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Northern Cyprus has made efforts to lessen its reliance on oil products and increase the usage of solar energy and installation of Photovoltaic (PV) panels. The design of lightweight structures, such as PV panel mounting systems, is significantly influenced by the characteristics of wind loads. Inaccurate calculations or a failure to take the wind load into account have recently resulted in substantial financial losses and damage to equipment and structures. In addition, the installation manner has remarkable effects on the output and efficiency of the PV panels. The wind loads on roof-mounted PV panels are examined in this study by considering two different heights for the building and different span lengths based on two loading standards; ASCE 7-16 and TS498, and the results and accuracy of each result are evaluated. Additionally, 64 rooftop PV panel mounting systems were developed to investigate the effects of factors including beam span length, load resisting system, column arrangement, available roof area, and required spacing between arrays. Deflection of the beams, cost of the mounting systems, weight of the mounting systems, and aesthetics of the building after installing PV panels are evaluated in this study.

In this study, engineering features of insulation materials produced from egg white, perlite, gypsum and fly ash were investigated. Densities, water absorption ratios, ultrasonic velocities and thermal conductivity coefficients of samples were determined. Furthermore, linear absorption coefficient were measured by gamma ray saturation levels at 17.7, 26 and 60 keV energies. Thermal conductivity coefficients of the produced composites were found to be in the range 0.0882- 0.0995 Kcal/mh?C. Egg white decreased the linear absorption coefficients. Unit weights of samples were found to be dependent on their contents. As gypsum rate increased, unit weight also increased. As perlite rate increased thermal conductivity coefficient decreased. As egg white decreased the linear absorption coefficient decreased, also. The most important benefits of these types of materials are their being impermeable and perfectly compatible with the environment. These lighter type materials were/are compatible with Turkey and the Middle East environment. Egg white has been resistant to radiation. Hence, it is highly compatible with the environment. The compressive and flexural strengths of mortars decreased with the use of egg whites in mortar. So, egg white enhances the binding property of samples. In most cases, some organic and/or inorganic additives are used as well, to improve the physical and mechanical properties of mortar, such as egg whites and others. Finally, this study shows that it is possible to produce an insulation material resistant to sound and radiation by using egg white, perlite and fly ash. It is seen that the samples incorporating egg white could be used at hospitals, military and industrial facilities and shelters which are under radiation hazard. Furthermore, this insulation materials will be put to use in industry in Turkey after many experiments have been done on laboratory.

Insulation is vital to most building design and aims to decrease the need for heating and cooling. This paper presents a procedure to obtain an alternative insulation material made with waste newsprint papers, cane stalks, vermiculite, perlite, zinc borax and plaster. Towards this end, waste newsprint papers were kept in water for one day until they formed dough. Then, different rates of vermiculite, perlite, and zinc borax were added to the dough. This mortar was placed in moulds of 4 × 16 × 16 cm dimensions with its own weight. In the production of the samples plaster was used as the binder. For increasing the fire resistance vermiculite and zinc borax were added to the mix. In the production of some samples 5 mm cane stalks were placed in grid forms of single and double rows and pressure was applied. After the production of the samples their unit weights, water absorption ratios, thermal and ultra sound transmission coefficients , and flexural and compressive strengths were determined. The samples produced with an additional double row of canes had the lowest thermal conductivity and ultra-sound permeability coefficients . The requirements of the standards were satisfied by the flexural and compressive strengths of all samples. Samples with both types of grids had rather low thermal conductivity coefficients . The flexural strengths of these samples were found to be higher than those of the others. These results indicate that the investigated materials can be used for thermal and ultrasonic sound insulation purposes. Furthermore, ASTM Standards’ fire resistance requirements are also satisfied. Hence, the proposed product has potential as a candidate to be commercialized with further improvements in the future.

Cyprus lies in a seismic zone and the whole island (northern and southern part of the island) can be considered as an earthquake vulnerable area. In the last years, earthquake design of reinforced concrete structures becomes an important phenomenon due to unfortunate earthquakes. This amplifies the need to make such buildings earthquake resistant at a reasonably low cost. Most of the buildings are mid-rise reinforced concrete structures in two parts of the island. In this study, Turkish earthquake code 2007 (TEC2007) and Eurocode 8 (EC 8) design rules are examined and both regulations are compared for Northern Cyprus. Each design code use different seismic zoning maps with different peak ground acceleration values. These two regulations are compared with each other in terms of cost according to results of reinforced concrete structure in the range of three to seven storey ordinary apartment buildings, constructed in Nicosia. Key words: TEC2007, EC8, Cyprus.

This study characterizes the durability and mechanical performance of the concrete produced with basalt in different sizes. The innovation of this research lies in the fact that cement is replaced by basalt powder. Different percentages of basalt in powder and sand form were added as a partial replacement of cement and fine aggregate, respectively. The replacement percentages range from 5% to 40% by mass of cement and sand. The influence of basalt replacement on the behavior of concrete was evaluated through strength and durability tests on samples at different ages. The experiments were carried out to determine the effect of the basalt replacement on the different age concrete samples' compressive strengths, abrasion resistances, water absorptions, and freezing-thawing strengths, as well as sulfate resistances. The study showed that partial replacement of different forms of basalt with cement and sand leads to a significant improvement in the concrete aspects mentioned above. The compressive strengths of samples at 28 and 60 days were found to be 15% higher, while the abrasion and the capillary water absorption rates at these ages were found to be 32% and 23% lower than those of the reference sample, respectively. In addition, the compressive strength after freeze-thaw and 180 days sulphate resistance values were found to be 45% and 47% higher than those of the reference sample, respectively.

International Conference on Theory and Application of Fuzzy Systems and Soft Computing - ICAFS-2018 (13. : 2019 : Warsaw, Poland) A number of recent researches have compared machine learning techniques to find more reliable approaches to solve variety of engineering problems. In the present study, capability of canonical genetic programming (GP) technique to model daily electrical energy consumption (ED) as an alternative for electrical demand prediction was investigated. For this aim, using the most recent ED data recorded at northern part of Nicosia, Cyprus, we put forward two daily prediction scenarios subjected to train and validate by GPdotNET, an open source GP software. Minimizing root mean square error between the modeled and observed data as the objective function, the best prediction model at each scenario has been presented for the city. The results indicated the promising role of GP for daily ED prediction in Nicosia, however it suffers from lagged prediction that must be considered in practical application. No sponsor

In this paper, the dynamic analysis of non-planar non-symmetrical coupled shear walls on a rigid foundation has been considered. The analysis deals with coupled shear walls having a finite number of stiffening beams, whose properties vary from region to region along the height. In the analysis, Continuous Connection Method (CCM) and Vlasov's theory of thin-walled beams are employed to find the stiffness matrix of the structure. The system mass matrix has been found in the form of lumped masses at the heights where the unit forces have been applied. Following the free vibration analysis, uncoupled stiffness, damping and mass matrices have been found employing the mode superposition method. A time-history analysis has been carried out using Newmark numerical integration method to find the system displacement vector for every time step. Finally, a computer program has been prepared in Fortran language and an asymmetrical example has been solved. The results have been verified via comparisons with those of the SAP2000 structural analysis program using frame method and a perfect match has been observed. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. Firat University Scientific Research Projects Management Unit The financial support of the Scientific Research Projects Units of Cukurova University, Akdeniz University and Near East University are gratefully acknowledged.

WOS: 000286432400009, The lateral loads acting on high-rise reinforced concrete buildings are often resisted by specially arranged shear walls. Pierced shear walls weakened by doors, windows and corridors, necessitate particular attention, since they are highly indeterminate. In this study, the static analysis of non-planar pierced shear walls with yielded connections modelled as equivalent rotational springs is considered. To carry out a quick predesign of non-planar pierced shear walls, an elegant technique called Continuous Connection Technique (CCT) has been used in conjunction with Vlasov's theory of thin-walled beams. The governing differential equations, in the CCT, are the compatibility equations written for the vertical displacements at the midpoints of the connecting beams. There is a contribution pertaining to the semirigid beam-wall connections in these equations. The connecting beams are assumed to have the same properties and spacing along the entire height of the wall and all rotational springs have equal constants., Scientific Research Projects Units of Near East University; Akdeniz University, The financial support of the Scientific Research Projects Units of Near East University and Akdeniz University are gratefully acknowledged.

10th International Conference on Computational Structures Technology -- SEP 14-17, 2010 -- Valencia, SPAIN, WOS: 000392492105046, The dynamic analysis of non-planar non-symmetrical coupled shear walls on a rigid foundation has been considered in this paper. The analysis deals with coupled shear walls with a finite number of stiffening beams, the properties of which vary from region to region along the height. In this study, Continuous Connection Method (CCM) and Vlasov's theory of thin-walled beams are employed to find the stiffness matrix of the structure. The system mass matrix has been found in the form of lumped masses at the heights where the unit forces have been applied. Following the free vibration analysis, uncoupled stiffness, damping and mass matrices have been found employing the mode superposition method. A time-history analysis has been carried out using Newmark numerical integration method to find the system displacement vector for every time step. Finally, a computer program has been prepared in Fortran language and an asymmetrical example has been solved. The results have been verified via comparisons with those of the SAP2000 structural analysis program using frame method and a perfect match has been observed. This method is an effective method in terms of simplicity of its data and extremely short computation time for the predesign of high-rise buildings., Scientific Research Projects Unit of Akdeniz University, The financial support of the Scientific Research Projects Unit of Akdeniz University is gratefully acknowledged.

et al.;Numerical Applications in Engineering (IUSIANI) at ULPGC;Spanish Society for Applied Mathematics (SEMA);Spanish Society for Numerical Methods in Eng. (SEMNI);Univ. Institute of Intelligent Syst. and;University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) 8th International Conference on Computational Structures Technology, CST 2006 --12 September 2006 through 15 September 2006 -- Las Palmas de Gran Canaria -- This paper describes the static analysis of non-planar non-symmetrical coupled shear walls, employing the Continuous Connection Method in conjunction with Vlasov's theory of thin-walled beams. All previous authors concerning themselves with symmetrical systems, the present authors give particular attention to nonsymmetrical systems in both the formulation and the numerical applications. The method of analysis presented was compared with SAP2000 structural analysis program. The results obtained showed good agreement, verifying the accuracy of the proposed method, which can efficiently be used for the predesign computations of tall buildings. © 2006 Civil-Comp Press. The financial support of the Scientific Research Projects Units of Near East University and Akdeniz University are gratefully acknowledged.

9th International Conference on Computational Structures Technology, CST 2008 --2 September 2008 through 5 September 2008 -- Athens -- This paper concerns itself with the static analysis of non-planar coupled shear walls with any number of stiffening beams. Furthermore, the change of the heights of the stories and connecting beams from region to region along the height are taken into consideration. The stiffening of coupled shear walls is realized by placing high connecting beams at the levels of whole or partial stories used as storage or service areas. The analysis is based on Vlasov's theory of thin-walled beams and Continuous Connection Method (CCM). In the analysis, the compatibility equation has been written at the midpoints of the connecting and stiffening beams. The method of analysis presented was compared with the SAP2000 structural analysis program. The results obtained showed good agreement, verifying the accuracy of the proposed method, which can efficiently be used for the predesign computations of tall buildings. © Civil-Comp Press, 2008.

et al.;Numerical Applications in Engineering (IUSIANI) at ULPGC;Spanish Society for Applied Mathematics (SEMA);Spanish Society for Numerical Methods in Eng. (SEMNI);Univ. Institute of Intelligent Syst. and;University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) 8th International Conference on Computational Structures Technology, CST 2006 --12 September 2006 through 15 September 2006 -- Las Palmas de Gran Canaria -- The lateral loads acting on high-rise buildings, induced by wind and earthquake, are generally resisted by shear walls. Pierced shear walls weakened by doors, windows and corridors, necessitate particular attention, since they are highly indeterminate. This paper describes the non-planar non-symmetrical pierced shear walls with yielded connections modelled as equivalent rotational springs. To carry out a quick predesign of non-planar pierced shear walls, an elegant technique called Continuous Connection Technique (CCT) has been used in conjunction with Vlasov's theory of thin-walled beams. The connecting beams are assumed to have the same properties and spacing along the entire height of the wall and all rotational springs have equal constants. © 2006 Civil-Comp Press.