The increasing value of land and the limited availability of suitable sites for construction are greatly encouraging engineers to consider in situ improvement of weak soil deposits. To economically develop marginal sites a number of ground improvement techniques have been developed as stone columns, jet grouting, compaction grouting, short pile, dynamic compaction, lime stabilization etc. Stone column treatment is one of the most promising and favourable ground improvement techniques widely practiced all over the world. This paper presents a critical review of analytical, experimental, numerical and field studies on the aspect of ordinary and encased stone columns which have been published in the past three decades. Focus is on the recent advancement of encasing these columns with geosynthetic products to enhance their performance in load bearing capacity, decreasing the compressibility, accelerating and reducing the consolidation settlement. Another advantage of encasement is to prevent excessive bulging, squeezing of stone into soft soil. This paper presents installation methods, failure modes of stone columns and brief review of previous researches.

The increasing value of land and the limited availability of suitable sites for construction are greatly encouraging engineers to consider in situ improvement of weak soil deposits. To economically develop marginal sites a number of ground improvement techniques have been developed as stone columns, jet grouting, compaction grouting, short pile, dynamic compaction, lime stabilization etc. Stone column treatment is one of the most promising and favourable ground improvement techniques widely practiced all over the world. This paper presents a critical review of analytical, experimental, numerical and field studies on the aspect of ordinary and encased stone columns which have been published in the past three decades. Focus is on the recent advancement of encasing these columns with geosynthetic products to enhance their performance in load bearing capacity, decreasing the compressibility, accelerating and reducing the consolidation settlement. Another advantage of encasement is to prevent excessive bulging, squeezing of stone into soft soil. This paper presents installation methods, failure modes of stone columns and brief review of previous researches.

The increasing value of land and the limited availability of suitable sites for construction are greatly encouraging engineers to consider in situ improvement of weak soil deposits. To economically develop marginal sites a number of ground improvement techniques have been developed as stone columns, jet grouting, compaction grouting, short pile, dynamic compaction, lime stabilization etc. Stone column treatment is one of the most promising and favourable ground improvement techniques widely practiced all over the world. This paper presents a critical review of analytical, experimental, numerical and field studies on the aspect of ordinary and encased stone columns which have been published in the past three decades. Focus is on the recent advancement of encasing these columns with geosynthetic products to enhance their performance in load bearing capacity, decreasing the compressibility, accelerating and reducing the consolidation settlement. Another advantage of encasement is to prevent excessive bulging, squeezing of stone into soft soil. This paper presents installation methods, failure modes of stone columns and brief review of previous researches.

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n industrial processes, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is widely spread and it is used frequently to evaluate the environmental impact of products and processes. Buildings however are special products that differ thoroughly from these mostly controlled processes. In the building material industry, such a study is therefore on the average much more complex. Accordingly, the present study is concerned with the application of LCA principles to quantify carbon emissions from residential building materials in Egypt. Two types of building models are considered in the study; residential vernacular and modern buildings. A comparison between the two types concerning their building materials from Cradle to Site stages is presented by using DesignBuilder program. The paper illustrates the effectiveness of each material in reducing carbon emissions. The study results show that; the building materials of vernacular building can achieve 78.68% reduction of carbon emissions compared with the modern buildings. Therefore, it is recommended to establish a code for carbon emissions from LCA of modern buildings. This can be easily achieved within the framework of industrial-academic collaboration.

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The building and spaces shape have a great impact on indoor temperature. Well-Designed sun control and shading devices can dramatically affect indoor temperature. The thermal performance of internal spaces in hot arid desert is highly influenced by various passive design techniques, eg space dimensions, facade colors, fenestration ratio, glazing type; and vertical and horizontal shading devices. Simulation tools play an important role in taking decision during early design phase that could help in improving the thermal performance of buildings. The aim of this paper is to explore the impact of different shading devices on the thermal performance of residential buildings in Egypt. To achieve this aim of the research first, the climatic analysis of New Assiut City is introduced followed by identification for the prevailing residential prototypes within the city and the selected residential type. Second, the role of the used Performance simulation tool in enhancing the designs is highlighted. Finally, a simulation has been run for the selected residential site in NA City for the four principal orientations. The results of the study showed that the use of vertical fins have a indoor overhang reduced the temperature by 1.5 C for the temperature for the southern orientation.