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This paper presents the application of an iterative penalty method for the design of water distribution pipe networks. The optimal design of pipe networks is first recasted into an unconstrained minimization problem via the use of the penalty method, which is then solved by a global mathematical optimization tool. The difficulty of using a trial and error procedure to select the proper value of the penalty parameter is overcome by an iterative use of the penalty parameter. The proposed method reduces the original problem with a priori unknown penalty parameter to a series of similar optimization problems with known and increasing value of the penalty parameters. An iterative use of the penalty parameter is then implemented and its effect on the final solution is investigated. Two different methods of fitting, namely least squares and cubic splines, are used to continuously approximate the discrete pipe cost function and are tested by numerical examples. The method is applied to some benchmark examples and the results are compared with other global optimization approaches. The proposed method is shown to be comparable to existing global optimization methods.

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Landslides are major natural hazards which not only result in the loss of human life but also cause economic burden on the society. Therefore, it is essential to develop suitable models to evaluate the susceptibility of slope failures and their zonations. This paper scientifically assesses various methods of landslide susceptibility zonation in GIS environment. A comparative study of Weights of Evidence (WOE), Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), and Generalized Linear Regression (GLR) procedures for landslide susceptibility zonation is presented. Controlling factors such as lithology, landuse, slope angle, slope aspect, curvature, distance to fault, and distance to drainage were considered as explanatory variables. Data of 151 sample points of observed landslides in Mazandaran Province, Iran, were used to train and test the approaches. Small scale maps (1:1,000,000) were used in this study. The estimated accuracy ranges from 80 to 88 percent. It is then inferred that the application of WOE in rating maps’ categories and ANN to weight effective factors result in the maximum accuracy.

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Household trip production is not a constant parameter and vary based on socio-economic characteristics. Even households in each category (households with constant socio-economic characteristics) produce several numbers of trips. Purpose of present study is to model the variation of household trip production rate in urban societies. In order to do this, concept of the Bayesian Inference has been used. The city of Isfahan was selected as case study. First, likelihood distribution function was determined for number of household trips, separating odd and even trips. In order to increase precision of the function, the composed likelihood distribution function was utilized. To insert households’ socio-economic variables in the process, disaggregate 2 calibrated model were used at the likelihood distribution function. Statistical indices and 2 test show that likelihood distribution function of numbers of household trip production follows the Poisson distribution. The final composed likelihood distribution was determined based on Bayesian inference. Related function was created with compilation of mean parameter distribution function (Gamma distribution) and numbers of household trip production (Poisson distribution). Finally, disaggregate model was put at final composed probability function instead of mean parameter. Results show that with Bayesian inference method, it would be possible to model the variation of household trip production rate in urban societies. Also it would be possible to put socio-economic characteristics in the model to predict likelihood of real produced trips (not average produced trips) for each household's category.

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Large size direct shear tests (i.e.300 x 300mm) were conducted to investigate the interaction between clay reinforced with geogrids embedded in thin layers of sand. Test results for the clay, sand, clay-sand, clay-geogrid, sandgeogrid and clay-sand-geogrid are discussed. Thin layers of sand including 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14mm were used to increase the interaction between the clay and the geogrids. Effects of sand layer thickness, normal pressure and transverse geogrid members were studied. All tests were conducted on saturated clay under unconsolidated-undrained (UU) conditions. Test results indicate that provision of thin layers of high strength sand on both sides of the geogrid is very effective in improving the strength and deformation behaviour of reinforced clay under UU loading conditions. Using geogrids embedded in thin layers of sand not only can improve performance of clay backfills but also it can provide drainage paths preventing pore water pressure generations. For the soil, geogrid and the normal pressures used, an optimum sand layer thickness of 10mm was determined which proved to be independent of the magnitude of the normal pressure used. Effect of sand layers combined with the geogrid reinforcement increased with increase in normal pressures. The improvement was more pronounced at higher normal pressures. Total shear resistance provided by the geogrids with transverse members removed was approximately 10% lower than shear resistance of geogrids with transverse members.

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Although there is enough knowledge indicating on the influence of frequency content of input motion on the deformation demand of structures, state-of-the-practice seismic studies use the intensity measures such as peak ground acceleration (PGA) which are not frequency dependent. The v max/a max ratio of strong ground motions can be used in seismic hazard studies as the representative of frequency content of the motions. This ratio can be indirectly estimated by the attenuation models of PGA and PGV which are functions of earthquake magnitude, source to site distance, faulting mechanism, and local site conditions. This paper presents new predictive equations for v max/a max ratio based on genetic programming (GP) approach. The predictive equations are established using a reliable database released by Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) for three types of faulting mechanisms including strikeslip, normal and reverse. The proposed models provide reasonable accuracy to estimate the frequency content of site ground motions in practical projects. The results of parametric study demonstrate that v max/a max increases through increasing earthquake moment magnitude and source to site distance while it decreases with increasing the average shear-wave velocity over the top 30m of the site.

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Cash flow forecasting is an indispensable tool for construction companies, and is essential for the survival

of any contractor at all stages of the work. The time available for a detailed pre-tender cash flow forecast is often

limited. Therefore, contractors require simpler and quicker techniques which would enable them to forecast cash flow

with reasonable accuracy. Forecasting S-curves in construction in developing countries like Iran in compare with

developed countries has many difficulties. It is because of uncertainty and unknown situation in nature of construction

industry of these countries. Based on knowledge of authors there is a little attempt for cash flow forecasting in

construction industry of Iran. As a result authors produced An S-curve equation for construction project from historical

data which has reasonable accuracy. A sample of 20 completed projects was collected and classified in to the three

different groups. In order to model S-curves for each group, a simple and reliable method of S curve fitting has been

used. S-curves were fitted into each group by using different techniques. Errors incurred when fitting these curves were

measured and compared with those associates in fitting individual projects. At the end, accuracy of each model has

been calculated and an equation has been proposed to forecast S-curves.

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Pullback test has no scrupulous theoretical establishment. It is based on the hypothesis that the response of

the structure can be related to the response of an equivalent single degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system. This implies that

the response is controlled by a single mode. In fact, the steel frame of each safe room, which is introduced within the

unreinforced masonry buildings for protecting the lives of residents in catastrophic earthquake failures, contains a

SDOF structural system. In pullback test, the steel frame carries its gravity load first, and then it will be pushed under

an incremental lateral roof displacement pattern, which is imposed to its center of mass. This paper expresses the

results of 13 pullback tests executed by the authors on the steel frames of safe rooms. The results show that pullback

test is a practical method for seismic performance evaluation of safe rooms. Also the performance of these frames

located in a collapsing three storey masonry building is presented with favorable conclusions. In fact, the results of

pullback test of the safe room located at the ground-floor level were compared with the requirements of Iranian code

for seismic resistant design and it was concluded that the steel frame had an acceptable performance against seismic

effects.

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Railway service terminals are the places of a railway network usually equipped with costly technology based

on highly complicated technological procedures demanding a high degree of coordination and control skills. Design

of these systems and the organization of their operation should facilitate reaching to the required capacity together

with high quality of service processes as well as minimal costs of resources. Due to the complexity of such systems, a

simulation model seems to be the only suitable tool for performing investigations under realistic conditions. The paper

focuses on the possible utilization of simulation methods to support the design and optimisation of infrastructure,

operation, and process control algorithms in railway terminals. The paper also deals with the most important

properties and possibilities offered by the simulation tool Villon and comments on the experience gained during its

utilization. The tool supports tactical (mid-term) and strategic (long-term) planning usually related to infrastructural

or operational proposals which are supposed to guarantee the optimal (or at least effective) behaviour of the modelled

terminal.

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Inclined retaining walls with slopes less than perpendicular are appropriate candidates in several

engineering problems. Yet, to the knowledge of authors, only a few analytical solution for calculation of active earth

pressure on such walls, which will be usually smaller than the same pressure on vertical ones, has been presented

neither in research papers nor in design codes. Considering limit equilibrium concept in current research, a new

formulation is proposed for determination of active earth pressure, angle of failure wedge and application point of

resultant force for inclined walls. Necessary parameters are extracted assuming the pseudo-static seismic coefficient

to be valid in earthquake conditions. Moreover, based on Horizontal Slices Method (HSM) a new formulation is

obtained for determining the characteristics of inclined walls in granular and or frictional cohesive soils. Findings of

present analysis are then compared with results from other available methods in similar conditions and this way, the

validity of proposed methods has been proved. Finally according to the results of this research, a simplified relation

for considering the effect of slope in reduction of active earth pressure and change in failure wedge in inclined

retaining walls has been proposed.

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Ground differential movements due to faulting have been observed to cause damage to engineered structures

and facilities. Although surface fault rupture is not a new problem, there are only a few building codes in the world

containing some type of provisions for reducing the risks. Fault setbacks or avoidance of construction in the proximity

to seismically active faults, are usually supposed as the first priority. In this paper, based on some 1-g physical

modelling tests, clear perspectives of surface fault rupture propagation and its interaction with shallow rigid

foundations are presented. It is observed that the surface fault rupture could be diverted by massive structures seated

on thick soil deposits. Where possible the fault has been deviated by the presence of the rigid foundation, which

remained undisturbed on the footwall. It is shown that the setback provision does not give generally enough assurance

that future faulting would not threaten the existing structures.

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Considerations on the explosion resistant design of special infrastructures have increased in the recent

years. Amongst the various types of infrastructures, road and railway tunnels have a unique importance due to their

vital role in connection routes in emergency conditions. In this study, the explosion effects of a projectile impacting on

a railway tunnel located in a jointed rock medium has been simulated using 2D DEM code. Primarily, a GP2000

projectile has been considered as a usual projectile and its penetration depth plus its crater diameter were calculated

in rock mass. The blast pressure was, then, calculated via empirical formula and applied on the boundary of crater as

input load. Finally, the wave pressure propagation through the jointed rock medium was investigated. In part of the

study a sensitivity analysis has been carried out on jointed rock parameters such as joint orientation, dynamic modulus

and damping ratio. Their effects on tunnel lining axial force as well as bending moment have also been investigated.

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Seismic piezocone device (SCPTu) together with Resonant Column and Cyclic Triaxial test apparatus are

employed to measure small strain shear modulus (G0) of carbonate sandy and clayey soils of southern coasts of Iran.

A large area of southern regions of Iran is formed from clay, silt and sand. In this study, maximum shear modulus that

is derived from both field (by seismic piezocone) and laboratory (by Resonant Column and Cyclic Triaxial) tests on

soil samples from the southern region, indicated a meaningful effect of sample disturbance. Results show that in

laboratory tests, loose samples tend to become denser and therefore exhibit greater stiffness whereas dense samples

tend to become looser, showing a reduction in stiffness. According to the results of the present study, there are narrow

limits of soils shear moduli for which the laboratory tests and the field measurements yield approximately the same

amounts. This limit of shear moduli is about 30-50(MPa) for clay deposits and 70-100 (MPa) for sandy deposits. Since

the shear moduli of soils in small strains can also be computed from the shear wave velocity, also correlations based

on parameters derived from SCPTu test for shear wave velocity determination of sandy and clayey soils of the studied

area are presented. This study shows that shear wave velocity can be related to both corrected tip resistance and total

normal stress. The measurements of the damping ratio and shear module, because of a great disturbance of stiff

deposits during the sampling process and also due to considerable differences between the laboratory and field

results, by the laboratory approaches are not reliable and advised.

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Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance (HELP) model is one of the most accepted tools to simulate

the hydrological attributes of landfills. Although some major deviations from real values has been reported about the

calculated results for leachate generation by HELP model but other researchers and/or engineers in practice have

used it in some places to estimate amount of leachate produced in the landfills. On the Other hand this model is

elaborated and mainly used in developed countries with the waste having low moisture content and also in climatic

conditions with high precipitation. This research investigated the applicability of the model in arid areas, by

construction of two 30m× 50m (effective horizontal length) test cells in Kahrizak landfill (longitude=51°, 20',

latitude= 35° 27' degrees), and monitoring the real leachate generation from each one. A set of field capacity and

saturated water conductivity tests were also performed to determine basic hydrologic properties of municipal waste

landfilled. A comparison was made between values calculated by HELP model and recorded values, shows that a

prediction of leachate on annual basis can be done by HELP model with acceptable accuracy but when the infiltration

of water to waste body increases due to leachate production, the model intents to underestimate water storage capacity

of the landfill, which lead to deviation of calculated values from real ones.

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Elevated water tanks as one of the main lifeline elements are the structures of high importance. Since they are extremely vulnerable under lateral forces, their serviceability performance during and after strong earthquakes is a matter of concern. As such, in recent years, the seismic behavior of water tanks has been the focus of a significant amount of studies. In the present work, three reinforced concrete elevated water tanks, with a capacity of 900 cubic meters and height of 25, 32 and 39 m were subjected to an ensemble of earthquake records. The behavior of concrete material was assumed to be nonlinear. Seismic demand of the elevated water tanks for a wide range of structural characteristics was assessed. The obtained results revealed that scattering of responses in the mean minus standard deviation and mean plus standard deviation are approximately 60% to 70 %. Moreover, simultaneous effects of mass increase and stiffness decrease of tank staging led to increase in the base shear, overturning moment, displacement and hydrodynamic pressure equal to 10 - 20 %, 13 - 32 %, 10 - 15 % and 8 - 9 %, respectively.

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 According to the Iranian code of practice for seismic resistant design of buildings, soft storey phenomenon happens in a storey when the lateral stiffness of the storey is lower than 70% of the stiffness of the upper storey, or if it is lower than 80% of the average stiffness of the three upper stories. In the combined structural systems containing moment frames and shear walls, it is possible that the shear walls of the lower stories crack however, this cracking may not occur in the upper stories. The main objective of this research is to investigate the possibility of having soft storey phenomenon in the storey, which is bellow the uncracked walls. If the tension stresses of shear walls obtained from ultimate load combinations exceed the rupture modulus of concrete, the walls are assumed to be cracked. For calculating the tension stresses of shear walls in different conditions, 10 concrete structures containing 15 stories were studied. Each of the structures was investigated according to the obligations of Iranian, Canadian, and American concrete building codes. Five different compressive strengths of 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 MPa were assumed for the concrete of the structures. In other words, 150 computerized analyses were conducted in this research. In each analysis, 5 load combinations were imposed to the models. It means, the tension stresses of the shear walls in each storey, were calculated 750 times. The average wall to total stiffness ratios of the buildings were from 0.49 to 0.95, which was quite a wide range. The final conclusion was that the soft storey phenomenon did not happen in any of the structures investigated in this research. 

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Structural fire safety capacity of concrete is very complicated because concrete materials have considerable variations. In this paper, constitutive models and relationships for concrete subjected to fire are developed, which are intended to provide efficient modeling and to specific fire-performance criteria of the behavior of concrete structures exposed to fire. They are developed for unconfined concrete specimens that include residual compressive and tensile strengths, compressive elastic modulus, compressive and tensile stress-strain relationships at elevated temperatures. In this paper, the proposed relationships at elevated temperatures are compared with experimental result tests and pervious existing models. It affords to find several advantages and drawbacks of present stress-strain relationships and using these results to establish more accurate and general compressive and tensile stress-strain relationships. Additional experimental test results are needed in tension and the other main parameters at elevated temperatures to establish well-founded models and to improve the proposed relationships. The developed models and relationships are general, rational, and have good agreement with experimental data.

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 Puducherry is a coastal region in India where the growth of Ulva fasciata (Delile) is very abundant on all marine structures. Though the detrimental effect of this macro algae Ulva fasciata is a secondary one, its effect has to ascertain. To know its effect, the basic mechanism by which Ulva fasciata deteriorates concrete structures, M20 grade concrete cubes were casted and kept in the coastal area where there is abundant growth of Ulva fasciata and also laboratory simulation has been carried out. To ascertain the detrimental effect by the macro algae on concrete surface, samples were collected from the concrete cubes kept in the coastal area and also from the laboratory simulated one. The collected samples were analyzed by SEM, EDX and XRD to establish the degree of deterioration done by marine algae on concrete surface. The SEM and EDX results showed that there is a remarkable change in the base materials viz., Ca and Si content and XRD results revealed the absence of Calcium Hydroxide. Both the results confirmed the biodeterioration of concrete by the marine green algae.

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 Superior performances of Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) in fresh state to achieve a more uniform distribution encourage the addition of fibers in concrete which is a motivation for structural application of fiberreinforced concrete. Fiber addition reduces the workability of Self-Compacting Fiber Reinforced Concrete (SCFRC). To provide required workability of the SCFRC, more paste is needed in the mixture. Therefore, the coarse aggregate content shall be adjusted to maintain its workability. The purpose of this study is to drive a model for estimating the aggregate contents for SCFRC. This model is based on constant covering mortar thickness theory. In this paper, all parameters which are participated in coarse aggregate content are discussed and presented in a relation. Then another relation is developed for predicting the void volume in the fibrous concrete. These relations are combined and a mathematical relation is deduced for predicting the coarse volume content in the function of the fiber factors. Proposed model is validated by conducting a rheological test. The result shows that the proposed model is simple, applicable and can be used as starting point in practical project.      Finally in order to complete the proposed model, another relation has been derived that can show the interaction of parameters involved in SCFRC rheology behavior. 

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 Roadways have a high potential for utilization of large volume of the fly ash stabilized mixes. In this study, an attempt has been made to investigate the use of Class F fly ash mixed with lime precipitated electroplating waste sludge–cement as a base material in highways. A series of tests were performed on specimens prepared with fly ash, cement and lime precipitated waste sludge. California bearing ratio (CBR) tests were conducted for 70%-55%fly ash, 8%cement, and 30%-45%waste sludge combinations. Results show that the load bearing strength of the mix is highly dependent on the waste sludge content, cement as well as curing period. The CBR value of fly ash mixed with electroplating waste sludge and cement has been increased to manifold and results the reduction in the construction cost of the pavement. The study also encourages the use of two potentially hazardous wastes for mass scale utilization without causing danger to the environment, vegetation, human and animal lives. 

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Cost optimization of the reinforced concrete cantilever soil retaining wall of a given height satisfying some structural and geotechnical design constraints is performed utilizing harmony search and improved harmony search algorithms. The objective function considered is the cost of the structure, and design is based on ACI 318-05. This function is minimized subjected to design constraints. A numerical example of the cost optimization of a reinforced concrete cantilever retaining wall is presented to illustrate the performance of the presented algorithms and the necessary sensitivity analysis is performed.