Smart Building Materials Research Articles

Factors driving consumer adoption of smart and green building materials: the role of civil engineers and architects

ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate the role of civil engineers and architects in driving consumer adoption of smart and green building materials in Bengaluru, India. A mixed-method approach is employed, including quantitative surveys of 350 consumers and qualitative interviews with 30 civil engineers and architects. The data are analyzed using descriptive, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), and thematic analysis. Income acts as a moderating variable influencing the consumers in adoption. Civil engineers and architects use innovative marketing strategies, public education campaigns, and consumer involvement in decision-making. However, various barriers such as initial costs, limited availability, lack of expertise, and complex regulations prevent widespread adoption. The qualitative analysis highlighted the environmental benefit as the most relevant factor, increasing awareness and providing education as the most powerful strategy. Conversely, the lack of a uniform rating system and certification system is the most critical challenge affecting the adoption of these materials from a consumer behaviour perspective. Therefore, the study recommended incentivising green building materials, promote knowledge via professional development, and expedite regulatory procedures to encourage widespread use. The study uses civil engineers and architects as consumer acceptability influencers to help policymakers create a smart and green building material consumption roadmap.

Smart Building Material with Near‐Infrared‐Triggered Reversible Color Switching

Smart materials and devices play an increasingly important role in improving modern life due to their richer functions, enhanced controllability, and improved biocompatibility. Herein, calcium silicate hydration (C–S–H) is integrated with layered [Co(NCS)2(pyrazine)2]n metal–organic frameworks (Co–MOF) and polymeric skeleton to fabricate the smart building material (M–C–S–H). C–S–H was anchored on the polymeric skeleton to reinforce the network structure for enhanced mechanical strength and toughness. Simultaneously, the highly porous skeleton structure enables the uniform distribution of layered Co–MOF, which could maintain its molecular form to endow the M–C–S–H with the photoresponsive color‐switching performance. The M–C–S–H as a smart building material exhibits the color change between light blue and black blue upon near‐infrared illumination on/off within a wide temperature range to achieve personalized wall and building decoration. Taking advantage of the low cost, rapid response, outstanding reversibility, and good color stability, M–C–S–H could provide lively, dynamic, and changeable decorating effects for walls and buildings.

Cellulose-based light-management film exhibiting flame-retardant and thermal-healing properties

The increased use and expansion of biomass applications offer a viable approach to diminish reliance on petroleum-derived resources and promote carbon neutrality. Cellulose, being the most abundant natural polymer on Earth, has garnered considerable attention. This study introduces a straightforward method to fabricate a cellulose-based multifunctional composite film designed for efficient light management, specifically featuring flame retardant and thermal-healing capabilities. The film incorporates a microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) matrix with functional components, namely benzoxazine resin (BR) and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate phosphate (HEMAP). Utilizing dynamic covalent crosslinking, the composite films exhibit satisfactory self-healing properties. The combined effects of BR and HEMAP contribute to the effective flame retardancy of the composite film. Furthermore, the resulting film shields ultraviolet and blue light, offering comfortable interior lighting by mitigating harsh light and extending light propagation. The film also demonstrates favorable water resistance and high tensile strength. The exceptional multifunctional properties, coupled with its safety and extended service life, position it as a potential optical management film for smart building materials.

Shape‐Editable Transparent Wood Based on In‐Situ Polymerization of Epoxy Vitrimers Embedded with Luminescent BODIPY Molecules for Smart Decoration Materials

AbstractTransparent wood (TW) combining unique anisotropic structure has broad application prospects in the field of advanced building furniture materials. Many efforts have been made to add quantum dots or nanoparticles to TW to endow it with additional functionality, such as luminescent, electrochromic, and thermochromic TW. However, luminous TW with shape‐editable functionality and its new applications have yet to be explored. Benefiting from the excellent luminescence performance in a diluted solution state, BODIPY (4,4‐difluoro‐4‐bora‐3a,4a‐diazas‐indacene) dyes have been widely used for bio‐sensing and bioimaging. In addition, vitrimers exhibit excellent stimuli‐responsive, shape‐memory, and reprocessing properties thanks to exchangeable dynamic covalent crosslinking networks, which are suitable for fabricating smart TW. Herein, combing these advantages, a dual‐functional transparent wood composite (P‐SEFTW) with photoluminescent and shape editable function was developed by introducing BODIPY dyes and vitrimers into the delignified wood (DW) templates. P‐SEFTW displays good UV luminescence, unique light guiding and directional scattering effects. Meanwhile, it shows excellent shape‐recovery, shape‐programming, shape‐erasing, and re‐programming capability under thermal‐stimulus. These characteristics enable TW to exhibit great prospect as an advanced smart and functional building material.

Structurally engineered 3D porous graphene based phase change composite with highly efficient multi-energy conversion and versatile applications

Micro-nano encapsulation strategy combining three-dimensional (3D) porous carriers and phase change materials (PCMs) has been widely investigated due to its structure stability, high efficiency, and designability. However, the current 3D scaffolds suffering from structure regularity are hard to meet the urgent requirements of high energy conversion efficiency and versatile applications. Herein, a 3D porous graphene scaffold (2LrGO@LIG), which is fabricated from polybenzoxazine/graphene oxide (GO) composite using laser irradiation that structurally engineers a gully-shaped surface and a 3D overlapped graphene networks, was employed for PCMs encapsulation. The addition of GO is proved to enhance the quality of produced laser induced graphene (LIG), which could also be reduced into laser-reduced graphene oxide (LrGO) and connect the adjacent LIGs as thermal bridges. As a consequence, the obtained phase change composite (2LrGO@LIG/MA) showed photo-thermal and electro-thermal conversion efficiency of 94.1 % and 99.1 %, respectively. In addition, benefiting from the surface hydrophobicity (135°), high energy storage density (167.7 J/g) and electrical conductivity (307.9 S/m), 2LrGO@LIG/MA also demonstrated great potential in smart building materials and wearable electronic devices. This study provides a facile method for designing advanced PCM composites with multi-energy conversion capacity and application versatility.

Consumer Adoption Behaviour of Smart, Green, and Sustainable Building Materials for Future Cities and Environment: Extension of UTAUT 2 Model

Consumer Adoption Behaviour of Smart, Green, and Sustainable Building Materials for Future Cities and Environment: Extension of UTAUT 2 Model

Smart cement for fire alarms and indoor climate control

Fire alarms in buildings are essential for safety. However, due to the poor conductivity of cement, it remains a challenge to detect fire without the assistance of other monitoring equipment. In this study, a fire alarm cement composite containing expandable graphite, carbon fiber, and ordinary Portland cement that can achieve ultrasensitive temperature monitoring and indoor climate control in a building is developed. Homogeneously distributed expandable graphite in this smart cement rapidly expands under high temperatures, forming new electrically conductive pathways. This results in excellent temperature sensing performance, with a temperature coefficient of resistance of − 0.467 %/°C in the range of 220 °C–400 °C. The smart cement can be easily integrated into a building to transmit a fire alert to a computer, mobile phone, or visual alarm device in a timely manner. Furthermore, this smart cement exhibits higher flexural strength in harsh environments compared to ordinary cement. This smart cement exhibits potential to considerably broaden cement applications and be highly desirable for next-generation smart building materials.

Impact of malt concentration in solid substrate on mycelial growth and network connectivity in Ganoderma species

With its distinctive material properties, fungal mycelium has emerged as an innovative material with a diverse array of applications across various industries. This study focuses on how the growth strategies of wood fungi adapt to nutrient availability. The effect of malt extract concentration in the growth medium on radial growth kinetics, morphology, mycelium network connectivity, and mechanical characteristics of mycelium from two Ganoderma species were investigated. While an evident pattern of radial growth rate enhancement with malt concentrations was not apparent, there was a discernible trend towards denser mycelium network characteristics as revealed by spectrophotometry. Increased malt extract contents corresponded to elevated optical density measurements and were visually confirmed by denser mycelium networks in photographic images. Investigating the mechanical characteristics of mycelium cultivated on varying solid substrate concentrations, the Young’s modulus exhibited a substantial difference between mycelium grown on 5 wt% malt substrate and samples cultivated on 2 wt% and 0.4 wt% malt substrates. The obtained results represent a new understanding of how malt availability influences mycelial growth of two Ganoderma species, a crucial insight for potentially refining mycelium cultivation across diverse applications, including meat alternatives, smart building materials, and alternative leather.

Influence of consumer motivations and perception on the adoption of smart, green, and sustainable building materials

The purpose of this study is to analyze the barriers to the widespread use of smart, green, and sustainable building materials in the construction industry by focusing on the perceptions, motivations, strategies, and challenges faced by consumers. The analysis employed an exploratory methodology and surveyed 385 respondents in Bangalore, India. The study result shows a significant positive partial correlation (r = 0.629, p = 0.001) between the challenges of adoption and the overall factors that influence adoption after controlling the annual income as a control variable. The higher mean score of personal values and ethics of 4.25 implies that moral values and ethics influence the decisions on the adoption of construction materials. The findings of multiple regression with robust standard error revealed perception of performance of smart, green and sustainable building materials is better compared to traditional building materials (p-value = 0.001), factors positively influencing adoption (p-value = 0.004), motivating factors of adoption (p-value = 0.001) and strategies that encourage adoption of smart, green, and sustainable building materials (p-value = 0.001). All of these have a substantial influence on how consumers evaluate the government’s efforts to increase the adoption of such materials. However, challenges in adoption showed a negative coefficient (B= –0.049) and a robust standard error of 0.024 (p-value = 0.048), demonstrating a negative influence on consumers’ perception. This research acts as a guiding beacon for green adoption policies by studying consumer motivations and perceptions toward adoption of eco-friendly building materials for the sustainable future.

A study on waste management in iron mining

When minerals are extracted and processed, mining waste is produced. The first stage, known as extraction, is the first layer of sacking of minerals. Typically, blasting is used to do this, which produces a significant amount of garbage (soil, debris, and other material). This is usually only concentrated within the periphery of a mine rental place and occasionally on public land, and is useless to the industry. The amount of waste produced increases with the size of the mine. Because they produce far more trash than underground mines, opencast mines are consequently more pollutant-intensive. Mining waste not only pollutes the environment, but it also has an adverse effect on life. But mining, materials, and minerals are the symbols of the growth of industrialization. Countries' growth depends on industrialization. So both the environment and the economy are the most important pillars of civilization. The categorization of mining waste must be done properly as per its nature to enhance the utility of materials and avoid pollution. Hence, in this paper,an attempt is made to categorise the different kinds of waste produced from iron mining and suggest proper waste management techniques based on research papers. Mining waste is very hazardous, so it is very, very necessary to divide and segregate the waste as per its nature for environmental safety and the use of the waste material as a smart building material.

Researching the Use of Smart Building Materials in the Context of Contemporary Architecture

Günümüzdeki teknolojik ilerlemelere paralel olarak yapı malzemesi sektöründe de gelişim görülmektedir. Yapı malzemeleri disiplinine günümüz teknolojisinin entegre edilmesiyle birlikte akıllı yapı malzemeleri kavramı ortaya çıkmıştır. Akıllı yapı malzemelerinin üretim sürecinin başlamasıyla beraber bu malzemeler çağdaş mimari uygulamalarda da sıklıkla tercih edilen yapı malzemeleri haline gelmiştir. Bu çalışmada, akıllı yapı malzemelerinin çağdaş mimarlık bağlamında ele alınarak değerlendirmede bulunulması amaçlanmıştır. Çalışma kapsamında akıllı yapı malzemeleri ve bu malzemelerin günümüz mimarisinde kullanılma durumu örnek yapılar üzerinden incelenmiştir. Yapılan inceleme sonucunda; akıllı malzemelerin mimaride kullanılmasıyla birlikte geleneksel yapı malzemelerinden elde edilemeyen çözümlerin geliştirilmesini olanaklı kıldığı, yapılarda kullanıcı konforunu arttırmaya yönelik etki gösterdiği, kullanıldığı yapılarda enerji korunumunu sağladığı, yapıya sürdürülebilir nitelik kazandırdığı ve yapılardan beklenen performansın optimum düzeyde sağlanmasında etkili olduğu sonucuna varılmıştır.

Applications of Smart Material to Enhance Daylighting as a tool to Improve Sustainability of Atriums

Applications for smart building materials include making them more environmentally friendly, better able to suit user needs, and less likely to cause environmental issues. This kind of material has been suggested recently, following great scientific advancements and novel sustainable architecture techniques, as smart materials that allow controlled transmission of light and heat into the building and remove some of the traditional limitations in window application, smart material technologies are key feature competitiveness of the twenty-first century. Modern construction materials are capable of achieving great levels of utility, “Smart materials” will play a crucial role in building technology development; These materials that are part of an intelligent structural system, have the ability to sense its environment, so smart materials can function like living systems, An important element of an architectural design strategy that is environmentally sustainable is the use of daylight as part of an integrated, controlled lighting strategy. For well-designed structures, the atrium could be a significant source of daylight. It also offers other environmental advantages such as solar energy gain, reduced energy loss, and natural ventilation. The major elements of the atrium for the daylight design are a system of skylights and windows to provide daylight levels in the spaces adjacent to the atrium.

Combined Experimental and Computational Prediction of the Piezoresistivity of Alkali-Activated Inorganic Polymers

The incorporation of smart building materials into construction will improve the working life of structures and infrastructure around the globe. Unfortunately, conventional smart building materials are cost-prohibitive because of the self-sensing additives required. Alkali-activated inorganic polymers are a promising low-cost and environmentally friendly alternative that exhibit intrinsic self-sensing properties, without the need for self-sensing additives. An improved methodology has been developed to quantify the self-sensing piezoresistivity of these materials. Experimental measurements reveal a strong intrinsic piezoresistivity up to 12%. The results agree with a first-principles model of the theoretical piezoresistivity of an alkali-activated inorganic polymer from the quantum mechanical perturbation theory. This first-of-its-kind computation provides a mechanistic explanation for the origin of intrinsic piezoresistivity in inorganic polymers.

Shape-reconfigurable transparent wood based on solid-state plasticity of polythiourethane for smart building materials with tunable light guiding, energy saving, and fire alarm actuating functions

Transparent wood (TW) is a promising light and thermal management material that has enormous potential for energy-efficient engineering applications. However, almost all the polymers currently used to fabricate TW fall under the thermosetting or thermoplastic category, exhibiting extremely monotonous performance and lack of intelligence. Herein, a smart shape-reconfigurable TW is developed through infiltration the polythiourethane covalent adaptable networks (PTU CANs) into the delignified wood (DW) scaffolds. Benefiting from the solid-state plasticity and thermadapt shape-memory behavior of PTU CANs and the highly aligned cellulose nanofibers of the DW scaffolds, the resulting TW exhibits reconfigurable shape memory behavior, excellent optical properties (transmittance of ∼90% and tunable light guiding effects), and low thermal conductivity (212.8 mW m−1K−1). In addition, the tensile strength, modulus, and toughness of TW are 60.14 MPa, 2.09 GPa, and 1.19 MJ m−3, respectively. Moreover, the reconfigurable shape-memory performance of the TW allows it to be used as a smart actuator for designing a fire alarm system. Compared with traditional TW, the TW reported in this work not only maintains high optical transmittance, but also exhibits excellent reconfigurable shape memory properties, which can promote the high-value utilization for TW. The incorporation of the shape reconfiguration, light guiding, energy saving, and fire alarm actuating properties to the TW opens a new avenue for the design and development of advanced functional and intelligent building materials.

PERANCANGAN PUSAT TEKNOLOGI & INFORMASI DI KABUPATEN TOJO UNA-UNA DENGAN PENDEKATAN SMART BUILDING

Information and technology center design as a place to communicate and interact with various SKPD/offices, information and technology development centers and shopping centers that aim to build social interaction between communities. The design of the information and technology center is carried out by applying the Smart Building approach. The Smart Building design concept is the utilization of natural energy and artificial energy. Energy efficiency in lighting and ventilation systems using the latest technological materials, which refer to structures, sensor systems and digitization. The design location is in Ampana City because it is the capital of the Tojo Una-una Regency, besides that it has an amazing and sustainable beach view. While the site is on Jl. Ahmad Yani, Dondo, Ampana Kota District, because it is very strategic according to the characteristics of this area. The shape of the Information and Technology Center in Tojo Una-Una Regency takes the Smart Building concept. Buildings that use smart building principles with a modern appearance are adapted to the building materials used and the responsibility of smart building materials to the local climate conditions.

Editable shape-memory transparent wood based on epoxy-based dynamic covalent polymer with excellent optical and thermal management for smart building materials

Editable shape-memory transparent wood based on epoxy-based dynamic covalent polymer with excellent optical and thermal management for smart building materials

Room-temperature, energy storage textile with multicore-sheath structure obtained via in-situ coaxial electrospinning

Smart thermo-regulated textiles are promising to fabricate spacesuit, wearable electronic device, energy saving vehicle, homothermal shell system for rechargeable lithium batteries, and smart furniture and building materials etc. However, phase change temperature and related latent heat value of the state-of-the-art thermo-regulated smart textiles ranges from 35℃ to 65℃ and is lower than 65 J g−1, respectively. It is still a big challenge to obtain smart thermo-regulated textile with a comfortable phase change temperature (e.g. 25 ℃), a latent heat value of up to 80 J g−1, an excellent shape stability at high temperature (e.g. 100 ℃), an acceptable water proof ability, and a fabulous thermal recycle reliability. Herein, we for the first time report a smart thermal regulation textile with novel multicores-sheath nanostructures using the coaxial electrospinning technique accompanying with an in-situ UV irradiation polymerization. The obtained coaxial electrospinning fibers with the multicores-sheath structure own a comfortable phase change point (around 25 ℃), and show a maximum latent heat value of 106.2 J g−1. The latent heat retention of the textiles is higher than 98.3% after the 500-times thermal recycles to illustrate their outstanding energy absorption-release reliability. The produced textiles still exhibit splendid heat preservation and excellent shape stability even if the surrounding temperature has reached 120℃. Water proof ability studies reveal that both latent heat and tensile strength values of the prepared textiles are almost unchanged after soaking in water. The herein preparation method opens up a new avenue to develop smart thermal regulation textiles with a room temperature phase change point, a high latent heat value, a distinctive shape stability at different temperatures, and an outstanding water proof ability.

Comparative study on Conventional and Smart Building Material in terms of TQC

Abstract: There are several new-age „smart‟ building materials which are cost effective and long lasting and which would help to build or rebuild smart buildings, as a more eco- friendly and sustainable habitat. In India since ancient time construction is done by using conventional building materials. But now a days concept of smart building materials is introduced. These are durable, eco-friendly, cost effective. Still use of conventional materials is more than smart building materials. Due to lack of knowledge about smart building materials we don't use such materials. Control over quality and sustainability of finished building. Justification of the environmental cost of manufactures. So with the help of project i.e. Comparative study between smart and conventional building, there is comparison as per cost, strength, durability. In this, how both buildings are different in their features like long lasting life, implementation of materials, speed of construction, sustainability of materials is shown. For this project there is use of software for developing, analyzing and designing the reinforced concrete building. Keywords: smart material, conventional material, cost

From Traditional to Smart Building Materials in Architecture

Building materials from traditional to contemporary and from traditional to high-performance materials in architecture and their implementation in energy-efficient constructions can be compared with smart ones? Can we bring these materials to superior performance? Building materials in general, either smart, energy efficient or with new performance, are based on the same traditional materials. A material is considered to have special properties only when it contributes to the improvement of construction criteria. With all these advances in construction techniques and architecture, along with end-user demand for 2021 buildings, as architects we will need to introduce something new and smart to meet their requirements and needs. We can build intelligently and at the same time use traditional materials or current construction, needs guide us to a new era of building materials, high-performance materials, smart, etc. This abstract is a comparison between the high performance direction that is foreseen in the future in building with intelligent materials and returning to nature by using traditional building materials to build just as efficiently. This transformation is possible and to what extent the new requirements can bring traditional materials to these standards. The paper is an overview of the types of materials that can be used in construction and architecture, thus offering a new perspective on innovative techniques that will be available or are already available that improve this field. The comparison between classical concrete and concrete that changes the image of architecture through the created image or between traditional and performance materials for building envelopes are only a small part of the options available for use in construction and architecture.

Comparison between smart and traditional building materials to achieve sustainability

Building materials have been leading architecture since its inception and with the development of building materials throughout history, gives architecture a broader scope for development, whether at the level of plans, facades or sections .From the first dwelling created by man to contemporary architecture, where the building is the true embodiment of building materials, and traditional building materials based on bricks, wood and iron have developed greatly in terms of appearance and efficiency of use in contemporary architecture, Man seeks when using building materials to reduce the amount of materials used and with the highest functional, structural and aesthetic efficiency, in order to invest them in an optimal manner, leading to the sustainability of building materials. Therefore, the research problem was (The need to know the difference between the sustainability of traditional and contemporary building materials in architecture) The research determined the hypothesis (there is a disparity between the sustainability of traditional and contemporary building materials in architecture) To reach the main objective (studying the sustainability of traditional and contemporary building materials and the construction capabilities of each). This will be done through the study of traditional building materials and contemporary and sustainability of each of them down to a comparison between them in terms of sustainability through the analysis of some architectural examples.