This study will investigate the effect of non-woven PET plastic tissue on the fresh, physical, mechanical, acoustic, thermal, and microstructural behaviors of concrete. Including reference specimens, non-woven fabrics were considered in two ways: (a) as a layer with four various configurations of 1-layer, 2-sides, 3-sides, and full wrapping (4-sides) to strengthen specimens, and (b) as (10 × 10) mm cut pieces with three different incorporated percentages of 0.25%, 0.50%, and 0.75%. Based on the experimental results, mechanical properties (compressive, split tensile, and flexural strengths) were remarkably improved by applying non-woven sheets as a layer. For instance, the cylindrical compressive and split tensile strengths were improved by 13.40% and 15.12% for the strengthened specimens compared to the reference specimens, respectively. Moreover, control specimens were damaged to many fragments after mechanical testing, but the samples strengthened by such fabrics or containing cut pieces were maintained and not separated into many small parts. The acoustic behavior and thermal conductivity declined by 9.83% and 19.67% with the attachment of tissue on one side and 2-sides, respectively. Acoustic behaviors decreased by 10.0%, 17.60%, and 26.30% and thermal conductivity decreased by 6.60%, 12.10%, and 15.50%, with the incorporation of 0.25%, 0.50%, and 0.75% of cut pieces, respectively. Finally, it was discovered that non-woven tissue is advised to enhance particular properties of concrete.

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to assess the safety level of construction sites in Afghanistan following the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) safety practices and compare this with other construction sites in Afghanistan that follow local government safety guidelines. The USACE oversees and funds many infrastructure projects in Afghanistan, and these projects are supposed to follow the same standards implemented in the USA, including safety standards. The local government of Afghanistan also funds infrastructure projects in Afghanistan; however, these do not follow USACE best practices. This research explores the question of whether the USACE standards provide a safer construction site. The effect of the USACE standards on safety practices in construction projects is also investigated in the Afghanistan construction industry.Design/methodology/approachA literature review and other safety checklists were used to develop a safety checklist containing 104 items (questions) in 17 categories. Subsequently, the checklist was used to assess the safety performance of 57 construction projects (25 USACE projects, and 32 governmental projects). Utilizing quantitative analysis, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient (Rho) and Mann–Whitney tests were carried out for correlation and statistical disparity between USACE and governmental projects.FindingsThe safety performance level of Afghan government projects was found to be poor in relation to other developing countries, while in USACE projects it was excellent. In addition, fire prevention, safety administration, PPE, heavy equipment, and handling and storage of materials for all types of contractors were the most overlooked aspects of Afghan Government projects.Practical implicationsThe findings clearly demonstrate the deficiencies in construction sites observed during this study and also support the adoption of USACE standards in Afghanistan projects.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the safety of construction sites in Afghanistan. The study also demonstrates the benefits of adopting international standards (USACE) to improve the safety of construction sites in a developing country such as Afghanistan. The findings provide evidence of the safety of the Afghanistan construction industry compared to other developing countries. These findings will contribute to the Afghan Government's efforts to track injury statistics.

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Traditional progress monitoring can be inaccurate and time-consuming, potentially causing time delay and cost overrun in construction projects. With development in technology, tools such as cameras, laser scanners, and building information modelling (BIM) have been used to overcome existing problems in the traditional approach. However, noise mitigation, extracting objects of interest from laser point clouds, and detailed progress measurement are problems that still exist. In this study a novel method of construction progress monitoring to measure the progress percentage is presented. The study integrates the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technique with as-built BIM to gather quick and accurate construction site progress information. The Hausdorff distance is utilized to extract objects of interest and filter out noise from site-scan data. As-built and as-planned BIM models are compared using Python and Dynamo, to obtain progress percentage. A case study was conducted on a residential building located in Sydney, Australia, to validate the application of the developed method. The outcome demonstrates that utilizing the SLAM technique and Hausdorff distance are effective in mitigating noise and extracting objects of interest from site-scan data, respectively. In addition, with an accuracy of 94.67 percent in estimation, the progress percentage was obtained based on material quantities. The obtained progress percentage could also be used in updating construction schedules and assisting decision-making.