BIO-RESISTANT CEMENT COMPOSITES WITH ACTIVE MINERAL ADDITIVE

Environmental impacts and benefits of the end-of-life of building materials – calculation rules, results and contribution to a “cradle to cradle” life cycle

Currently, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are becoming a strategic vector for the development of companies in the construction sector. The introduction of “smart solutions” at all stages of the life cycle of building materials, products and structures is observed everywhere. Among the variety of applications of AI methods, a special place is occupied by the development of the theory and technology of creating artificial systems that process information from images obtained during construction monitoring of the structural state of objects. This paper discusses the process of developing an innovative method for analyzing the presence of cracks that arose after applying a load and delamination as a result of the technological process, followed by estimating the length of cracks and delamination using convolutional neural networks (CNN) when assessing the condition of aerated concrete products. The application of four models of convolutional neural networks in solving a problem in the field of construction flaw detection using computer vision is shown; the models are based on the U-Net and LinkNet architecture. These solutions are able to detect changes in the structure of the material, which may indicate the presence of a defect. The developed intelligent models make it possible to segment cracks and delamination and calculate their lengths using the author’s SCALE technique. It was found that the best segmentation quality was shown by a model based on the LinkNet architecture with static augmentation: precision = 0.73, recall = 0.80, F1 = 0.73 and IoU = 0.84. The use of the considered algorithms for segmentation and analysis of cracks and delamination in aerated concrete products using various convolutional neural network architectures makes it possible to improve the quality management process in the production of building materials, products and structures.

It is a well-known fact that global warming is the extraordinary threat facing the world. The main reasons of these are human activities. Human beings have been contributing to the global warming in different ways for many years. Right material and product selection are some of the most important factors in the process of eliminating the negative effects of constructions on the natural environment and users. The life cycle of building materials involves the processes in which the products are extracted from the source. These processes are the stages of production, transportation, construction, use, demolition and destruction. Making wrong decisions in the selection and use of building materials may cause negative effects in the environment. The major purpose of this study is to to examine the embodied energy of of the traditional and comtemporary building materials according to the characteristics of the local climate. It will answer the question of; “What the embodied energy of a house was in the past and now” in Northern Cyprus. It will help to find out building materials with low embodied energy. There is no published database prepared for or in Northern Cyprus. In order to measure and evaluate the embodied energy of buildings and construction products in the world, there are no integrated systems in the Northern Cyprus at this point, while different countries have unique systems depending on the environmental, economic and social conditions of those countries. Measuring and controlling the environmental performance of environmental development is essential for the sustainable development of the Northern Cyprus. By using the The Inventory of Carbon & Energy (ICE) program the embodied carbon statuses, embodied energy and transport energy and manufacture energy were discussed for each building material. As a result of this research it was found that locally produced or locally existing materials do not always give the best result in terms of embodied energy all the time. The energy consumption of building materials used in buildings and their associated carbon emissions will assist in the selection of environmentally friendly materials.

Paved surfaces are quite possibly the most ubiquitous structures created by humans. In the United States alone, pavements and other impervious surfaces cover more than 43,000 square miles—an area nearly the size of Ohio—according to research published in the 15 June 2004 issue of Eos, the newsletter of the American Geophysical Union. Bruce Ferguson, director of the University of Georgia School of Environmental Design and author of the 2005 book Porous Pavements, says that a quarter of a million U.S. acres are either paved or repaved every year. Impervious surfaces can be concrete or asphalt, they can be roofs or parking lots, but they all have at least one thing in common—water runs off of them, not through them. And with that runoff comes a host of problems.

Life cycle assessment of hemp-lime concrete wall constructions: The impact of wall finish type and renewal regimes

Existing residential buildings and their daily use are unmistakably influencing the rational consumption of our worldwide natural resources. This observation has led to global renovation regulations, mainly focusing on the reduction of energy consumption caused by occupation. However, equally important are the future environmental and financial impacts of current renovation interventions. Indeed, when minimising the heating energy demand, the main future energy savings will shift towards the life cycle of building materials. Since building conditions change over time, buildings have to be re-designed today to enable future transformation without taking part in further environmental degradation. Therefore, renovation measures cannot introduce the same ‘static’ building materialisation as the initial building design, which did not anticipate on future unpredictable need for upgrade and change which we are facing today. This paper evaluates the environmental and financial benefits and drawbacks of redesign introducing reuse strategies, considering not only initial but also future life cycle impacts. An assessment was made for a typical building layer, comparing conventional renovation with design for disassembly (DfD) re-design.

SummaryLife‐cycle assessments (LCAs) can be used to support the selection of environmentally preferable building materials. But the dominance of the usage phase in the life cycle of building materials represents a special challenge for two reasons. First, many aspects of a building material's usage phase can be context specific. Second, the LCA outcome may rest on a building material's service life, a parameter for which there is typically insufficient information for proper determination. For example, in the selection of a window, important usagephase, context‐specific factors that could be determinant include lo‐cation/climate, heating‐system characteristics (efficiency and fuel), and product durability. A prototype software tool, the Life Cycle Explorer, has been developed that enables decision makers to assess the relative importance of literally dozens of such influential parameters in determining the outcomes of LCA evaluations for building components. The software employed by the Life Cycle Explorer permits extensive layering while maintaining ease of browsing, with the intent of accessibility to both the layperson and the expert. An initial application of the tool addressed residential window selection; the design principles of the software are relevant to the communication phase of a wide variety of LCA and industrial‐ecologyrelated modeling projects.

Building industry is responsible for 1/3 of total CO2 emissions and consumes 40% of primal energy in the industry. This paper presents the results of environmental impact assessment of building materials in three houses based on Life Cycle Assessment of the whole life cycle. Building materials were evaluated by special tool by Createrra. CO2 emissions related to life cycle of building materials vary from 0,176 kg CO2eq/kg − 0,305 kg CO2eq/kg, SO2 emissions range form 0,836 g SO2eq/kg − 1,656 g SO2eq/kg and primal energy intensity reached values from 2,347 MJ/kg to 2,534 MJ/kg.

Through its anthropogenic activities in construction, human society is increasingly burdening the environment with a predominantly adverse impact. It is essential to try to use building materials that allow us to build environmentally friendly buildings. Therefore, this article deals with the determination of the environmental performance of a cross-prestressed timber-reinforced concrete bridge using life cycle assessment (LCA) compared with a reinforced concrete road bridge with a similar span and load. The positive environmental performance of the wooden concrete bridge was proved, with a relatively small (22.9 Pt) total environmental damage. The most significant impact on the environment is made by the wood–concrete bridge materials in three categories of impacts: Respiratory inorganics (7.89 Pt, 79.94 kg PM2.5 eq), Global warming (7.35 Pt, 7.28 × 104 kg CO2 eq), and Non-renewable energy (3.96 Pt, 6.01 × 105 MJ primary). When comparing the wood–concrete and steel concrete road bridge, a higher environmental performance of 28% per m2 for the wood–concrete bridge was demonstrated. Based on this environmental assessment, it can be stated that knowledge of all phases of the life cycle of building materials and structures is a necessary step for obtaining objective findings of environmental damage or environmental benefits of building materials or structures.

China’s carbon emission research started relatively late. In order to further enrich its related research, the study uses a carbon emission factor fusion building information model and a full life cycle method to calculate the building material carbon footprint of to evaluate the carbon emissions of selected projects. In the instance calculation, it was found that the total carbon footprint production during the operation performed the highest, at 56560.23 t CO2, accounting for 79.37% of the total carbon footprint output throughout the entire life cycle of the construction project. The total carbon footprint generated during the preparation phase of building materials was 11483.56 t CO2, accounting for 16.11% of the total carbon footprint output throughout the project life cycle. The total production of carbon footprint during the operation phase was the highest, at 56560.23 t CO2, accounting for 79.37% of the entire project life cycle. The output of carbon footprint during the dismantling and scrapping stage was 2245.8 t CO2, accounting for 3.15% of the total amount of life cycle assessment carbon footprint in the project. The total amount of carbon footprint generated in the early stage of the construction project was 1.28 t CO2, and the total amount of carbon footprint generated in constructing was 973.22 t CO2. The emission of carbon footprint accounted for 1.37% of the entire project life cycle. The obtained result data has a high degree of overlap with existing research results in China and has certain reference value.

Buildings of the future need to be more environmental-friendly. Selecting environmentally-benign materials in design stage would partly help achieving such goal. Examination of existing environmental impact data of building materials reveals that the data differ greatly from one source to another. Comparisons of environmental impact values of selected materials are presented. The sources that give rise to data variation are identified and discussed. The applicability of existing data is assessed from the designers’ perspective. Limitations of current practice in data acquisition and presentation are also discussed. It is concluded that existing environmental impact data of building materials are inconsistent and perplexing to designers. An alternative approach to data acquisition and presentation is to break the life cycle of building materials into several phases and to calculate the total impact value as the sum of the impacts of all phases. This would make the determination of the full life cycle value feasible and increase external validity of research results.

The increase of energy consumption has produced significant environmental impacts such as climatic change, acid rain, photo chemical smog formation, nonrenewable resource consumption etc. Considering the urgency of saving the world’s energy reserve and reduction of environmental impacts, studies on the energy consumption throughout the life cycle of building materials are crucial.In this study, it was aimed to indicate the factors which contribute the energy efficiency in manufacturing processes of building materials. The study included the energy used for raw material extraction, production energy for manufacturing of building materials, transportation energy and construction energy on site. A literature review was made. Energy use and efficiency for each process were evaluated.

One-third of the total waste generated in the world is construction and demolition waste. Reducing the life cycle of building materials includes increasing their recycling and reuse by using recycled aggregates. By preventing, the need to open new aggregate quarries and reducing the amount of construction waste dumped into landfills, the use of recycled concrete aggregate in drum compacted concrete protects the environment. Four samples of PRCC were prepared for testing (compressive strength, tensile strength, flexural strength, density, water absorption, porosity) as the reference mix and (10, 15, and 20%) of fine recycled concrete aggregate as a partial replacement for fine natural aggregate by volume. The mix is designed according to (ACI 327-15) with the specified cylinder compressive strength (28 MPa). The results showed a decrease in mechanical properties with an increase in partial replacement compared to the reference mixture and an increase in water absorption and porosity at 28 days. This is because old cement mortar on the surfaces of fine recycled concrete aggregates leads to higher porosity and water absorption than fine natural aggregates. At 90 days, results improved slightly. This is due to the non-aqueous cement in the recycled fine concrete aggregate.

Many prominent 20th-century buildings around the world were clad with marble. Some of them have experienced severe problems with rapidly deteriorating marble panels and accompanying safety issues, such as La Grande Arch de la Defénse in Paris, Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, Australia's National Library in Canberra, and the Standard Oil Building in Chicago. The stories of these buildings have attracted great attention around the world and, perhaps unfairly, have created a perception that marble is unsuitable for use as exterior cladding. From the late 1990s, the use of marble as exterior cladding material reduced significantly, and it was even forbidden in some countries, regardless of reference projects. In response to this problem, the European research project Testing and Assessment of Marble and Limestone was initiated. This comprehensive study on marble resulted in test methods to discriminate between marble that is suitable and unsuitable for outdoor use. The most important test is the 2013 European standard EN 16306. One of the remaining obstacles for using marble that this standard identifies as suitable for use as exterior cladding is ensuring the traceability of its characteristics all the way from the quarry through block production and to the final panels installed on the building. With the rise of green building rating systems and CE marking in Europe, there has been increased interest in documenting the full life cycle of building materials and systems to ensure traceability. This paper explores the potential for traceable systems to facilitate integrated quality assurance during marble production. Such an approach would provide confidence that marble panels installed on a building are consistent with the samples originally tested and specified. We outline the detailed elements for quality assurance, from geological mapping of the quarry and tracking of block extraction to the production of panels and installation of the cladding. We also review case studies for several recent exterior marble cladding projects.

Numerous scientific researches show that the activities connected with building materials produce significant negative environmental effects. Observed from the point of architecture, the use of building materials is found to be one of the critical factors of environmental pollution and degradation. The purpose of introducing architectural interventions, including proper selection, is the reduction of the negative environmental impact of building materials. The aim of this paper is to define, from the ecological aspect, basic principles for the selection of building materials. First, principles were defined through the all - inclusive analysis of every phase in the life cycle of building materials. Summing categories: embodied energy and embodied CO2 are discussed afterwards. In the order to simplify the procedure of arriving at a decision, priorities in selection were emphasized in every separate segment of this paper. The selection of building materials with reduced negative environmental impact (ecologically correct building materials) is one of the key decisions in the process of designing ecologically correct buildings.