7/31/2019 Advanced Construction and Building Technology
1/2
Advanced Construction and Building Technology
This earth has been facilitating us with a good environment for
living and no other place is better
suitable for human beings. But the population is increasing day
by day and the worlds most
livable lands are occupied. Moreover continuous process of
industrialization and modernization
made the earth more vulnerable to the natural calamities and it
is very clear from the recent
happenings of Tsunami, earthquakes and other frequent disasters.
So it is now become a very
essential issue for the human existence in the world that we
should incline to build our structures
more nature-friendly.
From the earlier point of view, building construction means to
make infrastructure to live or
work in sophistically. But the definition of constructing
buildings is changed and modern people
now have to think more about the best possible usability of
spaces, resources and longevity of
the infrastructure against all natural forces. Although it has
been an aspiration of men to create
mega-structures and high-rises from the very beginning of the
human history to express power,
knowledge and wealth but modern designers are concerned more
about the nature, resource,outburst population. Green revolution
also works as an inspiration for the constructions.
As engineers are tending more and more to build high-rises and
heavy structures they have to
follow certain regulations and also have to invent more ideas to
elongate the sustainability of
these structures. For instance, Woolworth Building (241meter) in
New York was completed in
1913 and Willis Tower (442 meter) in Chicago was completed in
1974. The 2nd
building is
almost double in height as the first building. The material
needed for the resistance of wind or
lateral load increases squarely as the wind speed increases. So
naturally the wind force is 4 times
on the Willis Tower as on the Woolworth Building. The highest
skyscraper in the world now is
Burj Khalifa (828 meter) in Dubai which was completed in 2010
and obviously it has to resist
more force than others. For this reason engineers are required
not only to have more and moreknowledge about the forces and
environmental effects on a building but also they should
possess
the ability to create more ideas according to their experience.
For instance, it is discovered by the
modern engineers that the efficient structural systems like
flexible exterior frames, inner core of
stiff wind bracing frames are more suitable for the
mega-structures than the rigid frames albeit
those structural systems lessen the structures total weight.
Thats why U-shaped frames, H-beam,I-beam etc. were introduced in
building technologies.
Advanced construction and building technology can be said is
inspired by the highest possible
utilization of available spaces, resources, labors and money
which also secures the safety and
comfort for the users as well as the environment too. Rapid
globalization and modernization led
the nations to adopt and practice advanced technology in their
constructions. This technologyalso allows the recycling of the
materials and resources. So it is obvious that proper utilization
of
the advanced technology is very advantageous for the climate of
the world.
Though advanced technologies still are not frequently used as
the standard construction
technologies which involve the utilization of masonry, timber
and concrete but it is gaining more
and more acceptance day by day. From World Housing Encyclopedia,
advanced technologies
include seismic isolation and passive-energy dissipation
devices. The concept of Seismic
7/31/2019 Advanced Construction and Building Technology
2/2
isolation of the buildings came from the idea of stabilizing the
structures against earthquake. It
was introduced in 1980s in USA, New Zealand and Soviet Union. In
this isolation process, the
whole building structure is made isolated from the ground but
still can hold the upper section in
the proper position and disallowing it to displaced and fell out
from the specific ground. So the
earthquake is not transmitted into the upper building structure
and sustainability increases.
Flexibility and damping elements are used in seismic isolating
at the base. Another concept ofadvanced technology- Passive energy
dissipation system is an upgraded alternative to the seismic
isolation. This system is applied through yielding mild steel,
sliding friction, motion of structural
elements within viscous fluid, viscoelastic and polymeric
materials. The commercial forms of
these materials are viscous fluid dampers, metallic dampers,
friction dampers, tuned mass
dampers etc.
Advanced technologies are becoming more adoptable, precise and
reliable because of the
introduction of automation and robotics. Those systems help in
determining the loads, climatic
and environmental effect on a structure and provide more
accessibility, mobility thus saving a lot
of time, labor and money. To tackle the demographic, ecological
and socio-economic challenges
resulted from the globalization we should be prepared with our
arsenal of advanced technology.Continuation of the right
utilization of advanced technological evolution can make the world
a
better place for human existence.
(This essay is own creation of Mohammad Jamal Uddin except some
statistical data taken from
the resources available on internet)
