This thesis examines the possibility of passive house standard construction of public buildings in the countryside of the Czech Republic, the possibility of application of natural materials in their construction and in the end set of architectural principles for their design. Examines the situation of expansion of this type of buildings in the surrounding countries as well as in our country, differences in their architectural and technical characteristics and possibilities of natural materials use in their construction so that the newly proposed public buildings meet not only the technical and architectural design principles of passive houses, but at the same time reflect using of traditional local natural materials.

Die weltweite Veränderung der klimatischen Bedingungen macht eine deutliche Verringerung des globalen Ausstoßes von Treibhausgasen unumgänglich. Der Bausektor und insbesondere die Zementherstellung sind von diesen Entwicklungen nicht ausgenommen, weshalb die Suche nach alternativen, nachhaltigen Baumaterialien verstärkt in den Fokus der Industrie und der Wissenschaft rückt. Im vorliegenden Artikel sollen einige Entwicklungstendenzen aufgezeigt und gewisse Potentiale und besondere Eigenschaften dieser Materialien hervorgehoben werden. Dabei erheben die Autoren mit diesem Aufsatz keinesfalls den Anspruch auf eine vollständige Darstellung aller bekannten Optionen, sondern er soll vielmehr zu neuen Denkansätzen motivieren und Forschungsbedarf aufzeigen.

Construction activity is known to have a major impact on the environment and is a major consumer of a wide range of naturally occurring and synthesized resources. Despite the recognition that environmental issues are important to the survival of the construction industry, the industry continues to degrade the environment, exploiting resources and generating waste, and is slow to change its conventional practices to incorporate environmental matters as part of its decision making process. With increased awareness and knowledge of these impacts, efforts are being made to avoid these adverse effects and to work towards impact mitigation. Among these is sustainable building material selection. Building material selection is an important issue in building design and construction decision-making and environmental issues need to be incorporated into the evaluation process. The research reported in this thesis was initiated to address these issues in the UK, towards developing an assessment model for incorporating sustainability into building material selection process. A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the level of awareness, knowledge and implementation of sustainable practices among architects and designers and how this impacts on their design decisions. To facilitate the implementation of sustainable practices into building material selection, a set of sustainable assessment criteria (SAC) for modeling and evaluating sustainability performance of building materials was developed. Building material can be assessed using an index system that combines the principal criteria of sustainable development. The derived criteria were assessed and aggregated into a composite sustainability index using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique which has been praised for its ability to incorporate both objective and subjective considerations in the decision process. The development of a sustainability index is a way of supporting decision makers faced with making numerous and sometimes conflicting evaluation as with building material selection. The methodology adopted in undertaking this research was the mixed method approach involving a detailed review of the relevant literature, followed by an industry-wide survey of UK architects and designers. Following this, case study was conducted to collect data for sustainability criteria used in the assessment model. The data collected were analyzed, with the aid of SPSS, Excel and expert choice software using a variety of statistical methods including descriptive statistics analysis, relative index analysis, Kendall’s concordance and factor analysis. The key finding was the existing gap between awareness and implementation of sustainable construction practices, which has led to failure of realizing the benefits of a sustainable approach to construction. The study showed a discrepancy between what architects and designers claim to be convinced about, and knowledgeable in, and their commitment and practices; they seem to be unable to translate their environmental awareness and knowledge into appropriate design decisions and are in need of a decision support system that can aid the incorporation of sustainability into building design. The model developed satisfy this gap and was validated by application to a roof covering material selection decision process for a case study building project by means of experts’ review via a survey and the findings obtained suggest that the model is valuable and suitable for use in practice. Finally, areas for further research were identified.

Long term durability is a major concern for wide-scale use of recycled aggregate materials in civil engineering construction. The purpose of this study is to provide an insight into the damaging effects of combined wet-dry cycles and repeated mechanical loading in a recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) base course material made from recycled crushed concrete aggregate and cement. A coordinated experimental program followed by a mechanistic pavement modeling and life cycle analysis was conducted as part of this research study. This laboratory investigation was divided into three phases each consisting of both wet-dry exposed specimens (WD), and control or non wet-dry exposed specimens (NWD). Phase I experiments involved monotonic loading tests under compression and flexure to evaluate the strength properties. Phase II involved testing a total of 108 cylindrical specimens in cyclic compressive loading at three different stress ratios. After each regime of cyclic loading, residual compressive strengths were determined. In addition, the load-deformation hysteresis loops and the accumulated plastic deformation were continuously monitored through all loading cycles. Phase III included a flexural fatigue test program on 39 beam specimens, and fracture testing program on 6 notched beam specimens, each one having 19-mm initial notch. Traditional SR-N curves, relating the Stress Ratio (SR) with the number of cycles to failure (N or Nf), were developed. Fatigue crack growth rate and changes in Stress Intensity Factors were obtained to determine Paris Law constants and fracture toughness. A mechanistic analysis of a typical highway pavement incorporating RAC base was performed with KENPAVE program, followed by a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) using the GaBi software. It was found that the specimens subjected to wet-dry cycles suffered significantly higher damage expressed in terms of accumulated plastic deformation, and loss of residual compressive strength, modulus, fatigue endurance limit, and design life, compared to specimens not exposed to wet-dry cycles. Although such degradation in material properties are important considerations in pavement design, a concurrent Life Cycle Analysis demonstrated that recycled aggregate concrete base course still holds promise as an alternative construction material from environmental stand point. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Whilst Roman architecture has long stood as a discrete branch of classical studies, investigated for its artistic merit and cultural importance, the technical details of Roman construction have only recently started to receive considerable attention. This thesis contributes to a growing trend in Roman scholarship, that of the investigation of the processes, materials, and technologies behind the Roman built environment. The most prestigious buildings of the Empire often remain the focus of many of these studies, and so this thesis turns to explore the use of more everyday buildings and building materials, seeking a Romano-British vernacular, and investigating the processes of construction, building material production, and transport. It is argued, through using theoretical calculations of building material quantities, that even for relatively minor constructions, considerations of building material supply must have represented highly significant economic and logistical investment. To comprehend fully the subject it is asserted that building materials should not be treated, as they often are, as disparate artefacts, divided by substance into stone, ceramic, mortar, metal, etc., but rather they should be considered as related fragments of a building. They require synthetic analysis, through which a far truer understanding of the incredible effort involved in construction in the ancient world can be gained. The built environment of Roman Oxfordshire, and the Roman building material assemblage from Dorchester on Thames, are used as case studies. Primary analysis of building materials is carried out using an integrated analytical approach, combining thin section petrography with scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive x-ray analysis. The outcomes of these analyses are interpreted against a background of archaeological and historical evidence for construction and material supply, in both the Roman and later periods, in the region and beyond.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2016-11-16T11:48:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Alan Souza Lima.pdf: 1120771 bytes, checksum: 2897159f5159462ca316446c9c701f79 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-16T11:48:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alan Souza Lima.pdf: 1120771 bytes, checksum: 2897159f5159462ca316446c9c701f79 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-09-20 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The objective of this research was analyse the influence of the attributes of small shops on the building sector that are considered important to the consumer decid in what store will buy the products, by the identification of the most important factors that are decisive on your own choice, althoug this study demonstrated the wishes of these customers, and was presented thus a note about the relation price x perceived quality. The study described another researches, not only on retail building materials, but thus on other reatil segments, and was demonstrated the results of theses investigations. The methodology applied was quantitative, conclusive and descriptive, done by the active clientes of a small store building materials who responded the questions using a Likert 5-point scale. Where used the software Microsoft Excel® 2013, and the software IBM SPSS Statistics, 24. For the interpretation of these data was adopted the Cronbach alpha, the Peasron’s correlation coefficient, and thus the One-Way Anova. The data indicated that the main attibute for these consumers is the variety and avaiability of products, followed by fast service and cuts. This way, the study demonstrated that the analysis of the preferences of consumers of building materials can not be only summarized by the strategy of low price, but too understand the customer needs using all attributes related to satisfaction of consumers in general / O objetivo desta pesquisa foi analisar a influência dos atributos das pequenas lojas de materiais para construção que são considerados relevantes para o consumidor decidir o local de compra dos produtos desejados, a partir da identificação dos principais fatores que impactam na decisão de escolha destes consumidores, e apontar os atributos valorizados por estes clientes, além de estabelecer uma análise da relação preço x qualidade percebida para este nicho de consumidor. A pesquisa conectou-se com outros pesquisadores do varejo, não só de materiais para construção, mas também de outras categorias e segmentos, ao demonstrar resultados de investigações a respeito das preferências dos consumidores varejistas em geral. A metodologia aplicada foi quantitativa, conclusiva e descritiva, realizada a partir de uma amostra selecionada do banco de dados dos clientes ativos de uma pequena loja de materiais para construção, que foram incumbidos de responder as questões propostas a partir de uma escala de Likert de 5 pontos. Foram utilizados para interpretação dos dados, o software Microsoft Excel® versão 2013, e o software IBM SPSS Statistics versão 24. Tomou-se como base de análise, os resultados do Alpha de Cronbach, o coeficiente de Correlação de Pearson, além do One-Way ANOVA. Os indicadores demonstraram que a principal influência para os clientes do pequeno varejo de materiais para construção está direcionada à variedade e disponibilidade dos produtos oferecidos pelas lojas, seguidas do atendimento rápido e cortês. Desta forma, este estudo sugeriu que a análise das preferências dos consumidores de materiais para construção não devem ser sintetizadas às estratégias relacionadas ao preço mais baixo, mas sim compreender e atender as necessidades dos clientes tomando-se como base o conjunto de atributos relacionados à satisfação dos consumidores em geral

Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2002 / Refer to document

Wood pulp fibers are a unique reinforcing material as they are non-hazardous, renewable, and readily available at relatively low cost compared to other commercially available fibers. Today, pulp fiber-cement composites can be found in products such as extruded non-pressure pipes and non-structural building materials, mainly thin-sheet products. Although natural fibers have been used historically to reinforce various building materials, little scientific effort has been devoted to the examination of natural fibers to reinforce engineering materials until recently. The need for this type of fundamental research has been emphasized by widespread awareness of moisture-related failures of some engineered materials; these failures have led to the filing of national- and state-level class action lawsuits against several manufacturers. Thus, if pulp fiber-cement composites are to be used for exterior structural applications, the effects of cyclical wet/dry (rain/heat) exposure on performance must be known. Pulp fiber-cement composites have been tested in flexure to examine the progression of strength and toughness degradation. Based on scanning electron microscopy (SEM), environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), a three-part model describing the mechanisms of progressive degradation has been proposed: (1) initial fiber-cement/fiber interlayer debonding, (2) reprecipitation of crystalline and amorphous ettringite within the void space at the former fiber-cement interface, and (3) fiber embrittlement due to reprecipitation of calcium hydroxide filling the spaces within the fiber cell wall structure. Finally, as a means to mitigate kraft pulp fiber-cement composite degradation, the effects of partial portland cement replacement with various supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) has been investigated for their effect on mitigating kraft pulp fiber-cement composite mechanical property degradation (i.e., strength and toughness losses) during wet/dry cycling. SCMs have been found to be effective in mitigating composite degradation through several processes, including a reduction in the calcium hydroxide content, stabilization of monosulfate by maintaining pore solution pH, and a decrease in ettringite reprecipitation accomplished by increased binding of aluminum in calcium aluminate phases and calcium in the calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) phase.

In the U.S. and other developed countries, humans spend the vast majority of their time within the built environment. As a result, a substantial portion of our collective exposure to airborne pollutants, even those of outdoor origin, occurs in indoor environments. In addition, building construction materials and operational practices are changing as we endeavor to reduce the energy burden of the built environment. These changes result in barriers and opportunities in mitigating exposure to indoor pollutants and the accompanying implications for human health. This dissertation advances knowledge regarding low-energy control of indoor ozone. Ozone is often considered a pollutant of outdoor concern. However, ozone in indoor environments presents important challenges regarding exposure, intake, and chemistry in the built environment. The investigations in this dissertation extend the state understanding of indoor transport and transformation of ozone, and the potential for using material-surface interactions in buildings to suppress concentrations of indoor ozone. The first objective relates to the determination of magnitudes of ozone removal and product emissions at room or building scales. This objective provides new data on reactive uptake and product generation in large-scale environments, develops Monte Carlo models describing indoor ozone removal by materials in homes, and compares active and passive methods of indoor ozone removal. The second objective addresses the need to develop improved air cleaning materials through experiments and modeling that address material-ozone reactions in porous materials. This objective advances the state of modeling heterogeneous reactive uptake of ozone by characterizing material physical properties and transport phenomena, determining their impact on ozone removal, and using these data to develop a more mechanistic model of material-ozone reactions. Ultimately, these investigations advance the engineering concepts that support the development of passive indoor pollutant controls, an important tool for reducing concentrations of indoor pollutants while supporting low-energy building initiatives. The combination of experimental characterization of ozone deposition velocities and product emission rates, whole-building Monte Carlo modeling, and mechanistic material/pollutant models provide important new data and approaches that expand the state of knowledge of the fate and transport of reactive pollutants in indoor environments. / text

This thesis examines the availability and use of manufactured and imported building materials in southern and central Indiana before 1850. Specifically, it seeks to identify the extent to which materials such as paint, machine-cut nails, window glass and prefabricated sash, architectural hardware, and cast iron stoves were imported into the region from both foreign and domestic sources. It examines the transition from handmade and hand-wrought to standardized, mass-produced, and prefabricated building materials and explores the impact of emerging American consumerism, changing economic policy, and advancements in technology and transportation on the built environment of the Indiana frontier. / Historical context -- Whitewash and paint -- Wrought and cut nails -- Window glass and prefabricated sash -- Architectural hardward -- Cast iron stoves. / Department of Architecture