Selection Of Building Materials Research Articles

Efisiensi Energi Berkelanjutan: Strategi Desain dan Perhitungan Optimalisasi Efisiensi Energi pada Selubung Bangunan

Global warming is an increase in the temperature of the Earth's surface over the last few decades. Building energy consumption is the number two contributor to global warming. About 5-13% of the energy consumed during construction and the remaining 87-95% occur during the lifetime of a building, mainly for heating, cooling, and lighting purposes. This requires the selection of building materials that are certified green or environmentally friendly to help reduce energy consumption. The aim of this study is to evaluate the energy efficiency of a variety of designs of the building cover best in the glass protector as a building wall material. The research method uses comparative research that involves comparing energy efficiency between 4 different designs and materials with the calculation of OTTV on the facade of the building. Overal Thermal Transfer Value (OTTV) is a design parameter used to measure the level of energy efficiency of a building in reducing the heat from sunlight entering through walls and roofs. The results of the study showed massive walls with a 0.8 m high parapet and 1.2 m sharpening (Aluminum 4 mm with semi-flash white paint + 30 mm airspace + 150 mm precast concrete), along with window walls using the Stopray Vision 52 T (8 mm (#2) +12 mm Anti-Shatter+6 mm Clear Glass) and horizontal shading as high as 0.4 m, as well as openings with a configuration of 8 mm (No2) + 12 mm anti-shatter + 6 mm Clear glass, showing that the Overall Thermal Transfer Value (OTTV) reached its peak with a 29% decrease from the standard value. It states the combination of these elements provides optimal thermal performance, minimizing overall heat transfer.

Sustainable Material Selection in New Constructions: A Brute‐Force Optimization Framework Using Parallel Computing, Cost Benefits, and Thermal Performance Analysis

Sustainable construction practices rely on carefully selecting building materials and balancing environmental and economic considerations. This study examines the complex link between local climate, market dynamics, and building material selection. Market data analysis, parametric modeling, and brute‐force optimization are used to provide insights into construction decision‐making. Across 5540 simulations, a thorough assessment of the financial and energy performance of various materials for walls, roofs, windows, and floors is conducted. Incorporating Pareto ranking, parallel simulation, and sensitivity analysis, the comprehensive evaluation reveals the intricate tradeoffs between cost, thermal properties, and energy savings. The findings highlight the potential for optimal external wall solutions to reduce U‐values by up to 30% and achieve source energy savings of up to 25% source energy savings across diverse climates. By emphasizing the importance of local context in material selection, this study highlights how energy consumption patterns and transmission losses influence financial and energy performance, thus advancing sustainable construction practices.

An investigation of indoor thermal environment of wooden school building (Case study of SDN 14 Pontianak)

A thermal environment is an affecting factor toward students’ comfort and health at school. One thing that gives an impact on the thermal environment is the selection of building materials, which is influenced by the thermal mass. The use of wooden materials has high potency in reducing global warming and supporting increased thermal comfort. This study aims to explain the inspection result of the school building which has 2 types of buildings, namely the wooden building and the concrete building. The purpose is to find out how the thermal environment is formed in the classrooms in those two buildings and the potential of wood materials. This study used a field measurement method where the case study building was SDN 14 Pontianak. The obtained result indicated that the air temperature variable showed the same phenomenon at each measurement time. The air temperature in the wooden building was always lower compared to the air temperature in the classroom of the concrete building, where the difference reached 2,68 °C. The other variable showed varied phenomena so a general conclusion could not be drawn. It might be affected by other aspects which were not calculated in this measurement.

A Comparative Analysis of Design Criteria Influencing Building Material Selection Across Different Architectural Contexts

A Comparative Analysis of Design Criteria Influencing Building Material Selection Across Different Architectural Contexts

Is poor air quality in day-care centres’ affecting our children’s health? A study of indoor air quality in childcare facilities located in Perth, Western Australia

Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) can adversely affect children’s health; however, limited studies have quantified indoor air pollutants in day-care centres (DCCs) where infants and young children are increasingly spending more time from a younger age. The aim of this study was to investigate seasonal IAQ in Western Australian childcare facilities at both heavy traffic and low traffic locations. In 22 centres, total volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide, particulate matter (PM) measured in six size fractions (total PM, PM10, PM4, PM2.5, PM1, ultrafine particles), and meteorological parameters (temperature and relative humidity), were continuously sampled over a 24-h period, in the cold season and repeated in the warm season. All contaminants (other than formaldehyde) in the summer and/or winter collections, or averaged over both seasons, were found to be above contemporary air quality standards, guidelines, best practice statements, or other available guidelines developed to protect human health. Furthermore, all contaminants were present at higher concentrations indoors where a DCC was located within 100 m of a heavy traffic roadway. The findings of this study suggest that children who attend these facilities on a regular basis may be chronically exposed to a range of health damaging contaminants during critical stages of their development. The findings support the need for measures to reduce concentrations of air pollutants in DCCs. Preventative actions such as attention to DCC siting, selection of appropriate building materials and furnishings, improvement in ventilation, and usage of ‘green’ cleaning products should be considered to reduce children’s exposures to harmful airborne contaminants.

A probabilistic life-cycle assessment of carbon emission from magnesium phosphate cementitious material with uncertainty analysis

This study aims to quantify the carbon emission intensity of magnesium phosphate cementitious materials to explore its potential in carbon emission reduction. However, comprehensive research on the lifecycle carbon emissions of these materials remains scarce, plagued by issues of data uncertainty, accessibility, and scoping discrepancies. Therefore, a probabilistic lifecycle assessment approach was adopted in this study, enabling uncertainty analysis of the carbon emission intensity of magnesium phosphate cementitious materials. The findings indicate that the 10.5th percentile of the carbon emission intensity simulations for MPC stands at 0.624 kgCO2e/kg, suggesting that nearly 90% of the values surpass those of OPC, thereby refuting the presumption of its low-carbon attributes. Notably, the consumption and carbon emission factors of magnesium oxide and soluble phosphates emerge as pivotal influences on its carbon emissions. Additionally, a multiple linear regression model was employed to forecast the correlation between the constituents of magnesium phosphate cementitious materials and the volume of carbon emissions. Through this study, we can have a more comprehensive understanding of the environmental performance of magnesium phosphate cementitious materials in terms of carbon emission reduction, which will provide an important support for the selection and design of future green building materials.

Examining Occupant-Comfort Responses to Indoor Humidity Ratio in Conventional and Vernacular Dwellings: A Rural Indian Case Study

Optimum indoor humidity is often associated with comfort and overall well-being. Occupant comfort is often evaluated with a focus on “thermal comfort” using the PMV (predicted mean vote), PDD (predicted percentage of dissatisfied), and adaptive thermal comfort models. Humidity-determined comfort parameters, like skin and respiratory comfort, are well acknowledged in the scientific community, but strangely not considered for indoor comfort computations. This study proposes a new computational approach for describing and evaluating humidity-related skin comfort in buildings using skin temperature, evaporative loss, and skin wettedness as critical parameters. The Development and validation of the computational model was demonstrated through a case study in a rural Indian context. The case study involves real-time monitoring of indoor environmental parameters and humidity-determined occupant comfort votes recorded through a novel aggregated humidity comfort vote method. The simulation results were compared with the community comfort/health survey. It was observed that, even at neutral skin temperatures, an increase in skin wettedness increases the thermal sensation vote. Clothing varies according to gender, community, and personal preferences, influencing physiological parameters which determine comfort. The acceptable humidity ratio was found to be in the range of 17.4 to 22.6 g-wv/kg-da for Indian participants. Including humidity-related comfort parameters in building simulation tools would aid in selecting building materials for improved indoor comfort.

Non-engineering house damage after the February 25th, 2022 West Pasaman Earthquake

The earthquake that occurred on February 25, 2022 with a magnitude of M6.2 in West Pasaman Regency, West Sumatera has resulted in many losses such as casualties and damages to infrastructure, especially residential buildings. To determine the level of damage to community houses due to the earthquake, a rapid visual assessment survey was conducted with the National Agency for Disaster Countermeasure (BNPB) and 100 Civil Engineering students. The Method used in this survey is based on the Public Work Minister Regulation, which categorizes the damaged houses into 3 categories, namely light, moderate and heavy damage. Based on the results of the assessment, the damage generally occurred on the walls and structural elements of the houses. The damages is caused by human error factors such as lack of planning, poor construction implementation, site selection and selection of quality building materials that were not in accordance with earthquake safe house building standards. One of the efforts to overcome the problem of the damage is to strengthen the house using a ferrocement layer. The level of buildings damage based on the distance from the earthquake center and the implementation of retrofitting on the damaged houses are also discussed in this paper.

BIM-enabled decision optimization analysis for architectural glass material selection considering sustainability

The careful consideration and choice of Sustainable Architectural Glass Material (SAGM) is a crucial step towards reducing energy consumption and enhancing the overall sustainability of buildings. However, the current techniques employed for selecting architectural glass material do not take into account the aspect of sustainability in the ultimate adoption of material solutions, as perceived by the stakeholders. This study aims to develop a comprehensive evaluation criteria system and introduce a group decision support framework that utilizes Building Information Modeling technology to facilitate the selection of SAGM in large-scale projects, in accordance with the demands of various stakeholders. The proposed framework is utilized to address a selection problem related to SAGM faced by a large construction corporation in Wuhan. The findings indicate that the criteria of daylighting and thermal insulation performance hold significant importance, with insulating glass being a subtype of SAGM exhibiting superior performance. Ultimately, the proposed model is subjected to sensitivity and comparative analyses to validate its advantages over several existing methodologies. The proposed model in this study offers practitioners an optimized methodology for the selection of SAGM, while also providing a framework for the selection of other sustainable building materials.

PEMILIHAN MATERIAL KONTSRUKSI BANGUNAN PERUMAHAN MENGGUNAKAN METODE ANALISIS HIRARKI PROSES

THE SELECTION OF RESIDENTIAL BUILDING CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS USING ANALYTICAL HIERARCHY PROCESS METHODSThe selection of building materials is important in the planning process of housing construction because it will affect the quality of the building and the determination of the selling price of a building. so that an appropriate method is needed in making decisions to determine the specifications of the material to be used. The purpose of this study is to obtain efficient building materials both in terms of price and quality. so that they can support the concept of housing. The concept of housing buildings in this study uses a minimalist concept. The material limitations that will be determined in this study are materials for roof coverings, floor coverings, ceilings, window sills, and doors. The material selection process uses a analysis hierarchy process method with material selection criteria including price, specifications, design, and durability. Each criterion uses three alternatives as a comparison. Data collection was obtained through experts in a housing company with an expert as the head of the planning division. The results of data processing were obtained for the roof covering materials using concrete tiles, floor coverings using granite, ceilings using kalsiboard, window sills using aluminum, and doors using the solid wood material. This research is expected to be useful, especially for construction business actors in determining building materials.

The Impact of Materials’ Technology on Sustainability of Buildings

The evolution in materials’ technology in the last decades resulted in interesting projects that aimed at preserving the environment and energy and reduce pollution. They have been taken the principles of environmental design as a basis for architectural thought, starting from the early stages of the design process ending in choosing appropriate building materials to achieve sustainable buildings, but these trying are limited in our local environment and there isn’t demanded seriousness. The research problem emerges in the ignorance of the environmental aspect (ecological system) when selecting building materials during design process to achieve sustainable buildings. The aim of this research is revealing the mechanisms of selecting building materials to improve the functional performance and reduce the negative effects on the environment and preserve its resources and the ecological systems as much as possible according to the following indicators: Embodied energy, recycling, durability; to assist architects and specific engineers in making decisions that have a significant impact in achieving sustainable buildings in the local environment and the possibility of application in Iraq .

A Study on Thermal and Acoustic comfort in an Institutional Building

The indoor environment in educational buildings like schools and colleges need to provide a healthy atmosphere to encourage the students towards learning and improve their productivity. In educational buildings, both thermal and acoustical comfort depend on the site and there exists a relationship among buildings, open spaces, building design with external factors and also its interior design. The aim of the current paper is to study the thermal and acoustic principles in detail and analyze the factors that impact the occupant’s health and comfort by field study method in a school building. Both thermal and acoustical factors that influence the occupants’ health and comfort are highlighted in this study and prioritized for necessary enhancements in the school building. A central board school building was identified for the study and the paper discusses about the site features and building design. For this study, the field data was recorded during 2019. Based on the data collected, analysis was conducted on the influencing factors on thermal and acoustical comfort of the school building. The methodology of the work includes an understanding about the influencing factors of thermal and acoustical comfort with documentation of the school building design, field study measurements in the identified school building and analysing the building design with field measurements on thermal and acoustical factors in school building. The field study measurements were recorded using a Thermo-anemometer and a data logger to collect the data on temperature, humidity and wind speed. Subjective analysis was conducted about comfort and noise level among the students aged between 9 and 16 using a questionnaire survey. The opportunities for improving the occupants’ well being and comfort include various measures that are listed herewith; appropriate shading of the windows that can reduce the heat transfer into the building; well-channelized air movement into the indoor environment to improve the occupants’ comfort; and replacing the paved surfaces with grasscrete or aligning the axis path with shrubs to reduce the radiation towards the indoor surfaces. On the other hand, the selection of the appropriate building materials for wall construction provides an oppurtunity to increase the indoor environmental quality. It can also act as insulation to reduce the noise level in the classrooms.

A Personalized Individual Semantic Extraction Model Based on Criterion for Adaptive Consensus Reaching Process Under Improved Basic Uncertain Linguistic Environment

Personalized individual semantics (PIS) is an important factor reflecting the personal habits of decision makers (DMs) and has been widely studied by scholars. Using criteria as a non-negligible information source in multi-criteria group decision making (MCGDM), how to extract PIS from it is a research gap to be solved. In addition, existing measurements of consensus are insufficiently sensitive to differences between individuals, while the current direction rules use a matrix as the unit of measurement, which is not detailed and precise enough. Therefore, this paper first constructs a PIS extraction model according to the principle that similar criteria have similar descriptions and mutually exclusive criteria have dissimilar descriptions. Secondly, the preference information of PIS is mingled with uncertainty and reliability of improved basic uncertain linguistic information (IBULI) as the data of the consensus reaching algorithm. The proposed consensus algorithm not only fully considers the dispersion of DMs in the consensus measurement stage, but also improves the objectivity of the consensus process through an adaptive feedback stage. Finally, the validity of the proposed model is verified by an example and comparative analysis of the selection of sustainable building materials.

District cradle to grave LCA including the development of a localized embodied carbon database and a detailed end-of-life carbon emission workflow

The building industry is one of the main contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in today's world. To measure the environmental impacts of GHG emissions, life cycle assessment (LCA) has been increasingly utilized in recent years, and building LCA tries to evaluate the GHG emissions in three main phases including embodied carbon (EC), operational carbon (OC), and End-of-life carbon (EOLC).Most of the studies in this field have dealt with individual buildings as the scope of their research. The literature review showed a significant gap regarding the implementation of the LCA on a wider district-level scale rather than just one building. In addition, most of the studies have only considered landfilling of the waste materials and emissions related to this activity for the whole disposal phase emissions. Therefore, a more detailed analysis regarding the EOLC emission has been carried out to recognize the actual share of this section in the whole building’s LCA.To fill the mentioned gaps, this research has done a cradle-to-grave LCA by utilizing localized building materials' EC emission data, besides an OC emission assessment followed by a detailed EOLC emission analysis for a district in Montreal's downtown. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis regarding the selection of the best building materials according to their environmental performance has been implemented.The results of this study show that for different retrofitting scenarios of the buildings in a district, among the main building components for renovations (walls, roofs, and floors), walls are responsible for the most significant share of the GHG emissions and between various components of the walls, insulation layers have the most impact on the total embodied, operational and EOLC emissions. Detailed EOLC emission analysis revealed that even after implementing a detailed examination of the end-of-life phase, the share of EOLC emissions within the building's life cycle remains below 10%. Finally, the sensitivity analysis among the insulation layers has illustrated that buildings using foam glass for their insulation layer have the most GHG emissions, and buildings with glass wool have the least amount of emissions.

Development of a Plug-In to Support Sustainability Assessment in the Decision-Making of a Building Envelope Refurbishment

Existing studies provide evidence that buildings and the construction sector are the largest consumers of natural resources and carry the greatest responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions. In order to reverse this situation, future challenges involve utilising the lowest amount of resources possible. To this end, building refurbishment has become a crucial strategy, given its potential to improve operational energy efficiency and to extend the life span of existing building stock, thereby reducing the environmental impact while also providing social and economic benefits to our cities. Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) has become one of the scientific community’s most widely recognised methodologies for the evaluation of the social, economic, and environmental dimensions (triple bottom line), as it assesses sustainability using quantitative metrics. However, the implementation of this methodology to support the refurbishment process at the project stage in building design tools, such as BIM, remains scarce. One of the main obstacles lies in the difficulties of accessing building information, given that the system boundaries only cover new materials and products. Hence, this study proposes a BIM plug-in developed to support multi-dimensional building material selection in the early design steps based on the LCSA of a building during the refurbishment stage and validates its application in a case study. The results show the viability of using this tool during the early design stages and demonstrate the consistency of the results for evaluating various material and product alternatives for the refurbishment of the envelope system of a multi-family residential building. This study contributes towards the integration of decision-making by providing real-time assessment of a building envelope.

Fabricating and Laminating Films with Through-Holes and Engraved/Protruding Structures for 3D Micro/Nanofluidic Platforms.

Micro/nanofluidic devices have become popular for delicately processing biological, material, and chemical samples. However, their reliance on 2D fabrication schemes has hindered further innovation. Here, a 3D manufacturing method is proposed through the innovation of laminated object manufacturing (LOM), which involves the selection of building materials as well as the development of molding and lamination techniques. Fabrication of interlayer films is demonstrated with both multi-layered micro-/nanostructures and through-holes, using an injection molding approach and establishing strategic principles of film design. Utilization of the multi-layered through-hole films in LOM allows reducing the number of alignments and laminations by at least two times compared to conventional LOM. Using a dual-curing resin for film fabrication, a surface-treatment-free and collapse-free lamination technique is shown for constructing 3D multiscale micro/nanofluidic devices with ultralow aspect ratio nanochannels. The 3D manufacturing method enables the development of a nanochannel-based attoliter droplet generator capable of 3D parallelization for mass production, which implies the remarkable potential to extend numerous existing 2D micro/nanofluidic platforms into a 3D framework.

A review of sustainability applications in the construction industry: perspectives and challenges

Introduction. One of the main causes of annual environmental degradation directly or indirectly is construction. The purpose of this study is to highlight current environmental issues in the construction industry. Besides how the construction sector can contribute to reducing the negative impact on the environment and creating “healthy buildings” that can be sustainable for both residents and our environment.
 Materials and methods. An overall literature survey was carried out to get relevant information and provide an overview of the current situation regarding the applications of sustainability in the construction industry. According to the selected theme, an inclusive investigation was conducted using several databases, such as Google Scholar, Scopus, eLIBRARY.RU,and ScienceDirect. Many crucial key words, such as environmental sustainability, social sustainability, economic sustainability, sustainable development, environmental issues, etc. Were used to extract data on the sustainability issues in the construction industry. The primary data was compiled in the form of tables and figures. In most cases,the emphasis was on recent data.
 Results. The most common methods for modelling sustainable construction indicators are described below, as well asthe sustainable construction materials that have been used recently.
 Conclusions. Building information modelling (BIM) appears is the single most commonly used technology today. With the development of computer technology, BIM is increasingly being used in combination with other techniques to achieve sustainable building goals. Careful selection of sustainable building materials may be the quickest way for builders to start integrating sustainable building design concepts.

System Dynamics and TOPSIS Models for Sustainable Building Materials Selection Considering Life Cycle Assessment

Background: Construction industry is the most contributor to the environmental impacts. Achieving sustainability in construction is complicated, but one of the most optimal strategies is selecting sustainable building materials.

Life cycle energy analysis of houses incorporating conventional and alternative masonry units

ABSTRACT The use of alternative masonry units and technologies in traditional masonry work could reduce the life cycle energy of buildings. This study investigates the life cycle energy assessment of houses constructed using concrete blocks, eco-bricks and polymer bricks to evaluate the impacts of masonry units on the life cycle energy of buildings. Three bungalows of approximately 110 m2 each, having the same geometry but different types of wall materials, namely eco-bricks, polymer bricks, and concrete blocks, were used for the analysis. The study found embodied manufacturing energy of 0.346 MJ/kg for eco-bricks and 0.518 MJ/kg for polymer bricks. Approximately 85-86% of the total life cycle energy constitutes the operational phase energy. The polymer brick and eco-brick buildings had the least embodied construction energy of 14% of the total life cycle energy. The life cycle energy of concrete block buildings was 17.547 GJ/m2 at 50 years of service life. Buildings made of polymer bricks and eco-bricks had lower life cycle energy than the concrete block building. The study suggests a prudent selection of building materials by developers and construction professionals based on life cycle energy assessment to reduce the energy consumption of the building sector. Although the study focus is limited to eco-bricks, polymer bricks, and concrete blocks as masonry units in the Nigerian construction context, the method employed in the study is applicable to the energy analysis of other construction materials and geographical locations.

Insulation Performance of Building Components and Effect on the Cooling Load of Homes in Saudi Arabia

A common practice in the construction of residential and commercial buildings in Saudi Arabia is to insulate the outer walls and windows only. Other building components such as the roof, columns and slabs, and doors are usually neglected. Moreover, vital components such as the roof and windows are especially neglected in commercially built residential and commercial buildings. The aim of this study is to put this common impression and practice to the test by quantifying the contribution of every building component to the overall air-conditioning load of the building. The hypothesis evaluated in this paper is that despite the common practices, there could be an optimum selection of insulators for the building components that yields the lowest energy consumption and maximum savings not only in energy costs but also installation costs. The required air-conditioning load is determined using manual calculations and the HAP software package for 1022 possible configurations. The findings of the analysis point to the importance of the roof, as it is the major contributor to the thermal load, followed closely by columns and slabs, with 44.2% of the overall cooling load. It is found that a single wall consisting of 2 cm of cement plaster, 20 cm of cement–polyurethane brick, and 2 cm of cement plaster is less expensive and has higher thermal resistance than any of the more expensive double walls. The study found one scenario of possible configurations with the optimized selection of building materials and their insulation materials that provides the most effective insulation at the lowest cost.