International Journal of Sustainable Built Environment最新文献

With a purpose to comprehend intention-behaviour gap about acceptance of solar energy and solar community concept (houses and/or block of flats under specific solar power plant) among Finnish respondents, this qualitative study found respondents’ positive responses towards solar energy and their rationality and honesty in admitting their real behaviour. It focuses on the qualitative interpretation of individual’s intention that corresponds to specific behaviour. In terms of their ‘impression in principle’ by thinking solar energy as a non-polluting, inexhaustible and renewable energy source although all respondents were positive, the highest numbers were non-adopters. However, they were optimists. They mentally accepted (acceptance in principle) solar energy. They would adopt it later on after being satisfied with their most contextual conditions (‘impression in practical’). This study provides recommendations that indicate more future adoption and future research direction.

In recent years, there is a renewed interest towards the passive cooling features of ancient building architectures, which are cost effective, eco-friendly and best suited for the local climate. On the other hand, the modern construction materials, such as cement and steel, are highly durable. Thermal comfort of eight vernacular buildings that use modern construction materials to improve the structural durability was monitored in July 2014. The buildings are located in Hyderabad, India. They have many passive cooling features that include air cavities in the structures to reduce heat transfer, high thermal mass to reduce temperature fluctuation and induced ventilation to remove heat from the indoor. All the passive cooling features investigated were found to have an appreciable influence on the thermal comfort of the indoor space. The ventilated air gaps in the roof reduced the average temperature of the roof interior surface by 1.2 °C. The diurnal temperature fluctuation of the indoor air reduced by 0.9 °C in a building with a higher thermal mass compared to a building with thin walls and roof. All the eight buildings were found to be comfortable most of the time with a slight discomfort during late night and morning hours. The maximum CO₂ recorded was 550 ppm. This indicates that the buildings were adequately ventilated.

The worldwide demand for new concrete buildings is increasing at a rapid pace to keep up with urban development. On the other hand, plastic waste of vehicle causes serious health and environmental problems all over the world. The reuse of wastes is important from different points of view. It helps to save and sustain resources that are not replenished. As a possible solution to the problem of plastic waste of vehicle, an experimental study was conducted to examine the potential of using it as sand replacement in the concrete buildings. This paper examines ultimate failure resistance of concrete with 5%, 10% and 15% of sand replacements by waste plastic of vehicles under impact. For each amount, six cubes of 100 mm × 100 mm × 100 mm were subjected to 4.5 kg hammer from 480 mm height. The number of blows of the hammer required to induce the ultimate failure of the cubes were recorded. The results are presented in terms of impact energy required for the ultimate failure. The concrete mixtures exhibited ability to absorb a large amount of impact energy. The plastic waste of vehicle increased the impact energy for the ultimate failure with sand replacement by plastic waste of vehicle.

Buildings contribute 20–40% of the world’s energy consumption, making the need to investigate their energy performance a necessity. Given the lack of empirical evidence on the energy performance of school buildings in cold climates, this study aimed to benchmark historical energy consumption over a ten-year period in a sample of 30 school buildings in Manitoba, Canada. Results showed the median total energy consumption of these schools was higher than other Canadian benchmarks. School building age had a statistically significant effect on their energy consumption, with newer schools consuming less gas but more electricity than older and middle-aged ones. The retrofits implemented in some schools did not for the most part have a statistically significant effect on their energy consumption, although a decrease in energy consumption was observed. The results also showed that middle-aged schools were the largest energy consumers, with the results changing depending on the metric used to report on schools’ energy consumption, reinforcing the need to standardize those metrics. There is also a need to investigate how occupancy may be contributing to the increase in electricity consumption in newer schools. This study is the first to provide empirical evidence on existing school buildings’ energy consumption in Manitoba, establishing benchmarks that practitioners can make use of in similar cold climates.

Due to various kinds of obsolescence, a large number of concrete buildings around the world are removed to give space for new buildings, however, the elements of these buildings in most cases have the ability to serve longer time, but the dominant demolition end-of-life scenario prevents from the reuse of these elements. It has been demonstrated that reuse of elements and materials is an environmentally responsible option that turns the current linear model of building materials and elements into a cyclic one, which pushes toward reconsidering the construction design of concrete buildings to support future disassembly, that facilitate reuse and adaptation. This study tends to explore and review the current issues related to concrete technologies and their role in building assembly and disassembly, as well as DfD “design for disassembly” aspects and theories that clarify and pave the way for future innovations, which move the construction design of concrete buildings to a higher degree of environmental responsibility. The study found out that despite the continuous developments in the field of concrete technologies, the link of these developments to the end-of-life phase is still missing. The study concluded that it is possible through the application of DfD criteria on precast concrete systems and elements to change the liner life-cycle model to a cyclic one.

This article focuses on the experimental and numerical analysis of wood-concrete panels in flexure in order to identify their mechanical behaviour. The main goal consists in determining the elastic modulus (MOE) and the bending strength of rupture (MOR) of wood-concrete panels used in construction. This work was performed using two complementary methods. Through an experimental work, elastic proprieties have been obtained to develop a finite element model for simulating wood-concrete timber panels, tested in three-point bending. For the numerical simulation, an eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) has been used to simulate the fracture process of the three-point bending panel using Abaqus software (Abaqus, 2016). The difficulties in determining the mechanical properties of composite panels using cement as binder are discussed. The test results allow the computation of the moduli of rupture and elasticity. It is also shown that the ratio between flexural and compressive strength is around 47%. Moreover, we present an assessment of the applicability of the XFEM, to predict where and when the fractures of concrete materials containing wood shavings will appear during the bending test. Numerical predictions are compared to experimental data. The methodology applied in this study gives promising results for the better prediction of mechanical properties of composite panels used in building and for further reduction of expensive experimental works.

In an industrial climate where the reduction of carbon emissions is paramount to meeting industry standards for a sustainable future, the cement industry is looking for alternative and creative solutions to reducing its carbon footprint and energy consumption. The title review develops a novel process for the production of calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) cement, a material produced in the Chinese construction industry for use as a rapid hardening binder for 5 decades; but now undergoing rapid change.

The novelty of the proposed process lies partly in its source of sulfur. Typically provided by gypsum in conventional raw feeds, the novel process instead sequesters sulfur into the cement solids through the combustion of elemental sulfur. This combustion event, in turn, contributes towards the calorific value required to heat and maintain kiln temperatures by burning fossil fuel, e.g. natural gas. The combustion of sulfur also provides various added benefits. The resultant sulfur-containing atmosphere in the reaction system provides a protective environment which represses S volatilisation at the operating temperatures used for CSA production, ca 1200–1300 °C.

The novel process was developed with the intention for eventual commercial production in Doha, Qatar. The combustion of sulfur would be additionally beneficial due to the nation’s production of vast quantities of natural gas; elemental sulfur is a by-product of the Claus process, used for the desulfurisation of natural gas or sour crude. The proposed novel process would thereby utilise a waste product, i.e. sulfur, for the production of a low carbon cement product.

Disposal of huge amount of discarded waste materials like plastic, polythene bags, bottles, rubber tyres etc, which are generated in huge quantity and causes environmental hazards after their disposal. Present study attempts to utilize these waste materials as partial replacement of bitumen to develop a modified binder, for making bituminous concrete mix. To simulate with the field conditions, ‘Marshall Stability Analysis’ was performed on the samples prepared by partially replacing ‘Optimum Bitumen Content’ with waste plastic (4%, 6%, 8% and 10%) and crumb rubber (5%, 10% and 15%). Experimental results demonstrate that partial substitution of bitumen with waste plastic results up to 16% increment in strength whereas with rubber material, about 50% increment in strength was observed as compared to the conventional mix (CM). Laboratory testing results indicate that by using waste materials, bituminous concrete of required strength and density can be obtained and an environment friendly green pavement can be prepared with less material cost.