Search results for "Building material"
showing 10 items of 42 documents
Sustainable mobile vertical partition / Pannello verticale mobile sostenibile
2016
Pannello per realizzare partizioni mobili verticali, costituito da: un telaio principale in legno con funzione strutturale (a); una stuoia di canne schiacciate e intrecciate con funzione di chiusura (b); una cornice e un sistema di listelli in legno con funzione di supporto (c); uno strato di intonaco in terra cruda con funzione di finitura (d), posto su un lato della stuoia di canne (b). Panel that can be used for realize mobile vertical partition, consisting of: a main wooden frame which functions as a structure (a); a mat realized with flattened and intertwined canes which functions as a closure (b); a wooden frame and slatted framework which function as a support (c); a layer of earthen…
Geomaterials in green building practices: comparative characterization of commercially available clay-based plasters
2013
Three pre-mixed powdered clay-based (earthen) plasters produced in Europe and specifically designed for wall undercoating were analyzed in this paper. These materials are commercially available and successfully employed in green building practices all over the world. Their compositional and textural characteristics, as well as plastic behaviour were investigated through a multi-analytical approach: X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), polarized light microscopy (PLM), X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRFS), scanning electron microscopy equipped with an energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS), mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP), grain-size distribution (GSD) and semi-empirical tests (Atterberg…
FULL PAPER: Earth for social housing in Palestine: an alternative for a sustainable refurbishment of building’s envelopes
2016
The suitable climates in the cities of Jericho and Gaza boosted the emergence of new attempts to revive earthen architecture on organizational and individual levels. These attempts produced a number of earthen buildings in the last few years following the crucial need to find alternative low cost material instead of natural stone, which is used in a large scale in Palestine. Similar attempts had a certain response to the social needs and economic situation there. This paper focuses on the possibility of using earth as an alternative material to refurbish the envelopes of existing housing units including two categories; firstly, refurbishing envelopes of housing units those were partially de…
The role of transportation and its involved sources of energy in the environmental assessment of marble producing sites
2018
Marble is acquiring large popularity as building material. Since building materials are now required to be characterized by high energy and environmental performances, marble is entailed to fulfill top-level requirements. About its environmental performances an important European Decision establishes criteria for the award of the Community eco-label to this material. Unfortunately, this Decision is focused on mining and processing activities, seemingly neglecting marble transport. In contrast, this phase affects the whole working chain because it releases (pollutant) emissions and involves the use of primary and, in case, secondary energy sources. Here, the focus is on the role played by tr…
Pyrolysed cork-geopolymer composites: A novel and sustainable EMI shielding building material
2019
Abstract In this investigation, and for the first time, pyrolysed sustainable cork was used to produce waste-based geopolymer-cork composites with enhanced electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding properties. The influence of the pyrolysed cork amount and the geopolymer porosity on the EMI shielding ability of the composites was studied. The maximum total shielding effectiveness (SET) values achieved by these novel building materials (−13.8 to −15.9 dB) are equal to any other reported geopolymer microwave (MW) absorbers over the X-band, despite containing much lower carbon content. In addition, our composites were produced using an industrial waste (biomass fly ash) as raw material and …
Measure the Embodied Energy in Building Materials: An Eco-Sustainable Approach for Construction
2019
This paper highlights how the use of materials and building components often implicates the growth of embodied energy necessary to their construction, which is not always adequately compensated by a decrease of operational energy because incorporated energy can be almost half of the total energy used in a building’s life cycle and, sometimes, it even exceeds operational energy. The paper highlights how searching only for “operational” energy efficiency does not sufficiently guarantee environmental sustainability of the intervention. The intervention is heavily influenced by embodied energy whose knowledge must drive, since the beginning, the decision-making process towards more sustainable …
Mix design and mechanical performance of geopolymer binder for sustainable construction and building materials
2017
Sustainability in construction is a major concern worldwide, due to the huge volume of materials and energy consumed by this sector. Associated supplementing industries (e.g. Portland cement production) constitute a significant source of CO2 emissions and global warming. Valorisation and reuse of industrial wastes and by-products make geopolymers a solid and sustainable via to be followed as a valid alternative to Portland cement. In this work the mix design of a green fly ash-based geopolymer is evaluated as an environmentally friendly construction material. In the pursuit of sustainability, wastes from a regional kraft pulp industry are exploited for the material processing. Furthermore, …
The Suitability of Chemically and Thermally Activated Quaternary Clays of Latvia as Raw Material for Geopolymer Binders
2013
It is now accepted that new binders are needed to replace Portland cement (PC) for enhanced environmental and durability performance. The urge to reduce emissions of carbon and the fact that PC structures having built a few decades ago are already facing disintegration problems points out the handicaps of PC binders. Research works carried out in developing of alkali-activated binders show that this new type of binder could have a huge potential to become as alternative building material. Latvian Quaternary clays were studied from the point of view of the national economy, analysing the physical properties and chemical composition of those sediments in connection with the possibilities of …
Influence of sol counter-ions on the visible light induced photocatalytic behaviour of TiO2 nanoparticles
2014
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles are attracting increasing interest because of their superior photocatalytic and antibacterial properties. Here, aqueous titanium oxy-hydroxide sols were made, using a green synthesis method, from the controlled hydrolysis/peptisation of titanium isopropoxide. Three different mineral acids were used to peptise the sol (HNO3, HBr and HCl), and provide counter-ions. The influence of nitrate or halide sol counter-ions on size distributions of the starting sols were measured via photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS). Semi-quantitative phase composition analysis (QPA), on the gels thermally treated at 450 and 600 degrees C, was carried out via Rietveld refine…
Bivalve mollusks shells valorisation and recycling: market potentiality and novel building products
2023
Construction is a fundamental driver of the world economy, recognized as a sector that generates a great contribution to the social and economic development. At the same time, it shows an enormous environmental impact through an unstoppable consumption of non-renewable resources, a high energy consumption, and an associated atmospheric emission of pollutant. Consequently, the research and development of novel and green production processes and sustainable building materials is of paramount importance. The sustainability of materials and production processes could be improved by enhancing and reusing wastes from various industrial sectors. In this paper, the fishery sector will be analysed, …