Archives of Civil Engineering

As a machining technology, welding can cause serious accidents by overloading or operation mistakes. Through analyzing the causes of various welding accidents, we found that the major cause for damage imposed after welding parts are loaded is the fracture of materials. Therefore, studying the influence of welding residual stress on the fracture property of materials is of great significance. This paper applied the digital image correlation technique to study the fracture property of welding parts under the influence of welding residual stress. In addition, standard parts and welding parts were selected to carry out a contrast experiment. Room temperature tensile tests were performed on both standard parts and test pieces after residual stress measurement. Using displacement field and strain field data obtained through VIC-2D software, the stress intensity factor around the crack tip of each specimen under the conditions of small load was calculated and corresponding analysis was carried out.

The rheological properties of self-compacting concrete are closely influenced by temperature and the time. Previous studies which aim was to research the effect of temperature on self-compacting concrete workability, showed that the behaviour of fresh SCC at varying temperatures differs from that of normal vibrated concrete. The paper presents the study of rheological properties of fresh self-compacting concrete mixtures made with portland, blast furnace and component cement. Two types of superplasticizers were used. It was proven that temperature has a clear effect on workability; it can be reduced by selecting the appropriate superplasticizer and cement.

U-turn lanes eliminate left turns at intersections and allow the manoeuvre to be made via median crossovers beyond the intersection. However, there are many situations where road infrastructures are characterized by the reduced width of the median. It is clear that, in such situations, we must adopt design criteria that take into account limitations imposed by the width of the cross-section of the road. This is the reason why it is necessary to adopt design solutions which expect a complete reorganization of the road section affected by the insertion of U-turns. In this paper, we intend to propose original guidelines for U-turn lane design, suitable to guarantee both the necessity to offer a high level of functionality of the road sections to be implemented by U-turns, and the principles of safety in order to reduce unsafe conditions during inversion manoeuvres as much as possible.

Electronic reverse auctions (e-RAs) are considered to be an effective tool for negotiating tender prices and achieving cost savings. Furthermore, if multicritera evaluation is used, it can be expected that e-RAs will also contribute to achieving benefits in other areas, e.g. helping to minimize life-cycle costs. This study aims to analyse the mutual relationships between selected e-RA variables. More specifically, correlation analysis is applied to explore real e-RA data representing public tenders for construction work. This study’s findings reveal that the correlations examined are generally weak or very weak. Furthermore, it has been found that the value of correlation coefficients varies depending on the type of structure, and that public tenders are usually evaluated solely on the basis of the criterion of the lowest bid price. Recommendations for public authorities in using e-RAs in the role of the buyer are also provided at the end of this paper.

In the recent years structural health monitoring (SHM) has gathered spectacular attention in civil engineering applications. Application of such composites enable to improve the safety and performance of structures. Recent advances in nanotechnology have led to development of new family of sensors – self-sensing materials. These materials enable to create the so-called “smart concrete” exhibiting self-sensing ability. Application of selfsensing materials in cement-based materials enables to detect their own state of strain or stress reflected as a change in their electrical properties. The variation of strain or stress is associated with the variation in material’s electrical characteristics, such as resistance or impedance. Therefore, it is possible to efficiently detect and localize crack formation and propagation in selected concrete element. This review is devoted to present contemporary developments in application of nanomaterials in self-sensing cement-based composites and future directions in the field of smart structures.

Strength and permeability properties along with microstructural evolution of hardened slurries composed of fly ash from fluidal bed combustion of brown coal and an addition of OPC/BFSC is assessed in this paper. An increase in the amount of fly ash in slurries influences the development of mechanical strength and a decrease of hydraulic conductivity. SEM, XRD, and porosity analyses confirmed formation of watertight microstructures. The structure of slurries is composed of ettringite, C-S-H phase, AFt, and AFm phases. Ettringite crystallises as relatively short needles forming compact clusters or intermixed with the C-S-H phase. The occurring C-S-H phases are mainly of type I – fibrous and type II – honeycomb

A buckling analysis of temperature-dependent embedded plates reinforced by single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) subjected to a magnetic field is investigated. The SWCNTs are distributed as uniform (UD) and three types of functionally graded nanotubes (FG), in which the material properties of the nano-composite plate are estimated based on the mixture rule. The surrounding temperature-dependent elastic medium is simulated as Pasternak foundation. Based on the orthotropic Mindlin plate theory, the governing equations are derived using Hamilton's principle. The buckling load of the structure is calculated based on an exact solution by the Navier method. The influences of elastic medium, magnetic field, temperature and distribution type, and volume fractions of SWCNT are shown on the buckling of the plate. Results indicate that CNT distribution close to the top and bottom are more efficient than that distributed near the mid-plane for increasing the stiffness of the plates.

The topic of this paper is the description of the General Contractor Selection procedure using the AHP method. Another aim of this paper – within the scope of decision-making – is the determination of the potential General Contractor’s evaluation criteria and the selection of the best Bidder using the AHP method. We included the description of the conducted tender proceeding for the purpose of the procurement’s subject. As the decision-making options, we adopted four construction companies that submitted their bid. A key element of the studies was the paired comparison of all hierarchical structure elements. We estimated the local weighting coefficients and global priorities of particular decision-making options as well as analysed the vulnerabilities of the obtained results.

Geomechnical model testing has been widely applied as a kind of research technique in underground engineering problems. However, during the practical application process, due to the influence of many factors, the desired results cannot be obtained. In order to solve this problem, based on the measurement requirements of the model test, combined with FBG(Fiber Bragg Grating) sensor technology and traditional measurement methods, an FBG monitoring system, Micro-multi-point displacement test system, resistance strain test system and surrounding rock pressure monitoring system are developed. Applying the systems to a model test of the tunnel construction process, the displacement in advance laws of tunnel face, radial displacement distribution laws and surrounding rock pressure laws are obtained. Test results show that a multivariate information monitoring system has the advantage of high precision, stability and strong anti-jamming capability. It lays a solid foundation for the real-time data monitoring of the tunnel construction process model test.

The purpose of this paper is to present and analyse the decision-making problem faced by a future house owner - selection of the optimal solution of building thermal insulation in relation to the selected criteria, both related to costs and future benefits. The problem of selecting the best solutions in the construction sector is widely discussed in the science literature. In this paper, the authors decided to solve the raised problem by using the Entropy method.

The basic element of a project organizing construction works is a schedule. The preparation of the data necessary to specify the timings of the construction completion as indicated in the schedule involves information that is uncertain and hard to quantify. The article presents the methods of building a schedule which includes a fuzzy amount of labour, time standards and number of workers. The proposed procedure allows determining the real deadline for project completion, taking into account variable factors affecting the duration of the individual works.

In the authors’ opinion, the issue of incorrectly functioning water insulation of foundation walls in the existing buildings in Poland is currently rather common. The paper includes a multicriteria analysis aimed at arranging the selected options of the foundation wall vertical water insulation technology in an existing model historic building using the weighted sum, entropy and AHP methods. Each of the studied solutions was evaluated in terms of the following criteria: costs of construction works, time of execution of construction works, popularity of using particular insulation options by other contractors, durability of the executed insulation and the degree of nuisance of the executed works

This paper presents an experimental analysis of flexural capacity and deformability of structural concrete slabs prepared as composite members consisting of two concrete layers made of reinforced ordinary concrete (N) and fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC). The reinforced concrete composite slabs used in the tests were prepared in the dimensions of 600 x 1200 x 80 mm. The basis was composed of two layers consisting of SFRC, one as the top layer, and one as ordinary concrete. The results of the analysis confirm a significant improvement of structural properties of the composite slab in comparison to the slabs prepared wholly of ordinary concrete.

The paper is devoted to the strength analysis of a simply supported three layer beam. The sandwich beam consists of: two metal facings, the metal foam core and two binding layers between the faces and the core. In consequence, the beam is a five layer beam. The main goal of the study is to elaborate a mathematical model of this beam, analytical description and a solution of the three-point bending problem. The beam is subjected to a transverse load. The nonlinear hypothesis of the deformation of the cross section of the beam is formulated. Based on the principle of the stationary potential energy the system of four equations of equilibrium is derived. Then deflections and stresses are determined. The influence of the binding layers is considered. The results of the solutions of the bending problem analysis are shown in the tables and figures. The analytical model is verified numerically using the finite element analysis, as well as experimentally.

The paper presents results of numerical calculations of a diaphragm wall model executed in Poznań clay formation. Two selected FEM codes were applied, Plaxis and Abaqus. Geological description of Poznań clay formation in Poland as well as geotechnical conditions on construction site in Warsaw city area were presented. The constitutive models of clay implemented both in Plaxis and Abaqus were discussed. The parameters of the Poznań clay constitutive models were assumed based on authors’ experimental tests. The results of numerical analysis were compared taking into account the measured values of horizontal displacements.