Cape Town faces a complex and interlinked set of climate-related challenges, including recurring droughts, flooding, intensifying heat stress and biodiversity loss. These impacts are further amplified by rapid urbanization, pollution (often due to poor infrastructure and service delivery), ageing water …

Privacy concerns can potentially make camera-based object classification unsuitable for robot navigation. To address this problem, we propose a novel object classification system using only a 2D-LiDAR sensor on mobile robots. The proposed system enables semantic understanding of the environment by applying …

In this study, two different numerical methods are used to model the structural behavior and failure mechanisms of unreinforced masonry (URM) walls under in-plane static loading using two simplified micro modelling approaches: The Discrete Finite Element Method (FDEM) and the Applied Element Method (AEM). …

This thesis investigates the restoration and structural reinforcement of a historically protected 19th-century residential building on the island of Hydra, Greece. Undertaken within the strict constraints of Greek heritage law (ΦΕΚ 594Δ/1978), the project aims to enhance structural safety and environmental …

Already for many centuries the only hill castle of the Netherlands is kept in the present picturesque, yet ruined state. Its fate was sealed by historic twists, which brought the willful loss of its strategic status. Today the site is protected by the monumental ruins and is conserved as part of the …

Research on the structural response of large, multi-story timber buildings under horizontal loading conditions, such as wind and earthquakes, remains limited in the current literature. In particular, there is a need for improved understanding of the nonlinear behavior of these structures and how energy …

Post-earthquake structural damage shows that out-of-plane (OOP) wall collapse is one of the most common failure mechanisms in unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings. This issue is particularly critical in Groningen, a province located in the northern part of the Netherlands, where low-intensity induced …

The seismic assessment of the out-of-plane (OOP) behaviour of unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings is essential since the OOP is one of the primary collapse mechanisms in URM buildings. It is influenced by several parameters, including the poor connections between structural elements, a weakness highlighted …

''This paper aims to analyze the behavior of experimentally tested unreinforced masonry walls subjected to in-plane loading. Monotonic load analyses are conducted using FEM and AEM modeling approaches. The models presented here are based on the assumption of both unit and mortar joints modeled as solid …

Out-of-plane (OOP) collapse is one of the most observed damage types in masonry structures during strong earthquakes. OOP strength of a masonry wall depends on several parameters such as the dimensions of the wall, vertical restoring force, boundary conditions and material properties, which are parameters …