The use of recycled plastics for the design of a thermal resilient emergency shelter prototype

Abstract

Context— More than 200 million people suffer every year natural hazards consequences around the world, sensibly affecting vulnerable populations and resulting on building's partial or total damage. In post-disaster scenarios, it is required to provide the construction of temporary facilities that can be used as shelters or educational spaces, and it is suitable to deliver low cost, fast construction, and site adapted solutions. However, many of these units are built with prefabricated elements brought ‘in situ’, but they cannot be produced locally, and they are frequently not adapted to their environment. PurposeThe objective of this research is to increase the understanding of recycled plastics materials in order to develop a resilient prototype using modular elements made of plastic waste, and to measure the thermal comfort efficiency of the construction proposal to evaluate its capacity to adapt to the environment. Design/methodology/approachBased on the preliminary examination of natural hazards impacts on buildings, the study has focused on the recycled plastics materials' literature concerning methods and properties, in order to design a plastic-made emergency shelter module prototype. Dy- namic simulations have been conducted in order to evaluate the module's thermal behavior and its resilience to climatic conditions. Research limitationsThis research suggests the possibility of implementing a community-based plastic recycling process, depending on a production system that can be established at the emergency site, according to technical specifications summarized in the study. FindingsThe findings suggest that recycled plastic materials have a high-resilient capacity to face different weather conditions and that they are suitable for the construction of shelter modules. Originality/valueThe result is an efficient, resilient and thermal comfort adapted module assembly system that can be used as an emergency shelter for housing spaces, schools or health centers’ in a post-disaster reconstruction scenario.