Search results for "Building material"

Quarry limestone dust as fine aggregate for concrete

2018

In quarrying activities, rock is extracted and transformed into aggregate of various sizes for civil engineering applications. In this process waste fine aggregates (dust waste) are generated. The disposal of this type of waste is a further cost in the extraction process, but also a possible cause of environmental pollution (e.g. leaching into water reserves, atmospheric pollution as a result of small particles causing respiratory diseases or deposited on plants disrupting photosynthesis, affecting aquatic habitats, etc.). A strategy for the effective recycling of quarry dust does not only reduce waste generation and disposal, but also addresses protection of the environment. The Italian qu…

Damage monitoring on carbonate stones: Field exposure tests contributing to pollution impact evaluation in two Italian sites

2017

During the last decades, many studies have been carried out on environmental monitoring in specific sites aiming at their protection and conservation; however, researches focused on the direct implications, in terms of quantitative evaluation of stone deterioration, of these monitoring actions are still scarce. This experimental work aims at monitoring the degradation processes affecting historical buildings constituted by carbonate stones. Specifically, specimens of Carrara marble and two limestones largely used in the Sicilian Baroque architecture, namely Noto and Comiso stones, were exposed outdoor in two Italian sites (Catania and Palermo), which are characterized by different environme…

Validity of NMR pore-size analysis of cultutal heritage ancient building materials containing magnetic impurities

2007

NMR relaxation time distributions, obtained with laboratory and portable devices, are utilized to characterize the pore-size distributions of building materials coming from the Roman remains of the Greek-Roman Theatre of Taormina. To validate the interpretation of relaxation data in terms of pore-size distribution, comparison of results from standard and in situ NMR experiments with results of the mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) has been made. Although the pore-size distributions can be obtained by NMR in terms of either longitudinal (T-1) or transverse (T-2) relaxation times distributions, the shorter duration of the T-2 measurement makes it, in principle, preferable, although the dete…

Comparison of the environmental assessment of an identical office building with national methods

2019

The IEA EBC Annex 72 focuses on the assessment of the primary energy demand, greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts of buildings during production, construction, use (including repair and replacement) and end of life (dismantling), i.e. during the entire life cycle of buildings. In one of its activities, reference buildings (size, materialisation, operational energy demand, etc.) were defined on which the existing national assessment methods are applied using national (if available) databases and (national/regional) approaches. The ?be2226? office building in Lustenau, Austria was selected as one of the reference buildings. TU Graz established a BIM model and quantified the amou…

Toward a holistic environmental impact assessment of marble quarrying and processing: proposal of a novel easy-to-use IPAT-based method.

2016

Marble is a natural dimension stone that is widely used in building due to its resistance and esthetic qualities. Unfortunately, some concerns have arisen regarding its production process because quarrying and processing activities demand significant amounts of energy and greatly affect the environment. Further, performing an environmental analysis of a production process such as that of marble requires the consideration of many environmental aspects (e.g., noise, vibrations, dust and waste production, energy consumption). Unfortunately, the current impact accounting tools do not seem to be capable of considering all of the major aspects of the (marble) production process that may affect th…

Extending the current database for the LCA of Building materials: an EU-USA comparison.

2008

A Sustainable and Zero Energy Healthcare Facility in Mozambique

2016

Sustainable urban development, especially in economically disadvantaged regions, has increasingly become a major strategic priority. New settlements and urban regeneration programs have to improve the quality of social life, promote economic growth, increase environmental protection practices, and ensure the appropriate use of local resources. In that framework, a well-structured healthcare service is commonly conceived as vital for urban development. In response, this paper proposes the construction of one such healthcare facility in a deprived urban area in Maputo, Mozambique. Prioritising typical pillars of sustainability, the project’s design considers traditional building typology and …

Life Cycle Assessment and eco-design of building materials: the case study of a Sicilian cement plaster

2015

Buildings in the European Union (EU) account for the largest share of the total EU final energy consumption (42%), and greenhouse gas emissions (35%). Therefore, the reduction of energy use, the development of quality-oriented processes and the improvement of energy performance in the building sector are important measures needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the energy dependency of the European Union from foreign countries. In this context, it is necessary to develop sustainable building products, with low energy and environmental impacts during their life cycle, from the extraction of raw material to the manufacturing, use and end-of-life. The main goal of the study is to define…

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: an implementation to marble products

2011

Vanadium dioxide and gold nanocomposite films for glazing applications

2009

Vanadium dioxide is a material with great potential as an intelligent glazing material. The technology is based on a metal to semiconductor transition (MST) where there is an associated structural change from the higher temperature rutile structure to the lower temperature monoclinic structure. This structural transition results in significant changes in optical properties and electrical conductivity. Hybrid aerosol assisted and atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition methodology has been utilised, to produce thin films of gold nano-particle vanadium dioxide nanocomposites. Good surface coverage is observed comparable to that of APCVD processes and a variety of different film thickn…