El Achkar, Christ Elie(Notre Dame University-Louaize, 2023-05)
The main objective of this study is to compare the flexural behavior of beams retrofitted at the tension face with Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRP) such as Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP), Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP), with cementitious fibrous composites such as Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC) and Slurry Infiltrated Fiber Reinforced Concrete (SIFCON). The tests were conducted on cast-in-place concrete beams in a single-point load bending application. Two batches of beams were considered unreinforced and reinforced with steel reinforcement at the tension face. The study aimed to ...
Purpose –This study aims to identify and assess the most important factors affecting the quality of construction projects in Lebanon before and after the economic crisis (in 2019), and to determine their impact on the cost overrun of the project.
Design/Methodology/Approach –A quantitative statistical analysis was conducted to achieve the research objectives through a survey of 22 factors (distributed under 6 categories) filled out by 80 engineers working in the construction field. Collected data were used to rank and categorize these factors and to determine their impact on the cost overrun ...
Salameh, Peter R.(Notre Dame University-Louaize, 2022)
This thesis aimed to study the structure of an on grid photovoltaic system and to get by the aspect of integration of such system to the power network. The integration method can have different topologies and is usually based on power electronic devices controlled by dedicated controllers. In order to transform the direct output signal of the PV panels to an alternative signal connected to the utility network, the Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) was used in this study. The challenges linked to this type of converters are associated with its sub-modules balancing control, the ...
The main and overarching objective of this research endeavor is to devise data-driven soft modeling tools that can provide fast, fairly accurate and computationally efficient predictions for: (1) the thermal conductivity of particulate composites (PC), and (2) the level of shielding provided by a porous structure from a high-yield explosion. The computational tools developed in this work constitute cheaper and faster alternatives to the relatively large and cumbersome numerical simulations or experimental testing campaigns that would otherwise be needed to make predictions of comparable ...
Construction Enterprise Resource Planning (CERP) systems are built to fit the needs of
construction companies. The major modules that are required to be within this system
include management of general contractors, subcontractors, financial work, accounting,
payroll, logistics, workflow processes... The collected data are stored within one unique
database. However, CERP systems are difficult to standardize and fit the need of all the
companies.
Hence, this research focuses on the elaboration of a framework that displays the
minimum required modules to be included within a CERP, specifically ...
The concept of transit-oriented development (TOD) has been gaining noticeable appreciation in cities that pursue urban and transport sustainability. This term was coined in the late 1980s when the alarming outcomes of vehicle-dependent planning started to materialize. TOD is characterized basically by mixed land-use that fosters the use of transit services by minimalizing the walking distance to its service point. Thus, a transit station must be centered based on the neighborhood typologies to encourage the largest number of people who live or work near the station to use transit as a transport ...
Al Khoury, Ibrahim Gaby(Notre Dame University-Louaize, 2021)
Qatar is an arid country with limited natural freshwater resources due to low rainfall and high evapotranspiration. The country, having the third largest natural gas reserve in the world, relies primarily on fossil fuel-powered seawater desalination to meet domestic water demand, estimated at around 600 liters per capita per day. Additionally, groundwater is being depleted to supply the agricultural sector, which consumes about 230 million cubic meters of freshwater each year. Hence, this paper aimed at improving the sustainability of the water management scheme of Qatar by developing a combination ...
El Meouchy, Paolo(Notre Dame University-Louaize, 2020)
Public authorities around the world have been historically responsible for the management of their municipal solid waste. The burden of this task has been increasing through the years considering the rapid expansion of urban cities and their corresponding populations along with a decline in land availability. The escalating figures in municipal solid waste generation increased the technical and financial challenges faced by local authorities, especially in developing countries. In the case of Lebanon, political conflicts and corruption, weak law enforcement and lack of planning in addition to ...
Salameh, Lourdes(Notre Dame University Louaize, 2020)
The current coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) affected 218 territories around the world, infected more than 60 million people, and killed more than one million. It is expected that the number of cases will continue to increase unless a vaccine becomes available to all countries. However, the coronavirus outbreak is much more than a health crisis. This pandemic poses numerous challenges on different sectors and exacerbates existing
inequalities. COVID-19 exposed major problems with our cities and highlighted their limited resilience. In an ever-more interconnected world (social, environmental, ...
Civil infrastructure systems such as transportation networks, power gridlines, water and wastewater networks, telecommunication services are vital modules creating the backbones of modern cities. Transportation networks are key components of civil infrastructure systems that can impede societal and commercial events, and impair post-disaster evacuation, response and recovery. Performance of transportation networks under natural hazards shed light on the necessity to assess their fundamental topological properties in order to provide and correlate appropriate resilience measurements to comprehend ...
Given the high complexity of construction projects, these projects carry numerous inherent risks and uncertainties. Such risks if managed properly can turn threats into opportunities. With the current decline in the construction and economic sectors in Lebanon, the application of risk management in construction projects has become imperative and more needed than ever. This master’s thesis looks into the current state of-the-practice of risk management in construction projects in Lebanon focusing on procurement methods in these projects to identify the main obstacles in its application. The thesis ...
The general circulation models (GCMs) projections of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicate an increasing temperature and a drying trend in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region by the end of the 21st century. Accordingly, Lebanon’s water resources are expected to be heavily affected, and concomitantly, urban water demand is expected to increase. In this context, this thesis focuses on the impact of climate change on water demand in Greater Beirut Area (GBA) and the water flow in El Kalb basin – which feeds 70% of GBA population. This study is the first to: (1) ...
While concrete, steel and Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) jackets are the most commonly used types of jackets in the industry to confine columns, the focus of this research is to study and compare the compressive behavior of concrete cylinders confined with different types of fibrous composites; including Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC), Fiber Reinforced Mortar (FRM), and Slurry Infiltrated Fiber Concrete (SIFC). This study will provide a broad understanding of the behavior of the different confinement types used to retrofit columns to resist detrimental loads including blast and impact. The study ...
Lebanon is considered naturally water rich compared to other countries in the Middle East and North Africa region owing to heavy rainfall and snowfall in winter season and the prevalence of Karstic geology. Though, overexploitation and mismanagement of water resources along with poor sanitation practices have led to water shortage and groundwater contamination. Consequently, there is a need to assess the groundwater flow and contaminant transport in Karstic aquifers in order to have a better understanding of groundwater movement through karst conduits until reaching a certain discharge or ...
Globalization has had a significant impact on all businesses and industries including construction. It reduced distance and time between all points of the world in near real-time which stimulated international projects. Lebanon as well as the Arab Gulf, have always had a culturally mixed societies and always experienced cultural differences due to many reasons. Working with people from different cultures can present a unique set of problems and challenges. The concept of Cultural Intelligence (CQ) looks at the ability of effectively adapting to different cultures. On the surface, it would seem ...
Sustainable development has been tackled for the last four decades in various fields from education, management, climate change to politics all over the world. One of the major challenges faced by humanity nowadays is achieving the economic sustainability of our infrastructure facilities. To fulfill it, an economic tool called Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA), which takes into account all costs of an asset during its lifetime, is being used. In some countries, this technique is being incorporated in the procurement. It is used as a decisive factor in the procurement of their infrastructure ...
In wind turbine generating systems, Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Synchronous
Generators (AFPMSG) are becoming increasingly popular due to many advantages
they offer. Nevertheless, these machines suffer from the so-called cogging torque
resulting from the interaction between the permanent magnets and the slotted
armature. Not only it causes noise and vibration, this cogging torque affects the selfstart
ability of wind turbines at low wind speed. Therefore, the aerodynamic torque
•generated by the rotor blades should overcome the cogging torque anytime during the
operation otherwise the wind ...
Smart grid engineering is the key for an optimized use of extensive energy resources which allows the hybrid renewable energy sources microgrid to be integrated and therefore dispatch their power generation to the grid over long distance DC transmission lines using the HDVC transmission technologies. However, the required number of generating units of wind-turbine generators and photovoltaic arrays, and the associated storage capacity for standalone and/or grid connected hybrid microgrid is determined using a sizing algorithm based on the observation that the state of charge of battery should ...
The purpose of this thesis is to design and test a device that measures the electrical parameter sofa certain material. This device can have different applications, like assisting in land mines detection, agricultural or construction purposes. In order to measure the electrical parameters, this device or probe uses two wideband planar dipole antennas that operate in the frequency range between 3 and 6 GHz. The transmitted signal between the antennas, (S21), is measured and then compared to a database obtained by simulating different materials using the Finite Difference Time Domain Method. Based ...
Purpose – The topic of this thesis focuses on the Lebanese Construction Industry as it has been lagging in terms of technological advancements in the last few years. The purpose of this thesis is to find out the impact of technological advancements, specifically Building Information Management and Modeling, on the Lebanese Construction Industry, its penetration in the market in Lebanon in comparison to the MENA region, in addition to estimating the payback period of investments in BIM for small and medium engineering consultancy offices.
Design/methodology/approach-Philosophic Approach and ...