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Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Road Markings and Signs in Road Safety
Due to the dynamic nature and complexity of road traffic, road safety is one of the most demanding social challenges. Therefore, contemporary road safety strategies incorporate a multidisciplinary and comprehensive approaches to address this problem and improve the safety of each individual element, i.e., the human, vehicle, and road. Traffic control devices are an important part of road infrastructure, among which road markings and road signs play a significant role. In general, road markings and signs represent basic means of communication between the road authorities and road users and, as such, provide road users with necessary information about the rules, warnings, obligations, and other information related to the upcoming situations and road alignment. The aim of this entry is to briefly present the main functions and characteristics of road markings and signs, and their role in road safety. In addition, practical issues and future trends and directions regarding road markings and signs are discussed. 
  • 3.6K
  • 21 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Modular Construction
A modular construction is an assembly of standardized-dimension building elements such as wall panel, slab, beam or also an assembly of container-type units called “modules” or else “prefabricated prefinished volumetric construction (PPVC)” which are prefabricated in factory and afterwards transported and assembled on-site. The naming of “container house” is given to transportable modules that are completely finished in the factory and ready to be inhabited; for smaller units, eventually with different shapes, the nomenclature of “living pod” or “capsule” is also found in literature. Modular buildings are always prefabricated buildings, but the reverse is not necessarily true. The degree of prefabrication and assembly technique mainly varies depending on the life span of the building (temporary or permanent), the desired space layout and the technical equipment to install (heating, electricity, sewer, plumbing, etc.).
  • 3.6K
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Vulnerability of Buildings
Vulnerability is defined for buildings as the degree of loss resulting from a hazard at a certain severity level and depends on the reduction in resistance and the level of decay in the structures as a result of constant exposure to environmental factors (such as seismic actions). 
  • 3.5K
  • 23 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Floating Wind Turbines
Globally, the wind resource in deep water (depths > 60 m) is very abundant. Due to the abundance of potential at these depths, the wind turbines will need the design of a floating platform because the wind turbines that are currently in operation are mostly fixed at the bottom and are dependent upon conventional concrete with a gravity base that is not feasible at these depths. A balance among the two varying principles (i.e., the requirement for a stable foundation for the wind turbine’s control and operation and the nature of the substructure being innate, to respond to environmental forces) is required for the design of the floating platform for wind energy. The absence of rigid foundations results in an additional six degrees of freedom (DOFs) for the platform of floating turbines; three translational (surge X, sway Y, and heave Z) and three rotational (roll RotX, pitch RotY, and yaw RotZ). For the platforms of onshore wind turbines and bottom-mounted offshore wind turbines, the effect of soil-structure interaction (SSI) can be modeled with six degrees of freedom; three translational (horizontal forces in X and Y and vertical force in Z) and three rotational (rocking moments in X and Y and a torsional moment in Z) respectively.
  • 3.1K
  • 11 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Traffic Smoothness for ITS
The smooth traffic flow, which refers to the stochastically stabilized flow (ie. flow without disruption, that prevents the acceptance of a specific probability distribution of the headways), in the queuing model with moving buffer, can be described using the maximum density  referring to the smooth flow.
  • 3.1K
  • 29 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Kerb Construction
Concrete kerbs can be prepared by precast and cast in situ methods. The precast concrete kerbs can be manufactured by conventional (using a vibrator), dry-pressed and wet-pressed methods and can be installed in almost all weather conditions. Possible rainfall, temperatures and sunlight hours are considered in casting in situ kerbs, and they are more labour-intensive compared to the precast variations. However, cast in situ kerb can better handle sudden changes of direction. There is no study found comparing different aspects of in situ casting and precast kerb. Both types of concrete kerb are suggested for construction by all authorities, such as the Austroads and AASHTO. The precast kerbs require manual placement and have been a major source of workplace injury in the United Kingdom. Past studies have suggested that the use of special lifting equipment (such as vacuum lifters, lifting clamps or stone magnets), reduction in kerb section length, reduction in kerb foundation depth, use of a lightweight or hollow concrete section or other lightweight materials, such as polymer, can reduce the likelihood of such workplace injuries and may also lead to quicker construction as well as better construction quality.
  • 2.9K
  • 28 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Probabilistic Slope Stability Evaluation
Evaluating the stability of slopes in soil is an important, interesting, and challenging aspect of civil engineering. Despite the advances that have been made, evaluating the stability of slopes remains a challenge. Slope failures are often caused by processes that increase shear stresses or decrease shear strengths of the soil mass [4, 9]. Water plays a role in many of the processes that reduce strength; water is also involved in many types of loads on slopes that increase shear stresses. Another factor involved in most slope failures is the presence of soils that contain clay minerals. In concept, any slope with a factor of safety above 1.0 should be stable [6, 10]. In practice, however, the level of stability is seldom considered acceptable unless the factor of safety is significantly greater than 1.0. In this study an attempt has been done to perform stability analyses corresponding to several different conditions, reflecting different stages in the life of the new railway embankment found in Ethiopia. As various parameters are involved and determined based on correlations, the probabilistic approach was employed to scrutinize the effects of uncertainty on the likelihood of failure. There is no problem with performing a single analysis in which the embankment is considered to be drained and is treated in terms of effective stresses, and in which the clay foundation material is considered to be undrained and is treated in terms of total stresses (during end-of-construction analysis). This is because equilibrium in terms of total stresses must be satisfied for both total and effective stress analyses [2]. The inertia slope stability analysis was used. Since the foundation materials are overconsolidated cohesive soils such as stiff to very stiff clays that tend to dilate during the seismic shaking. The embankment is also expected to be well graded compacted granular material [12]. The critical factor of safety for the railway embankment during short term analysis was found to be 2.199. However, it has increased by 17.6% during the long term analysis (i.e., 2.585). Typical minimum factor of safety used in slope design are about 1.5 for normal long-term loading conditions and about 1.3 for end-of- construction conditions.  Apart from that, the minimum short term and long term factor of safety were reduced by 44.5% and 35.9% respectively, due to the introduction of the horizontal seismic load in the limit equilibrium analysis. According to Hynes-Griffin and Franklin (1984) criteria [8] the minimum factor of safety for ~1m tolerable displacement is 1. However, the minimum factor of safety during the pseudostatic analysis (i.e., 1.221) was found to be 22% higher than the required minimum factor of safety. Beside, Newmark’s deformation analysis has been done to predict slope displacement. However, the analysis predicted zero permanent slope displacement. Since; the Newmark (1965) method assumes no deformation of the slope during the earthquake if the pseudostatic factor of safety is greater than 1.0. The more realistic probability of failure is likely in between of 0% and 6.9 %. The sensitivity analysis showed that, the cohesion of the clay layer (i.e., layer II) governs the stability of the railway embankment.
  • 2.8K
  • 30 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Earthquake Early Warning Systems
An Earthquake Early Warning Systems (EEWS) is the combination of different elements, such as seismometers, sensors, communication appliances, computers, and alarm systems, able to detect and warm of the arrival of seismic waves. It serves to mitigate damages and losses , to be used primarily in moderate and high seismically active regions.  
  • 2.8K
  • 25 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Application of Artificial Neural Networks in Construction Management
Artificial neural networks (ANN) exhibit excellent performance in complex problems and have been increasingly applied in the research field of construction management (CM) over the last few decades. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the application of ANN in CM research and useful reference for the future.Content analysis is performed to comprehensively analyze 112 related bibliographic records retrieved from seven selected top journals published between 2000 and 2020. The results indicate that the applications of ANN of interest in CM research have been significantly increasing since 2015. Back-propagation was the most widely used algorithm in training ANN. Integrated ANN with fuzzy logic/genetic algorithm was the most commonly em-ployed way of addressing the CM problem. In addition, 11 application fields and 31 research topics were identified, with the primary research interests focusing on cost, performance, and safety.
  • 2.8K
  • 27 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Groundwater Withdrawal-Induced Land Subsidence
Land subsidence is probably one of the most evident environmental effects of groundwater pumping. Globally, freshwater demand is the leading cause of this phenomenon. Land subsidence induced by aquifer system drainage can reach total values of up to 14.5 m. The spatial extension of this phenomenon is usually extensive and is often difficult to define clearly. Aquifer compaction contributes to many socio-economic effects and high infrastructure-related damage costs. Currently, many methods are used to analyze aquifer compaction. These include the fundamental relationship between groundwater head and groundwater flow direction, water pressure and aquifer matrix compressibility. Such solutions enable satisfactory modelling results. However, further research is needed to allow more efficient modelling of aquifer compaction. Recently, satellite radar interferometry (InSAR) has contributed to significant progress in monitoring and determining the spatio-temporal land subsidence distributions worldwide. Therefore, implementation of this approach can pave the way to the development of more efficient aquifer compaction models. This entry presents a comprehensive review of models used to predict land surface displacements caused by rock mass drainage, as well as (2) recent advances and (3) a summary of InSAR implementation over recent years to support the aquifer compaction modelling process. Therefore, the study presented would be of benefit to readers who are interested in the topic of interaction between the human population and the hydrogeological system in different regions. The research presented allows readers to better understand the factors, developments and effects of groundwater drainage and thus facilitate large - scale risk assessment and preventive planning.
  • 2.8K
  • 27 Oct 2020
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