Experimental investigation of thermal inertia properties in hemp-lime concrete walls

Hemp-lime concrete is a sustainable alternative to standard building wall materials, with low associated embodied energy. It exhibits good hygric, acoustic and thermal properties, making it an exciting, sustainable building envelope material. When cast in temporary shuttering around a timber frame, it exhibits lower thermal conductivity than concrete, and consequently achieves low U-values in a primarily mono-material wall construction. Although cast relatively thick hemp-lime walls do not generally achieve the low U-values stipulated in building regulations. However assessment of its thermal performance through evaluation of its resistance to thermal transfer alone, underestimates its true thermal quality. The thermal inertia, or reluctance of the wall to change its temperature when exposed to changing environmental temperatures, also has a significant impact on the thermal quality of the wall, the thermal comfort of the interior space and energy consumption due to space heating. With a focus on energy reduction in buildings, regulations emphasise thermal resistance to heat transfer with only less focus on thermal inertia or storage benefits due to thermal mass. This paper investigates dynamic thermal responsiveness in hemp-lime concrete walls. It reports the influence of thermal conductivity, density and specific heat through analysis of steady state and transient heat transfer, in the walls. A novel hot-box design which isolates the conductive heat flow is used, and compared with tests in standard hot-boxes. Thermal diffusivity and effusivity are evaluated, using experimentally measured conductivity, based on analytical relationships. Experimental results evident that hemp-lime exhibits high thermal inertia. They show the thermal inertia characteristics compensate for any limitations in the thermal resistance of the construction material. When viewed together the thermal resistance and mass characteristics of hemp-lime are appropriate to maintain comfortable thermal indoor conditions and low energy operation.

Performance of a commercial wine store with insulated concrete walls

The internal environment within an unconditioned wine barrel store, constructed from insulated concrete panels and located in south-eastern Australia, has been investigated during a summer and winter month. Average temperatures inside the store were found to be 13.7°C and 22.8°C in the winter and summer month respectively. A validated mathematical model of the store was used to investigate the contribution of the concrete walls, insulation and the wine itself to the internal thermal environment. The concrete walls were found to be the least influential.

Behavior of ten-story reinforced concrete walls subjected to earthquake motions /

Mode of access: Internet.

Aquatic Centre Walls

Construction of the concrete walls and pillars for the Aquatic Centre progress.

Design of Reinforcement in Concrete Shells: a unified Approach

The problem of design/verification of reinforcement in concrete shells is reviewed. Methods of analysis are classified, and the elastic-plastic approach is described in detail in the general case of shells subjected to both bending and membrane action. The procedure is then reduced to membrane shells (applicable also to concrete walls) and to pure bending, as in the case of plates. The procedure, which is based on previous research,generally requires the use of a desk-top computer.

Experimental study of frame-wall interaction in reinforced concrete structures subjected to strong earthquake motions /

Mode of access: Internet.

Coupled heat and mass transfer in concrete exposed to fire

The first investigation of this study is concerned with the reasonableness of the assumptions related to diffusion of water vapour in concrete and with the development of a diffusivity equation for heated concrete. It has been demonstrated that diffusion of water vapour does occur in concrete at all temperatures and that the type of diffusion is concrete is Knudsen diffusion. Neglecting diffusion leads to underestimating the pressure. It results in a maximum pore pressure of less than 1 MPa. It has also been shown that the assumption that diffusion in concrete is molecular is unreasonable even when the tortuosity is considered. Molecular diffusivity leads to overestimating the pressure. It results in a maximum pore pressure of 2.7 MPa of which the vapour pressure is 1.5 MPa while the air pressure is 1.2 MPa. Also, the first diffusivity equation, appropriately named 'concrete diffusivity', has been developed specifically for concrete that determines the effective diffusivity of any gas in concrete at any temperature. In thick walls and columns exposed to fire, concrete diffusivity leads to a maximum pore pressures of 1.5 and 2.2 MPa (along diagonals), respectively, that are almost entirely due to water vapour pressure. Also, spalling is exacerbated, and thus higher pressures may occur, in thin heated sections, since there is less of a cool reservoir towards which vapour can migrate. Furthermore, the reduction of the cool reservoir is affected not only by the thickness, but also by the time of exposure to fire and by the type of exposure, i.e. whether the concrete member is exposed to fire from one or more sides. The second investigation is concerned with examining the effects of thickness and exposure time and type. It has been demonstrated that the build up of pore pressure is low in thick members, since there is a substantial cool zone towards which water vapour can migrate. Thus, if surface and/or explosive spalling occur on a thick member, then such spalling must be due to high thermal stresses, but corner spalling is likely to be pore pressure spalling. However, depending on the exposure time and type, the pore pressures can be more than twice those occurring in thick members and thought to be the maximum that can occur so far, and thus the enhanced propensity of pore pressure spalling occurring on thin sections heated on opposite sides has been conclusively demonstrated to be due to the lack of a cool zone towards which moisture can migrate. Expressions were developed for the determination of the maximum pore pressures that can occur in different concrete walls and columns exposed to fire and of the corresponding times of exposure.

Embodied and operational energy of urban residential buildings in India

Globally, buildings consume nearly half of the total energy produced, and consequently responsible for a large share of CO2 emissions. A building's life cycle energy (LCE) comprises its embodied energy (EE) and operational energy (OE). The building design, prevalent climatic conditions and occupant behaviour primarily determines its LCE. Thus, for the identification of appropriate emission-reduction strategies, studies into building LCE are crucial. While OE reflects the energy utilized in operating a, EE comprises the initial capital energy involved in its construction (material and burden associated with material consumption in buildings. Assessment of EE and OE in buildings is crucial towards identifying appropriate design and operational strategies for reduction of the building's life cycle energy. This paper discusses EE and OE assessment of a few residential buildings in different climatic locations in India. The study shows that share of OE and EE in LCE greatly depends upon the types of materials used in construction and extent of space conditioning adopted. In some cases EE can exceed life cycle OE. Buildings with reinforced concrete frame and monolithic reinforced concrete walls have very high EE. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Structural Work

Construction on the Aquatic Centre progresses and concrete walls go up.

Wall and Pillar Construction

Construction of the concrete walls and pillars for the Aquatic Centre.

Thistle Complex Construction

This picture shows construction work underway on the Thistle Complex. The groundwork, supporting pillars, and preliminary work on the concrete walls can be seen. The most notable feature is the exposed foundation of the Thistle Theatre to the left. The adjacent lecture halls are also taking form to the right.

Thistle Complex Construction

This picture shows construction work underway on the Thistle Complex. The groundwork, supporting pillars, and concrete walls can be seen. The most notable feature is the exposed foundation of the Thistle Theatre to the left. The adjacent lecture halls are also taking form to the right.

Análise do processo de execução de edificações compostas por paredes de concreto executadas in loco

This work presents a fast, easy, standardized and planned method to build family homes in order to collaborate with the decline of housing deficit and, at the same time, meet families who wish to invest in building their own houses, once that our country is experiencing an economical prosperity . This method has been widely used nowadays because it is being deployed in large-scale and in a standardized pattern, reducing decreasing significantly the construction time. The concrete wall, shaped in loco depends on unique processes. For this reason, a well trained staff is required so the constructive process can be executed in a fast pace, showing better results than other construction methods. This project will address all the materials used to build the molded concrete walls in loco, their sequence assembly, application, types, characteristics and performances. At the end, a way used by building companies of locating the concrete will also be given. Although there is no specific Brazilian norm for this type of construction, a study on this topic will soon be released. Therefore, the studies for the execution of this project were based on Brazilian standards prevailing at the time, construction magazines and books that are based on building methods considered more common

Comparação de custo e viabilidade técnica de obras com parede de concreto em relação a obras de alvenaria estrutural

Are being released in the construction market in Brazil ventures called Super 6. These businesses sell the promise of delivery of the apartment in six months after the launch of the venture. To meet this deadline are being deployed the constructive method of concrete walls using aluminum shapes. This system basically consists of pouring slabs and walls once, i.e. building up the wall shapes and slab joints. On the walls are used cloth, with reinforcements in vain and corners of walls and on these screens are tied the electrical boxes and conduits. For each tower is used the so-called system of half way, i.e. the system so it is sufficient to mount the Middle deck. Using a concrete which can be deformed in the next day you can lift one deck every two days with ready electric and hydraulicsystem, without having to tow the wall doing only minor fixes in the imperfections after concrete. With this system won an incredible speed in the construction of the structure reducing in almost one-third the length of the work. This work aims to compare in terms of cost-benefit of masonry structural systems and this new concrete wall system called Super 6. For this comparison will be used as parameter values used for the achievement of the Enterprise Portal of Roses of constructor Tenda which is one of the first to use concrete wall system. This project basically consists of seven towers of six floors each and will be budgeted the cost of this project if it were held in structural masonry. From these data it will be possible to make a comparison about the actual beneficial to adopt this system