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• Prefabricated enclosure wall panel using date palm midribs stud frame without wood. • Panel consists of 2 compact latticed faces over latticed studs frame with braces. • Composite I-beam action achieved by orthogonal faces lattices for dual stiffness. • Full-scale panel built by craftsman shows high sturdiness, strength and workability. • Finite Element Method analysis safe at allowable axial and transverse loads of SIP. Despite the environmental and economic benefits of prefabrication, its applications in Egypt remain limited due to the lack of trained builders and manufacturers. However, prefabrication is actively adopted in traditional date palm midribs handicrafts industries such as furniture and light partitions. This paper launches novel versatile utilization to revive market of date palm midribs industry. Innovated date palm midribs-based prefabricated enclosure wall panel, ModPalma, is a stud frame panel made entirely from midribs without supporting timber frame. Conceptualization of ModPalma was conducted through reflecting design fundamentals of lignocellulose-based commercial wall panels on traditional prefabrication techniques employed by common craftsmen. Constructional efficiency was assessed by building a full-size panel and Finite Element Method structural analysis of the executed details. The completed free-standing panel, built by craftsman with usual tools, indicated the high sturdiness, durability, workability and coherence of the design. The digital structural analysis showed that design was safe under loads exceeding allowable axial and transverse loads of standard Structural Insulated panels. Further research is to address enhancing the panel's structural and thermal performances, as well as investigating economic feasibility and marketing strategies needed to reintroduce ModPalma as cost-efficient and clever alternative to conventional wall panels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rigid Inclusions have been increasingly used as a successful technique for improving soft clay deposits. This technique was first introduced by Menard in the 1990s and is known commercially as Controlled Modulus Columns (CMC's) [1]. Unlike ordinary piles that transfer the entire external loads to the stiffer-bearing soil layers, rigid inclusions are mainly used to reduce the total and differential settlements by reducing the external loads transferred to the soft soil layers. One of the challenging tasks associated with this type of improvement is to reasonably estimate the ground deformations under different loading conditions [2]. Previous research focused mainly on getting reliable estimates of the ground movements and the straining actions acting on the rigid inclusions; however, the importance of the installation effect on the predicted deformations and straining actions was not clearly considered. The current paper aims to develop a realistic approach that takes into consideration the installation effect of rigid inclusions by utilizing the cavity expansion theory to estimate the improvement in the surrounding soil properties and accordingly enhance the accuracy of estimating the deformations and the straining actions. A case study of a zone loading test performed in New Mansoura City, Egypt, is analyzed utilizing the three-dimensional finite element method, taking into consideration the installation effect of the rigid inclusion by applying radial deformations to the soil layers and estimating the enhanced soil parameters particularly the deformation modulus and the over consolidation ratio. Results of the study showed that considering the improved soil parameters results in a better prediction of the settlement values of footings resting on the improved soil compared to the measured values. The average error in the settlement values is reduced from about 74 % to about 24 % after considering the enhancement in the soil parameters due to the installation effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Adobe masonry vaults. • Failure of vaults. • Mud architecture. • Hassan Fathy. • 3D FEM nonlinear analyis. New Gourna, Egypt became an iconic place of mud-brick architecture in the middle of the 20th century as a result of the work of Hassan Fathy. In the dry climate of Egypt, mud-brick is an almost perfect building material, but the change in the environmental circumstances have caused damage to the structures. The present study aims to find the root of the problems to give chance to find suggestions for reliable strengthening. The paper focuses on one of the central buildings of New Gourna, the so-called Khan, designed by Hassan Fathy. The structure of the arcade of the Khan is modeled by advanced Finite Element method to simulate gradual deformation and failure with special attention to recent renovations that seem to have turned the condition of the structures even worse. As there are no experimental tests on the real materials, possible material models were collected for the analysis, and the most feasible result, which fits the visible failure was accepted. According to the analysis, the failure of the structure is caused by the wetting of the mud mortar layer between the limestone elements of the plinth. There were no significant signs of weakness in the foundation. The wetting of the mud mortar in the plinth is caused by the dramatical change in the ground-water level caused by the building of the Aswan High Dam and the dramatic change in the amount of wastewater caused by the increased population in New Gourna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]