Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek EZB

The research features analysis of user-experience based accessibility assessment and progress monitoring of buildings and public spaces; this analysis is used as a tool for facilitating the development of humane, socially sustainable and an inclusive urban environment and architecture. A group of users representing people with different kinds of disabilities, the elderly and families with children was created to assess the quality of physical access to the buildings of different functions and locations across the cities of Vilnius, Lithuania and Singapore, Republic of Singapore. A school, two hospitals, a rehabilitation centre and two offices were selected for access monitoring in Vilnius City, while a hotel, a café and two metro stations with public squares were chosen for access assessment in Singapore (Fig. 11). The article draws a comparative analysis on accessibility of the selected buildings in Vilnius City and in Singapore where the same pre-tested method was applied to assess accessibility in 2000 – 2017. The results show a definite improvement of access quality over time and identify the critical aspects of urban spaces and buildings. The segment of plot planning represents the lowest quality of access for all assessed building types as compared to the building segment and the external–internal element segments. The paper also draws conclusions that access improvement is a continuous process of implementing advanced urban policy instruments, and city planners can contribute to it by constantly analysing and presenting to public the monitoring data about the progress in accessibility of buildings and urban spaces. Comparing the assessment results between Vilnius City and Singapore – cities that are located in different global regions and in different socio-economic environments – provides a practical tool for benchmarking, monitoring and prioritising this process.

Adequate modeling of reinforced concrete (RC) cracking and, particularly post-cracking behavior, as one of the major sources of nonlinearity is an important and difficult task of deformation analysis. In smeared crack approach dealing with average cracking and strains, post-cracking effects can be modeled by stress-strain tension-stiffening relationships. Most of them were derived using test data of tension or shear RC members. Subsequently, these constitutive laws were applied for modeling of bending elements which behavior differs from tension or shear members. The authors have proposed an innovative ‘inverse’ technique for constitutive modeling of flexural RC elements. It is based on the smeared crack approach and 'layer’ section model. A number of investigations have shown that the ‘inverse’ technique becomes a powerful tool for constitutive analysis of flexural RC members, but its computation efficiency requires an additional study. This paper discusses the computational aspects of the ‘inverse’ procedure and reports recommendations improving efficiency of the constitutive modeling.

In this study, influence of the concrete-reinforcement bond on behaviour of the reinforced concrete tie is considered. The qualitative analysis of elongation and cracking of the tie is given. An original algorithm is suggested for modelling of the elongation of the tie under pure tension. The local behaviour of the concrete-reinforcement bond is approximated by a linear model whose parameters were estimated by minimizing relative error between experimental and calculated results. The global behaviour of the concrete and reinforcement for the analysis is assumed to be linear elastic. Performed assessment of the linear approximation showed that the accuracy of the suggested theoretical model depends on the geometry of the tie and length of the interval of the elongation in which the analysis is performed.