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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...

Wood-based materials belong to the popular and widely used materials in the building industry. For example, these plates can be easily used to create often complicated details. Not all wood-based materials are suitable for the proposed environment. The effect of mistaking the choice of the right wood-based material and its application to an inappropriate environment can then result in the destruction of the details of the particular part of the structure and thus often involves a considerable financial cost to rep...

The effective management of operating costs, processes and space utilization is one of the basic requirements of owners and possibly building operators. The effort is to optimize these costs in order to ensure the comfort and safety of the workers in the buildings while avoiding unnecessary waste of the basic operating media and the human workforce. This optimization deals with facility management, which can misinterpret different concepts in different countries of the world, as the facility management definition ...

The paper presents technology of monitoring a reinforced concrete pillar-connector of prefabricated walls. Prefabricated units made from a modified Polytech mortar containing expanded polystyrene derived from recycling were used to build a residential object. Reinforced concrete pillars that serve as wall connectors in Polytech system are load-bearing elements. In order to control the reinforced concrete connector of prefabricated walls under realistic conditions, a control technology was applied that involved int...

The parking platforms required for the operation of different industrial, service, goods storing and manipulating companies, inside boarding houses, hotels, stores, gas stations, etc., are continuously and quickly developing, in close line with the development of economic activities and the construction field. The technical solutions applied to realize the resistance structures for these surfaces are very diverse and, in several cases, do not include a proper resistance calculation according to the traffic intensi...

Together with clay and rocks, wood represents the oldest building material, used for developing the overall infrastructure, namely civil structures, road and bridge elements. Its use as critical building material is still wide spread worldwide, due to intrinsic qualities of wood as building material and also due to its availability, being generously offered by nature. Romania, despite of huge lacks of legislation and practical protection of forests and wood as strategic resource, still has important, high quality,...

The construction sector is one of the largest consumers of energy and non-renewable natural resources, but also an important increasing factor of global warming by producing greenhouse gases, especially CO2. In Europe, about 30% of CO2 emissions and 36% of all greenhouse gases emissions are a direct or indirect environmental consequences of the construction sector. In the sustainable development contex, the possibility of recycling, reuse and reintegration in nature, environmental protection and efficient manageme...

The paper focuses on the evaluation of the heat transfer coefficient, both by means of calculation models and based on measurements on the actual design. In their research, the authors evaluate the differences between the values of the heat transfer coefficients of the envelope constructions obtained by calculation based on the declared parameters of the building materials and the constructions made therefrom and the actual values of the heat transfer coefficients determined by the measurements on the already real...

A new joint configuration system has been developed to achieve a higher strength and ductility. The joint system consist of a reinforced concrete wall and a composite steel-concrete beam. The study aims for an experimental and a numerical part in a FEM program Abaqus 6.13. The program consist to reproduce the behavior of the joints and the materials variation. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the main parameters that affect the response on the contribution of the steel-concrete materials that influences ...

The cone heater is one of the primary sources of radiant heat in the field of fire protection. It is increasingly used not only for measurements related to building materials but also for other flammable objects, that may be exposed to heat radiation during their lifetime or during a fire. Such measurements are more specific in the case of electric cables. They can be exposed to heat individually or in bundles. Their positioning may be in the horizontal or vertical direction, with the latter prevails in real-life ...

In the fire statistics, electrical appliances are one of the main sources of fire. In such fires, the first ignited component is the insulation around wires and cables. The aim of this paper is to determine the impact of isoperibolic heating (in the range of 200 ? 400 В°C and with a heat gradient of 10 K in 10 min) on fire resistance of electrical cable (which was modified by a fire-retardant) using a safety calorimeter SEDEX. The individual insulation layers of the sample were pre-ground and each layer was subseq...

Different types of materials are possible to use for waterproofing of green roofs. One of these materials is bitumen sheet. Two types of bitumen sheets are used for surface treatment when applied in the roof vegetative structure. In the part where the bitumen sheets are under the vegetation layer, a fine grain gritting is used. In the part of the roof, where the bitumen sheet extends to the surface (above the level) of the vegetation stratum and is exposed to UV radiation, the coarse grain gritting is used. Water ...

Present paper is focused on the development of high performance concrete (HPC) based on white Portland cement, which could be used for the production fa?ade panels. Various doses of silica fume, up to 40%, were incorporated into the studied mixtures, however investigated mixtures were designed to constant consistency. The half of samples was cured under specific hydrothermal conditions to obtain higher degree of hydration. Properties of studied HPC mixtures were evaluated predominantly in terms of mechanical prope...

How to use fermentation residues is a burden on many biogas plants. Incorporation into arable land remains the most common approach, although application costs represent approximately the same benefit for fertilization, despite the risk of soil formation and the associated degradation of the soil's ability to retain water. An alternative how to use spent dust is to re-enter into raw material of the biogas plant or a second alternative is to use dust coal as wall surfaces in the interior because of its sorption cap...

The article describes behavior of ternary gypsum-based composites, especially the changes of properties caused by the influence of moisture. The ternary mortars are composed from gypsum, hydraulic lime, different types of pozzolan and standard sand. Pozzolans in the mixture react with hydraulic lime and form CSH and CAH phases. Presence of these phases improves resistance of gypsum against the moisture. The way of samples storage affects the development of materials structure and properties of gypsum-based mortars...

Designing flat roofs has many issues and decisions. This can be, for example, the decision on how to close the flat roof. By default, roofs are terminated at the periphery by means of attics or by creating a so-called rigid edge of the roof. This paper focuses on the first option, and therefore the termination of the flat roof using the atics. The author is dealing with the findings with regard to the way the proposal is implemented and the subsequent realization of the details. As a major waterproofing layer, fil...

The paper proposes a new strategy against the global warming, which if applied on large scale is able to turn our cities into green oasis, decreasing their actual carbon foot-print and increasing their carbon offset. Our approach is to replace conventional roofs with integrated rooftop greenhouses IRTG, which are connected with the interior of the building by controlled flows of energy, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water. The main IRTG feature is the tight human-plant symbiosis ensured by a two flows ventilation sys...

This paper aims to provide an overview of the technologies for the use and implementation of phase change materials, in order to identify possible applications in energy efficiency, reducing energy losses and reducing carbon dioxide emissions, while at the same time bringing a contribution to identifying applications in passive house designs for reducing thermal bridges and providing heating and cooling requirements in extreme weather climates, as well as aspects regarding the integration of phase change materials...