The performance-based payment structure has been widely used in infrastructure PPP projects. However, existing research absent on the structural unbalance problem of current This study aims to construct an optimal proportion total payment, and then design a for Firstly, definition performance-linked rate is introduced characterize payment. Secondly, based different objectives maximum social ben...

Elevated water tanks supported by the reinforced concrete (RC) Staging are classified as inverted pendulum structures. These are considered as structures of high post-earthquake importance and should remain functional after the seismic events. National codes of various countries recommend Force-Based Design (FBD) procedure for water tank staging, which does not ensure nonlinear performance leve...

In this paper an optimization framework is presented for automated performance-based seismic design of bridges consisting of multi-column RC pier substructures. The beneficial effects of fusing components on seismic performance of the quasi-isolated system is duly addressed in analysis and design. The proposed method is based on a two-step structural analysis consisting of a linear modal dynami...

Architectural design occupies a pivotal position in software engineering. It is during architectural design that crucial requirements such as performance, reliability, costs, etc., must be addressed. Yet the task of achieving these properties remains a difficult one. Senior architects with many years of experience have to make difficult choices to meet competing requirements. This task is made ...

The activated sludge process –the main biological technology usually applied to wastewater treatment plants (WWTP)– directly depends on live beings (microorganisms), and therefore, on unforeseen changes experimented by them. It could be possible to get a good plant operation if the supervisory control system is able to react to the changes and deviations of the system and can take the necessary...

In the current design process of complex products, such as aircraft, road vehicles, etc. (as well as their subsystems and related manufacturing hardware), there is a strong imbalance between the time absorbed by lengthy and repetitive activities and the limited time left for the investigation of multiple and innovative configurations, and what-if scenarios. From one side the market requires pro...