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Concrete is one of the most important and useful materials in the construction sector, which, unfortunately, has an adverse impact on the environment. It is evident that correct procedures for designing concrete structures need to be created. The sustainability approach is a key conceptual principle to be considered in cement and concrete production all around the world because about 7 % of global CO2 emissions are produced by cement manufacturing. An indicator expressing quality, with regard to sustainability, is...

Construction and subsequent operation of buildings fall among the main consumers of material and energy resources, while contributing to environmental pollution. Sustainable building construction therefore responds to the requirements of sustainable development and introduces a new approach to the design, construction and operation of buildings with the aim to reduce negative impacts on operating costs and thus on the environment. Operating costs generally represent the sum of the costs incurred for the operation ...

Article is describing results of an experimental program focused on development of concrete, resistant to impacts of low pH environment. To a very low pH (2-4) is concrete often exposed when used in agricultural production (for example for silage or hay silage pits). Therefore, its degradation with such a low pH is very fast. The experimental part of the work focused on modification of concrete with sealing admixture on the basis of styrene-acrylate. We prepared set of 3 concrete mixtures with different dosing of ...

The need of increasing the use of alternative materials, in construction and in production, is a current issue worldwide. At the same time, with regard to the treatment of waste, the management of bottom ash coming from Municipal Solid Waste Incineration, is an important issue all over the world, especially in Italy. In fact, the need for right management of ashes increases, which, in Italy, are almost always disposed of in landfills. This paper presents the environmental aspects of an industrial experiment, in Ce...

This paper presents the experimental results regarding the evolution into time of the road concrete quality with blast furnace slag BS, obtained by the UPV test for measuring the propagation velocity of the ultrasonic pulses compared with the compressive strengths of mechanical tests The UPV and the compressive strengths of the concrete containing blast furnace slag were determined at the age of 28, 100 and 150 days on 150 mm cubes on road concrete made with conventional materials and on road concrete with blast f...

Gypsum composites with different lightweight aggregates were studied. The importance of gypsum as one of the most environmentally friendly building binder increases nowadays and new ways of its utilization are searched. Using of aggregates in the gypsum is generally not necessary, because gypsum does not shrink, but they can be used for economic reasons or to improve the thermal or fire properties of the gypsum material. We studied the structure and properties of the gypsum composites with three types of lightweig...

In building materials, under reduced pressure, a significant improvement in thermal insulation properties occurs due to the elimination of conduction and flow through the gas phase filling the pore system of insulators (in case of the most insulators). This effect is used in the manufacture of vacuum insulating panels. In earlier times, vacuum insulating panels have only been produced with glass wool or SiO2 based insulators, but alternative insulating panels have also begun in recent years. These insulators are t...

Lighting Engineering Laboratory ? LEL - is the main lighting independent consultant around Transylvania (the north-west side of Romania). Over the past few years the Lighting Engineering Laboratory developed and implemented different trial energy efficient lighting solutions for the university buildings. The Building Services Faculty was used as a lighting test area. The starting point was in 2013 - the lighting refurbishment success of the greatest lecture hall by replacing the old 4*18 W fluorescent luminaires b...

The paper presents the technology of controlling a beam made of the Polytech material. The innovative Polytech technology was used to construct buildings made from prefabricated units. The Polytech system requires analyses and verification of the detailed data related to the strength and deformability of the elements used for building construction. A control technology was suggested that involved installation of a fiber Bragg grating deformation sensor on the surface of the investigated beam. Thanks to properly de...

In work results of researches of the heat-generating flameless heaters on the basis of not extinguished lime (calcium oxide) with addition of active and inert components in relation to a warming up of canned meat products in interaction with water are presented. The optimum ratios of components of the heat-generating heater providing the maximum heat release in interaction with water are established. For packing of tinned meat products in an aluminum jar and retorts packages in contact with the heat-generating hea...

The article presents an analysis of the impact of wind speed on the temperature changes in the external three-layer partition of a green building during winter period. Data for analysis were taken from temperature sensors located in individual layers of the partition and from a weather station on the roof of a smart building. The analysis period was January 2015. The purpose of the analysis was to determine the correlation between the wind speed and the temperature inside the partition. In the analysis period of o...

This article discusses the use of a 3D printer as a complex machine enabling not only 3D printing but also laser engraving and cutting. With a suitable design, the print head can be easily replaced with an engraving head [1]. With regard to the laser power, wood materials can be engraved or marked, and with the use of a chemical-based agent for engraving, we can apply it also to metals. A sufficiently powerful laser can cut even thin veneer, which can be used to create templates, stencils, models and graphical ite...

In cement production waste of various industries (metallurgical, chemical, etc.) is widely used. This contributes to the improvement of environmental protection and intensification of the clinker firing process, as well as improving the quality of clinker by modifying clinker minerals. Due to the large variety of wastes, the decision to use them effectively in the production of Portland cement clinker should be based on the results of scientific research both in the laboratory and in the industrial environment.The...

The energy consumed by buildings accounts for approximately 40% of the total consumption and one-third of the greenhouse gases emissions around the globe. And as the demand for energy increases rapidly, a way of improving the utilization of latent energy around us is accomplished by the use of the Phase Changing Materials (PCM) in the building insulation to reduce the energy consumption rate by one of the PCM application categories, passive, active and free cooling methods. In this paper, an experimental model was...

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play an important role in the IAQ evaluation process. Chemical contaminants emitted by dry building material and indoor equipment influence long-term indoor air quality. VOCs adversely affect both occupant comfort, productivity and health. Most of the health hazards related to VOCs emissions occur during the first months of occupation or after refurbishing the building. At present, most people generally spend up to 90% of their daily time in the indoor environment. Humans spend al...

The reduction of carbon dioxide emissions become the global effort of entire scientific community. Various environmental friendly technologies are currently developed and also applied worldwide. The concrete is the most used building material on Earth and its production is still rising. Its production is related to huge emissions of carbon dioxide due to Portland cement production and generation of waste such as concrete slurry waste (CSW). Sedimented CSW contains considerable amount of cement, calcium and fine fi...

Natural hydraulic lime (NHL) belongs to traditional binders used in civil engineering for centuries. Hydraulic lime (both natural or artificial) may be considered as binder which properties represents a transition between air lime (pure CaO or Ca(OH)2) and Portland cement (PC). It means that NHL contains hydraulic compounds (as PC) and CaO/Ca(OH)2. The significant difference is in calcination temperature ? NHL is calcined at lower temperature than Portland clinker i.e. there is lower energy consumption (and carbon...

The field of construction is considered as a priority in terms of influence on the environment. Attention of researchers is now focused on composite materials made from natural or recycled fillers with clay, cementious or polymerics matrices, among which the non-toxic and biodegradable - Eco-composites, are highlighted. These are attractive because they are safer and more environmentally friendly. Eco-composites are a special category of composite materials, using materials that have the least impact on the enviro...

The stone dust coming from stone processing plant located in Ostrom??, Czech Republic, was examined in the presented paper as an alternative recyclable environment-friendly material which can be effectively being used in construction as partial replacement of natural sand. The tested dust is grey-brown colored and is a byproduct of sandstone processing from quarry Podhorn? ?jezd. Before the characterization tests, the delivered stone dust was sieved on a certificate test sieve with a 0.25 mm mesh size. First, basi...

The aim of this research is to analyse the thermal properties of different non-traditional insulation materials with low thermal conductivity and light weight that are made from Latvian local raw materials and are ?green? or are innovative and advanced materials. The studied materials are grouped depending on the production type and possible applications as follows: ? multi-layer combination of insulation materials, incl. low-emission surfaces; ? straw, cane, hemp, and birch wood fibreboard made from local raw mat...

Blast furnace slag (BFS) is used for preparation of common cements, sulfate-resisting and chemical-resisting cements and cement mortars. Using BFS as a concrete or mortar addition results in several advantageous properties such as high resistance to acid attack (sulphuric, nitric acids), low chloride permeability, high durability and low capillary porosity. Because of these properties using BFS in cement composites can decrease the effect of biodegradation induced by various microorganisms. Bio-corrosion is caused...

Porosity belongs to basic characteristics of building materials. It is a characteristic of solid or semi-rigid materials, which contain a lot of tiny and uniformly distributed cavities or holes of various shape and origin. Porosity decreases specific weight of materials, increases their insulation and other characteristics ? for example absorbability. It is defined as a ratio of pores volume in a specific amount of solid and the total volume of this amount. In the article the use of the modern confocal scanning mi...

We focused at the presented study at the valorization of biomass ash as filler in the design and development of new eco-efficient alkali-activated geopolymers. Since coal fly ash is one of the main precursors used for alkali-activated geopolymer production, this research examines the use of biomass ash, which can have comparable chemical composition and physical properties to coal fly ash, and thus can be potentially geopolymerized in the same way. In this study, the wheat straw ash is used together with diatomace...

Building is constantly heading for the development of new technologies, better materials and reduction of energy consumption, however daylighting remains an essential factor that considerably affects the interior of buildings and it cannot be technologically improved or replaced. The total quality of the indoor environment is crucial to humans. Daylight is important not only from a psychological and health point of view, but also from the point of health standards. People who are forced to work in workplaces witho...

Occupational health and safety is an important work discipline that must be included in the working life. Especially, developed countries have been able to place this discipline in working life, while developing countries have still problems. These problems take place both in terms of legislation and practice. The situation is similar to that of developing countries, in Turkey. The construction sector is in line with the development status of a country. The construction sector contributes both directly and indirec...

A particular importance in the behavior of asphalt mixture is given by the behavior of the mastic formed by the mixture of filler and bitumen. Depending on the type of filler, the mixture has a different behavior in taking over traffic loads and temperature variations. At the same time, an inappropriate dosage of this mixture may adversely affect the behavior of the asphalt mixture in operation. This paper presents the behavior of the MAS 16 stone asphalt mixture stabilized with different types of filler (limeston...

In the near future, all new buildings across European Union will have to meet the nearly Zero Energy Buildings requirements, namely to have a lower primary energy consumption and lower carbon dioxide emissions. In this regard, each country set its own targets concerning the reduction of these values. The paper presents a computational study regarding the thermal performances of an apartment, insulated in the first case scenario with a common solution such as expanded polystyrene and for the second and third case s...

This paper presents the comparison of selected elements of a single-family building in light clay and traditional technology. The advantages and disadvantages of the properties of several materials used in both technologies are described. Moreover, the history of building using clay and its modern construction application, as well as an overall view of the qualities and varieties of the use of clay as a building material in combination with straw and other elements were showed. The selected object was one of the c...

All building materials contain more or less natural radioactivity. The recycling of waste by-products, nowadays, gaining more and more importance, research on that kind of materials is being carried out and such materials are utilized as additives in the production of special mortars in many countries. As radiation of terrestrial origin in buildings does not only originate from the soil, but also from the used building materials, a greater absorbed dose rate can be measured within buildings. EU technical guidance ...

This work is initially devoted to study the cracking behaviour of a small composite wind turbine blade. In order to choose material, the blade is manufactured by different materials (glass/epoxy, carbon/epoxy, Aluminium, and PVC). Considering loads and boundary condition, we study in static analysis the stress, strain and displacement, in dynamic analysis the modes shape and naturals frequencies, in fracture analysis the stress intensity factor, crack initiation and crack growth in order give the results by finite...

In Romania, the European technical standards concerning the quality control of the primary materials and asphalt mixtures used in road and highway works have been harmonized. In the same time, Romanian norms were adopted. These norms set limits within which every characteristic must range, without the possibility of adopting other values, even if laboratory tests prove, in many cases, that the imposed limits do not correspond to the practical reality. Also, most Romanian road laboratories own automatic Marshall eq...

The article presents problems associated with attempts at introducing renewable materials into general use in architecture, with a particular focus on timber. The full implementation of this process will make it possible to significantly lower waste production as a result of the functioning of the contemporary economy. The results of these actions involving the use of new sustainable solution systems in terms of the manner of designing cities and buildings include the use of existing material resources to the maxi...

Coatings based on microspheres are internationally recognized for their heat insulation characteristics, due to the specific properties of their nanoparticles ? ceramic, glass, silicon microspheres - even when the layer thickness has only 1-2 millimetres. Taking into account the high price of such products, the research studied, through specific experimental laboratory works, the possibility of obtaining a new and cheaper heat insulating product, by introducing kaolin as a filler. The experimental results showed n...

Currently, construction industry puts greater emphasis on sustainability. Exploitation of clear materials, methods and pressure on zero waste policy represent priority in architecture and civil engineering. The new directives and laws in individual European countries help to implement these environmental aspects throughout the whole life cycle of construction projects. Cost issue represents one of barrier and common problem to implement these aspects into the construction process. This is not just about perceiving...

One of the most important problems of the modern world is the pollution of the natural environment. Human activities associated with the development of various industries have a huge impact on the surrounding environment. Unfortunately, often this impact is negative and in many cases its effects are irreversible. Human activities strongly affect the environment by polluting the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. Currently, the degradation of the natural environment that has been observed is due to the econom...

One of the most important questions to deal with while conducting a building development project is the selection of a variant investment solution. In a situation where we have several possibilities of performing the building processes, a choice must be made. And when there are many factors involved in a decision-making process, it is much more complicated to arrive at a decision than in a situation when an assessment is based on a single criterion. One of the elementary stages in a decision-making process is when...

At the present time many building of Arkhangelsk are built based on standard project. In the main these project don?t take into account the negative factor of northern conditions. For such territories of cities it is necessary to create specific conditions for the formation of human habitat, including special color solutions. The study analyzes the features of the formation of a harmonious color environment and the factors of color. Also the need of using the concept of forming an urban environment based on the co...

The presented experimental work investigates the development of fire in a compartment made of cross laminated timber (CLT) panels and its impact on fire safety of cables. Impact of protective shielding provided by plasterboards compared to exposed panels thermally loaded by fire inside of a compartment was also examined. During the experiments a fire-technical properties were continually monitored, such as heat release rate, consumption of O2, CO, CO2, time to flash-over, time to termination of flames and temperat...

The paper deals with the possibilities of using textile waste in the form of synthetic and natural fibers for the production of thermal and acoustic materials. The paper presents the results of the research that confirm that the waste fiber insulators can show more favourable properties in some areas than conventional synthetic insulators commonly used in the building industry. The advantage of insulators from waste textile fibers is their high variability. In the field of them insulation properties, these insulat...

The paper presents studies on the development of multifunctional modified clay mineral-base additives that are used for paint, coating, resin and other finishing building material applications to improve the durability of the finishing products by protecting it from degradation processes as abrasive influence, UV radiation, moisture and microbial influence. Such swelling clay mineral as montmorillonite (smectite) is selected for the development of hydrophobic and UV protectable additive because of its specific phy...

Studies have been carried out to increase the activity of ashes and cements by separate or joint activation in an aqueous medium immediately before the preparation of concrete on the construction site. Activation was carried out in devices where the treated medium was subjected to hydrodynamic and cavitation effects. When using coarse-grained ash, it is possible to recommend either their preliminary grinding in an aqueous medium before adding into the concrete mixing unit, or joint activation with cement. The join...

Biochar is a product of pyrolysis of biomass such as plant residues, organic wastes or etc. Being highly porous material that slowly releases nutrients, biochar is considered as an effective alternative fertilizer. It is reported that biochar properties are depending on the pyrolysis regime (e.g. pyrolysis peak temperature and duration), however information about quantitative dependences remains poor, especially for biochars made of specific substrates such as chicken manure. In this study, properties of biochars ...

At the global scale, the construction sector has a significant social and economic influence over people?s daily activities. At the same time, it is well known that the built environment is responsible for a significant negative influence over the Earth?s ecosystem. Taking into account the climate change phenomena registered nowadays, as well as the expected increase in the global volume of negative effects over the natural environment, considering the ecological dimension of sustainability in the construction sec...

As a rule, buildings make an impact on their surroundings. Industrial and manufacturing facilities obviously create the most severe problems. This is due to the technological processes involved, the need to ensure transportation routes to provide supplies and the necessity to handle waste products. Residential buildings are not normally considered in terms of being a threat to the environment, although their large agglomerations are likely to give rise to many problems and are not neutral to the environment. This ...

The indoor climate of buildings is one of the most important components that directly affect human health, well-being, and then the work performance of each of us. We are witnesses of the past and the present when we are experiencing so-called sick building syndrome. At present, however, an extraordinary emphasis is placed on building assessment from the energy saving point of view. The era of homes with almost zero energy consumption is beginning. To meet this requirement, attention must be paid not only to energ...

One of the most important stages of the rehabilitation process, in the case of historical buildings, is to find the best solutions that can ensure, in the most efficient and nonaggressive way, the thermal comfort inside the building. In the study of this case, the authors identified several essential aspects in determining the best practices for assuring the heat consumption in buildings declared as historical monuments dating back to the 18th century. Among these we can mention: the destination of the building (t...

The topic of increased CO2 concentration is very actual in the Czech Republic, especially in the connection to the current effort for a massive revitalization of buildings, which aims to reduce the energy performance of buildings. Both residential and civil buildings revitalization includes predominantly replacement of windows and insulation by the contact system. Exchange of windows and high-quality contact insulation then result in almost no infiltration at all. So, when the forced ventilation is not compulsory ...

The paper presents an analysis of the behaviour of an air-water vapour compression heat pump at the variation of some of the decisional parameters as the state of the fluid at the compressor intake. Different refrigerants as CO2, NH3 and R600a, and different schematics are considered. The large use of rotary compressors in the industrial and domestic heat pump area has determined the investigation of the influence of the wet compression. The analysis is based on the exergy concept that enables to point out the loc...

Geopolymers are green and eco-friendly alternative to commonly used resins. Geopolymer are derived from the naturally occurring recyclable geological materials and combine low temperature, polymer-like processing with high temperature stability and fire resistibility without toxic smoke generation. The aim of this work is to manufacture geopolymer blades for an experimental axial fan, which is the first step on the way to produce full-fledged geopolymer blades. These blades could be then used for ventilators in ro...

Plasters belong to the most common external surface layers of building envelopes in Central Europe, which is supposedly due to their low cost and technological simplicity. Their continuous exposure to external environment can though lead to the cumulation of damage and subsequently to the necessity to repair or replace them after certain time. In this paper, the effects of environmental conditions of the city of Prague on three different plasters on lime-cement basis, commonly used either in contemporary buildings...