structural system or sub-systems. Currently, there are no comprehensive, research-based methodologies for performance-based fire structural design (PBFSD) of composite wall-to-floor connections subjected to gravity loads and realistic fire scenarios. The existing studies primarily focus on the performance of simple shear connections to steel columns, and lack approaches for structural design of floor systems and their connections to walls (wall-to-floor connections) at elevated temperatures. This study addresses the need for evaluating the performance of composite floor systems and composite wall-to-floor connections under fire loading and developing research-based approaches to conduct performance-based structural design of these systems at elevated temperatures.</p><p dir="ltr">This study aims to give a simpler design method for shear tab and single angle shear connections at elevated temperatures by specifying retention factors for steel yield strength, ultimate strength, bolt material strength, and weld metal strength at elevated temperatures. The connection limit state equations specified in AISC Specifications are modified to incorporate these factors for higher temperatures. Additionally, an archetype building is designed and one floor system is evaluated using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to assess the robustness of the structure and its resistance to collapse using PBFSD.</p><p dir="ltr">It also discusses the application of fire protection materials for steel members to resist fire scenarios for specified durations. Various fire scenarios, including ventilation-controlled and fuel-controlled fires were evaluated to assess localized behavior at the connection points and the overall behavior of the structural compartment. The FE analyses included various fire scenarios, compartment locations (interior, edge, or middle), and fire protection scenarios (2-hour rating fire protection, or no fire protection on interior beams). The composite floor system is evaluated for a combination of these scenarios under fire and gravity loading.</p><p dir="ltr">Through this study, a comprehensive analysis of the behavior of composite floors systems and associated connections in SpeedCore Wall Systems (C-PSW/CF) under fire loading is achieved.</p>

This thesis considers the nature of primary, intermediate and district high school buildings designed by the Building Department of the Canterbury Education Board from its consolidation in 1916 until its termination in 1989. Before 1916, the influence of British models on the CEB’s predecessors had been dominant, while after that date, Board architects were more likely to attempt vernacular solutions that were relevant to the geographic situation of the Canterbury district, the secular nature of New Zealand education and changing ideas of the relative importance of the key architectural drivers of design i.e. function and form. One development, unique to Canterbury, was that for a short period, from 1924-29, a local pressure group, the Open Air Schools’ League became so powerful that it virtually dictated the CEB’s design policy until the Board architects George Penlington and John Alexander Bigg reassumed control by inflecting the open-air model into the much acclaimed veranda block. The extent to which Board architects had the freedom to express themselves within a framework of funding control exercised by the Department of Education was further circumscribed by successive building codes that, at their most directive, required national standardisation under the 1951 Dominion Basic Plan and to a slightly lesser extent under the1956 code and associated White Lines regime. Following World War 2, the use of prefabricated structures had prompted the recognition that better designed relocatable rooms could hold the key to a more flexible and effective allocation of resources in an environment increasingly subject to rapid demographic change. By the end of the period, the exploitation of new construction technologies and modern materials led to the dominance of the relocatable CEBUS buildings in Canterbury schoolyards. A concurrent development was the response of architects A. Frederick (Fred) McCook and John Sinclair Arthur to the Department’s call to design more flexible spaces, i.e. open planning, to facilitate a change in pedagogical method. Other issues raised in this study are the CEB’s solutions to the challenges of building on the West Coast, and the recurring need to ensure structural integrity in a region where there was a continuous risk of seismic activity.