Buildings and other infrastructures located in the coastal regions of the US have a higher level of wind vulnerability. Reducing the increasing property losses and causalities associated with severe windstorms has been the central research focus of the wind engineering community. The present wind engineering toolbox consists of building codes and standards, laboratory experiments, and field measurements. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 7 standard provides wind loads only for buildings with common shapes. For complex cases it refers to physical modeling. Although this option can be economically viable for large projects, it is not cost-effective for low-rise residential houses. To circumvent these limitations, a numerical approach based on the techniques of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been developed. The recent advance in computing technology and significant developments in turbulence modeling is making numerical evaluation of wind effects a more affordable approach. The present study targeted those cases that are not addressed by the standards. These include wind loads on complex roofs for low-rise buildings, aerodynamics of tall buildings, and effects of complex surrounding buildings. Among all the turbulence models investigated, the large eddy simulation (LES) model performed the best in predicting wind loads. The application of a spatially evolving time-dependent wind velocity field with the relevant turbulence structures at the inlet boundaries was found to be essential. All the results were compared and validated with experimental data. The study also revealed CFD’s unique flow visualization and aerodynamic data generation capabilities along with a better understanding of the complex three-dimensional aerodynamics of wind-structure interactions. With the proper modeling that realistically represents the actual turbulent atmospheric boundary layer flow, CFD can offer an economical alternative to the existing wind engineering tools. CFD’s easy accessibility is expected to transform the practice of structural design for wind, resulting in more wind-resilient and sustainable systems by encouraging optimal aerodynamic and sustainable structural/building design. Thus, this method will help ensure public safety and reduce economic losses due to wind perils.

Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) projects are becoming more complex in terms of client requirements, stakeholder issues, physical, budget and time constraints, and safety and environmental concerns. These constraints have spawned ad-hoc innovations in some AEC projects, without structured frameworks for their assessment, resulting in varying success for these innovations. The primary goal of the thesis is to test an existing framework for evaluating innovative design and construction technologies for high-rise buildings by way of a case-study. The case study is a48-story structure (with an 8-level sub-grade parkade) in a downtown setting with significant constraints and challenges. Unlike most other assessment frameworks which are single-issue based (financial, cost, time or risk), a holistic method that captures a broad range of critical issues at the micro and macro levels is used to screen a number of construction innovations. The process highlights the primary difficulty in balancing stakeholder issues, technical/engineering requirements and project goals in assessing the overall feasibility and net benefits of an innovation. As a useful tool, it facilitates the engineering/technical judgment of proposed innovations and provides evidence of a sufficient trade-off between incremental 'cost and benefits' to justify a detailed evaluation and possible subsequent use of a subset of the innovations that passed successfully through a tiered first stage evaluation process. A secondary objective is to propose appropriate quantitative models for a detailed evaluation of the screened technologies that not only seeks to quantify incremental cost and benefits (e.g. time, increased revenue, etc.) but also assess the level of certainty (in benefits and cost) of innovative construction technologies. An illustrative evaluation provides insights as to the level of modeling and analysis required to evaluate an innovative or novel strategy both at the 'activity/work package' and project levels. The quantum of data required at the pre-construction planning stage coupled with the lack of easy to apply evaluation models probably accounts for the non-prevalence of detailed quantitative evaluation of innovative construction technologies on AEC projects, especially in terms of impact at the project level and the degree of certainty with which net benefits are likely to be achieved. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Civil Engineering, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to compare the motor performance and physical fitness of children living in a high density area to that of children living in a low density area. It was hypothesized that children from the Vancouver West End score lower than children from Vancouver and children from Canada on the Canadian Association of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation (CAHPER) Fitness Performance Test; that children from apartment floors four to twenty score lower than children living below the fourth floor on the CAHPER Fitness Performance test and the Crawford and Virgin tests; and that there is no difference between the motor performance scores of the children from the West End and the motor performance scores of the children from North York. The elementary school population of the Vancouver West End district was selected to be tested on motor performance and physical fitness test items. The CAHPER Fitness Performance Test and a battery of tests previously used by Crawford and Virgin in North York Ontario were used in the testing. The scores recorded were then compared to the Vancouver CAHPER norms, the Canadian CAHPER norms and the test scores recorded by Crawford and Virgin in their North York study. The findings indicated that West End elementary school age children score lower than Vancouver elementary school age children on the CAHPER Fitness Performance test; that the children living in the West End fall behind their peers in Vancouver in leg power and speed between the ages of seven and twelve; that the girls from the West End do not develop in their agility and cardiovascular endurance at a normal rate; that there was no difference between the scores of the children living on floors one to three and the scores achieved by children living on floors four to twenty; that no difference was found in the motor performance scores of children living in the West End and the scores of the children from North York; that the Fitness Performance scores improve as a child grows older at least to the age of twelve; and that males score higher than females on the CAHPER Fitness Performance test at the same age level. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

This thirty-storey apartment tower in wood is an exploration of the potential of a prime building material grown by the sun. The building industry represents approximately one-third of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Since buildings are becoming more and more energy-efficient, the effects of the embodied energy in building structures become increasingly important. In this respect, wood structures embody a significantly lighter carbon footprint than steel and concrete and offer a viable approach for meeting the challenges of climate change. Typically the unique architectural qualities of wood have been reserved for low-rise typologies, but the performance characteristics of wood make it a competitive, eco-friendly alternative to steel and concrete in tall buildings. Wood in the form of mass timber panels is a durable and strong material. With increasing demand for housing in large sustainable buildings, wood should be an important structural material for the skylines of the future. / Det här trettio våningar höga typhuset i trä är en undersökning av potentialen för ett utmärkt byggmaterial som produceras av solen. Byggbranschen står för ungefär en tredjedel av världens utsläpp av växthusgaser. Eftersom dagens byggnader är alltmer energieffektiva blir effekterna av den inbyggda energin i byggnadskonstruktioner allt viktigare. I det sammanhanget ger träkonstruktioner upphov till betydligt lägre utsläpp av koldioxid än stål och betong och erbjuder därmed en framkomlig väg för att möta de utmaningar som klimatförändringen medför. Träets unika arkitektoniska kvalitéer har traditionellt varit hänvisade till låga byggnadstyper, men dess materialegenskaper gör det till ett konkurrenskraftigt och miljövänligt alternativ till stål och betong i höga hus. Trä i form av massivträskivor är ett hållbart och starkt material. Genom ökande efterfrågan på bostäder i stora hållbara byggnader torde trä bli ett viktigt konstruktionsmaterial för framtidens skylines.

The Tubed Mega Frame is a new structure concept for high-rise buildings which is developed by Tyréns. In order to study the structural performance as well as the efficiency of this new concept, a global analysis of the Tubed Mega Frame structure is performed using finite element analysis software ETABS. Besides, the lateral loads that should be applied on the structure according to different codes are also studied. From the design code study for wind loads and seismic design response spectrums, it can be seen that the calculation philosophies are different from code to code. The wind loads are approximately the same while the design response spectrums vary a lot from different codes. In the ETABS program, a 3D finite element model is built and analyzed for linear static, geometric non-linearity (P-Delta) and linear dynamic cases. The results from the analysis in the given scope show that the Tubed Mega Frame structural system is potentially feasible and has relatively high lateral stiffness and global stability. For the service limit state, the maximum story drift ratio is within the limitation of 1/400 and the maximum story acceleration is 0.011m/sec 2 which fulfill the comfort criteria.

La presente tesis, expone inicialmente el atraso del Perú en cuanto al desarrollo de edificaciones en altura respecto al resto de países en la región sudamericana. Este hecho, junto al contexto de desarrollo del país, nos lleva a esperar que este tipo de proyectos se generen en los próximos años como landmarks en el país. Tomando en cuenta la suma de ambos conceptos, junto al factor sísmico al que el país está sometido constantemente, es que planteamos realizar el diseño de un edificio en altura, para ser tomado como una referencia dentro del marco de la normativa peruana. Para lograr esto, determinaremos los usos y requerimientos usuales de un edificio en altura, tomando como ejemplo otros edificios en altura de la región; las consideraciones a ser tomadas en cuenta en los criterios de estructuración, explorando el uso de un núcleo rígido central en edificaciones de este tipo; los factores del análisis estructural que pueden variar respecto al análisis de otro tipo de edificación; y el diseño estructural de los elementos resistentes que le dan solución a los esfuerzos generados por el análisis estructural, principalmente al diseño del núcleo rígido central y las losas postensadas. / his thesis initially exposes Peru's downside in the development of tall buildings comparing it to the rest of the countries in the South American. This fact, along with the country's development context, gives us hope that these type of projects will be generated in the up coming years as landmarks in the country. Taking into account the sum of both concepts, together with the seismic factor to which the country is constantly subjected, we propose to design a tall building, to be taken as a reference within the framework of Peruvian regulations. To achieve this, we will determine the usual uses and requirements of a tall building, taking as an example other tall buildings in the region; the considerations to be taken into account in the structuring criteria, exploring the use of rigid core walls in buildings of this type; the factors of the structural analysis that may vary depending on the analysis of another type of building; and the structural design of the resistant elements that provide a solution to the stresses generated by the structural analysis, mainly the design of the central rigid core and the post-tensioned slabs. / Tesis

Modern cities are under the pressure of big social and building development. The thesis is based on aspects of housing and living of society in 21th century cities. Now China has been an extreme example of rapid urbanization. It gives us an opportunity to gain knowledge about urban development. Based on the analysis of selected examples of urban housing the thesis shows the options for the future alternatives of living. The work was process during my academic internship at Southeast University in Nanjing, China.

The need for advancements in geospatial monitoring of structures has evolved naturally as structures have become larger, more complex, and technology has continued to rapidly develop. Greater building heights generally lead to greater challenges for surveyors, limiting the practical use of traditional measurement methods. For this reason, a new complimentary method was developed and implemented to support elevation monitoring activities during construction of the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, California. While some studies have explored the use of strain gauges to monitor strain development within individual members, the primary contribution of this work is that it presents a practical and proven to be implementable approach to estimating elevation changes throughout a multi-story reinforced concrete core wall tower during construction while utilizing strain measurements acquired at intermittent levels. Construction in urban landscapes has the potential to impact existing infrastructure. Identifying and mitigating any associated construction impacts is critical to public safety and construction progress. The development of Automated Motorized Total Stations (AMTS) has provided an effective means to monitor deformations in structures adjacent to construction activity. AMTS provides real time results so that movements may be immediately identified and addressed. However, the design, implementation, management, and analysis of these systems has frequently been problematic. Inadequate monitoring specifications have led to systems that fail to perform as intended even when project requirements were satisfied. A collection of monitoring specifications and AMTS projects have been reviewed to identify why certain problems have occurred and recommendations have been made to increase the probability of success on monitoring projects. A deformation monitoring approach that defines location specific threshold values based on a statistical analysis of baseline measurements is also presented in this dissertation. Identifying potential causes for monitoring specifications to fail to perform as intended and a deformation monitoring approach that defines location specific threshold values are secondary contributions of this dissertation.

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In Sweden as well as other countries the trend of building higher is more and more popular. The global stability of tall buildings is a very important aspect that has to be taken into account while designing. Foundation on piles, that is common in Sweden, reduces the global stability compared to foundation directly on bedrock. Using inclined piles in the foundation is inevitable for high-rise buildings, because they are essential for transferring the horizontal loads into the bedrock. The aim of this paper is to look into the influence that foundation on piles has on global stability and investigate two simple methods to asses global stability. In this thesis the influence of the stiffness of the substructure (foundation), length and inclination of the piles on the global stability were investigated. It was also looked into how does the pile center affect the rotation and thus global stability. One method that was presented was based on the equivalent stiffness. Displacement at the top of the wall is used in order to calculate the bending stiffness that is reduced due to foundation on piles and further calculate buckling load on the basis of Euler buckling. In the other method that was proposed rotation at the foundation level was taken into account so as to calculate rotational spring stiffness and later buckling load due to combined flexural and rotational buckling. The analysis was conducted on a simple two dimensional problem, namely stabilizing wall as well as a building stabilized by two towers. Three different configurations of piles were investigated for single wall as well as for the structure. The investigation showed that the position of pile center has its effect on the global stability. The closer the pile center is to the foundation on piles the better the global stability of a  structure. The length of the piles plays a role in stability as well. The longer the piles are the worse the stability is. With longer piles the overall stiffness of a structure decreases and thus the global stability. The analysis showed that the foundation of piles significantly lowers the stability of high rise building. The investigated methods showed that the one based on rotation at the base gave better results compared to the method based on the equivalent bending stiffness. But to use this first method, the position of the pile center is required to be known in order to get correct results which in a complex structure is hard to estimate. In an analysis of a building stabilized by two towers it was seen that when the inclined piles that are inclined opposite to each other in a pile group and are positioned far from rotation center of a structure it increases the global safety and rotational stiffness as well. It is recommended to use such configuration of piles that the pile center is at the foundation level in order to increase global stability. / I Sverige och andra länder är trenden att bygga högre alltmer populärt. Den globala stabiliteten hos höga byggnader är en viktig aspekt som måste beaktas vid byggnadens utformning. Den vanligaste grundläggningsmetoden i Sverige är grundläggning med pålar. Denna typ av grundläggning minskar den globala stabiliteten jämfört med grundläggning direkt på berggrunden. Att använda sneda pålar i grundläggningen är oundviklig för höghus, eftersom de är nödvändiga för att överföra horisontella laster till berggrunden. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att se hur grundläggning på pålar påverkar den globala stabiliteten och undersöka två enkla metoder för global stabilitet. I detta examensarbete undersöktes hur styvheten påverkar grundläggning med pålar med olika längder och lutningar, med hänseende på den globala stabiliteten. Pålcentrumets påverkan av rotation och den globala stabiliteten har även studerats. En metod som presenterades i examensarbetet är baserades på ekvivalent styvhet. Där utböjning på toppen av väggen togs för att beräkna böjstyvheten som reduceras på grund av grundläggning med pålar och ytterligare beräknades knäcklasten baserat på Eulers knäckning. I den andra metoden som föreslogs togs rotationen vid grundläggningsnivån med i beräkningen för att beräkna rotationsfjäderns styvhet och senare knäckningslasten på grund av kombinerad böjnings- och rotationsknäckning. Analysen genomfördes på en enkel tvådimensionell vägg och en tredimensionell byggnad som är stabiliserad av två torn. Tre olika konfigurationer av pålar undersöktes för enkel vägg och även för byggnaden Utredningen av examensarbetet visade att positionen av pålcentrum har en stor påverkan på den globala stabiliteten. Ju närmare pålcentrumet är till grundläggningsnivån desto bättre är den globala stabiliteten hos en konstruktion. Längden på pålarna har även en betydelse när det gäller stabiliteten. Ju längre pålarna är desto värre blir stabiliteten. Med längre pålar minskar den totala styvheten hos hela konstruktionen och därmed minskar även den globala stabiliteten. Utredningen visade även att metoden med rotation vid grundläggningsnivån gav mer noggrannare resultat än metoden för ekvivalent styvhet. Men för att kunna använda den förstnämnda metoden behöver man ha kännedom om vart pålcentrum ligger för konstruktionen och detta kan vara svårt att uppskatta. I en analys av en byggnad stabiliserad av två torn visades det att när pålarna är placerade långt från rotationscentrum av en konstruktion ökar den globala säkerheten och rotationsstyvheten. Det rekommenderas att använda sådan konfiguration av pålar att pålcentrum ligger på grundnivå för att öka den globala stabiliteten.