Friction Characteristics Between Marine Clay and Construction Materials

Structure-soil interface friction characteristics is of importance to investigate the interaction between engineering structures and soils,especially for offshore structures.The interface friction behavior between marine clay and structural materials with different roughness was studied in this paper by using 3D optical scanning tests,a modified direct shear device and numerical simulation.Relationships between the surface roughness of structures,water content and interface friction angle were presented by model tests.The increase of water contents decreased the interface friction angles.For interfaces with different roughness,the interface friction angles will be smaller than that of the soil when the water content exceeds a certain value.The roughness of the interface and the water content of the soil are mutually coupled to influence the coefficient of friction(COF).This paper proposed a Finite Element Method(FEM)to simulate the interface direct shear tests of structures with different roughness.The surface models with different roughness are established based on the structure data obtained by 3D scanning.The Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian(CEL)approach was employed to analyse soils sheared by irregular surfaces.The interface behavior for interfaces with different roughness under cyclic shear stresses was analyzed by FEM.

Estimating Construction Material Indices with ARIMA and Optimized NARNETs

Construction Industry operates relying on various key economic indicators.One of these indicators is material prices.On the other hand,cost is a key concern in all operations of the construction industry.In the uncertain conditions,reliable cost forecasts become an important source of information.Material cost is one of the key components of the overall cost of construction.In addition,cost overrun is a common problem in the construction industry,where nine out of ten construction projects face cost overrun.In order to carry out a successful cost management strategy and prevent cost overruns,it is very important to find reliable methods for the estimation of construction material prices.Material prices have a time dependent nature.In order to increase the foreseeability of the costs of construction materials,this study focuses on estimation of construction material indices through time series analysis.Two different types of analysis are implemented for estimation of the future values of construction material indices.The first method implemented was Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average(ARIMA),which is known to be successful in estimation of time series having a linear nature.The second method implementedwas Non-LinearAutoregressive Neural Network(NARNET)which is known to be successful in modeling and estimating of series with non-linear components.The results have shown that depending on the nature of the series,both these methods can successfully and accurately estimate the future values of the indices.In addition,we found out that Optimal NARNET architectures which provide better accuracy in estimation of the series can be identified/discovered as result of grid search on NARNET hyperparameters.

Outdoor Corrosion Performance Study of Selected Construction Materials in Bonny Island

Corrosion studies are important due to the enormous cost involved in the replacement of materials in all kinds of applications. The outdoor study on corrosion behavior of aluminum sheet, chequered aluminum plate and zinc alloys roofing sheet commonly used as construction material within a highly industrial settlement were examined using the gravimetric technique. The outdoor corrosion of these alloys at different sites was observed via its exposure to atmospheric conditions, monitored and recorded for 12 months at an interval of 2 months. Results depicted a process spanning the initial and intermediate stages of corrosion. The samples of construction materials at Bonny island showed substantial weight losses and rate of corrosion which varied largely on percentage of atmospheric humidity, salt precipitations, industrial aerosols and corrosive gases present at the exposure site as well as the nature of the material and the presence of protective coating formed during corrosion process. The rapid rate of deterioration of these materials causes severe economic importance on the indigenes’ activities including the oil and gas industries and other construction companies on the island. Thus, there is urgent need for research concerned with methods to control or prevent excessive deterioration of metals in Bonny Island.

Geotechnical,Mineralogical and Chemical Characterization of the Missole II Clayey Materials of Douala Sub-Basin(Cameroon)for Construction Materials

Geotechnical tests conducted on clayey materials of Missole II, Douala sub-basin of Cameroon showed that these materials present: fines particles (55 to 78 wt.%), sand (22 to 44 wt.%), and plasticity index of 13.8 to 21.6%. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the chemical analysis revealed a kaolinite amount of 46 to 56 wt.%, 19 to 27 wt.% of illite, 12 to 19 wt.% of quartz, 3 to 5 wt.% of goethite, 2 to 5 wt.% of hematite, 1.5 to 5 wt.% of anatase, 2 to 3 wt.% of feldspar-K with 52.87 to 63.11 wt.% of SiO2, 18.08 to 24.31 wt.% of Al2O3, 3.28 to 11.45 wt.% of Fe2O3 and a small content of bases (<2 wt.%). The results of geotechnical tests combined to those of the XRD and the chemical analysis showed that the Missole II clayey materials are suitable for the manufacture of bricks, tiles and sandstones.

A platform for communicating construction material information between e-commerce systems

E-commerce systems for construction material procurement are becoming increasingly important in Hong Kong. These E-commerce systems are non-interoperable and create problems for the buyers who use these systems to purchase construction materials. This paper presents the mobile agent-based approach and Web services-based approach for enabling interoperation of these systems in the E-Union environment.

Carbon Ramming Materials for Blast Furnace Construction

1 Scope This standard specifies the definition, classifica- tion, technical requirements, test methods, quality ap- praisal procedure, packing, marking, transportation, stroage and quality certificate of carbon ramming mate- rials for blast furnace construction. This standard is applicable to carbon ramming materials for construction in leveling layer of blast furnace bottom, ramming layer upper or lower the cen- tral line of water cooling pipes, joints between carbon bricks, or joints between carbon bricks and cooling equipment.

Partial Replacement of Cement by Solid Wastes as New Materials for Green Sustainable Construction Applications

The manufacturing of ordinary Portland cement is an energy-intensive process that results in pollution and CO2 emissions,among other issues.There is a need for an environmentally friendly green concrete substitute.Waste products from a variety of sectors can be recycled and used as a green concrete substitute.This decreases the environmental effects of concrete manufacturing as well as energy consumption.The use of solid waste materials for green building is extremely important now and in the future.Green concrete is also in its infancy in terms of manufacturing and application.Academics must intervene by encouraging business implementation.The aim of this review paper is to raise awareness about the importance of repurposing recycled materials and to highlight new technologies for producing green,sustainable concrete.

Typology of Local Construction Materials from the Adamawa and North-West Regions of Cameroon

This article summarizes the different local construction materials observed in two regions of Cameroon (Adamawa and North-West). These raw materials were mapped and evaluated using various methods of investigation (spatial distribution, estimation of reserves, development of a database compatible with geo-referenced maps). The results obtained show three types of local construction materials (vegetal, pedological and geological) with quantitative estimation or distribution. Vegetal local materials include herbaceous savanna with strong dominance of straw in Adamawa region than the North West region. Pedological local construction materials include lateritic soils (ferruginous or clayey), harplan, sandy clay and sandy clay soil while geological local construction materials include volcanic, plutonic and metamorphic rocks. Many sites of these geological materials are suitable for the rock quarry plant. Adamawa region also contains sedimentary rocks constituted by metamorphic conglomerate and sandstones. Two main types of residential homes are constructed with these local construction materials in these regions of Cameroon. These include huts and houses.

Exploring the Synergy: Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of Steel and Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) Reinforced Slab Incorporating Alccofine and M-Sand

Introduction: This study investigates the Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of Steel and Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) Reinforced Slab Incorporating Alccofine and M-sand. Objective: Specific objectives include evaluating the mechanical properties and structural behaviour of steel and GFRP-reinforced one-way slabs and comparing experimental and theoretical predictions. Methods: Four different mix proportions were arrived at, comprising both conventional concrete and Alccofine-based concrete. In each formulation, a combination of normal river sand and M-sand was utilized. Results: Concrete with Alccofine exhibits superior mechanical properties, while M-sand incorporation minimally affects strength but reduces reliance on natural sand. GFRP-reinforced slabs display distinct brittle behaviour with significant deflections post-cracking, contrasting steel-reinforced slabs’ gradual, ductile failure. Discrepancies between experimental data and design recommendations underscore the need for guideline refinement. Conclusion: Alccofine and M-sand enhance concrete properties, but reinforcement type significantly influences slab behaviour. GFRP-reinforced slabs, though exhibiting lower values than steel, offer advantages in harsh environments, warranting further optimization.

A Pioneering Low Carbon Material Database for Building Industry

Considering that buildings represent 40% of greenhouse gases and approximately 10% of global gross domestic product, the target the building industry has to accomplish is to get to a high quality and low carbon living, by reducing carbon emission by 2050, as said by Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. Considering these needs, designers, manufacturers and construction companies should be able to make use of web and design tools for collecting and inventorying a large variety of environmentally friendly materials, through a specific database that encloses low carbon certified products and eco-labeled ones. The eco-labels are internationally identified as the best tools to encourage the spread of green products and low carbon notions, even if in Europe, there is no specific tool to be used. The project called LoCaMat （Low Carbon Material Database） will act as the first Italian and European database that encompasses multiple data on certified green materials to be used for the construction sector, making buildings climate change resilient, ensuring an efficient use of energy and resources, getting to a complete life cycle assessment for buildings materials and components, encompassing, for the first time, green data and every kind of environmental specs for sustainable design and green practice.

Mixed Stone-timber Masonry in Traditional Construction: Structural, Architectural and Anti-seismic Features across Europe

This paper investigates the stone masonry with timber reinforcement through the European traditional and historical architecture.It is a remarkable practice consisting of combining different materials to build up a masonry.This technology shows a wide variety of typological,formal,and technological types of buildings across Europe as it is strongly influenced by the nature and availability of local materials,the cultural aspects of the various communities,and the soils geological nature.As a consequence,the same constructive typology is based on different premises and leads to many interesting results.In this paper the various uses of such a mixed stone-timber masonry are shown in relation to the above mentioned factors.One of the most interesting aspect is the use of such a mix stone-timber as an anti-seismic device,especially in the Southern and Mediterranean countries,giving evidence to a great sensibility of the ancient builders to very specific topics.It is also important to stress that this traditional technology is also highly contemporary being exploited in many countries,especially in the far northern ones.Furthermore,novel regulations have been issued in order to regulate such a discipline,especially the use of timber for large structure and infrastructure.Finally,as a very common constructive technology,many historical buildings present such a mixed structural configuration,independently from the generating factors.In such a perspective,this study aims to describe the most common constructive features,as well as develop guidelines for preservation,whereas the typology is present,or design criteria for consolidation and structural improvement,whereas necessary.

Numerical Simulation and Experimental Characterization of Clay Paste under Loads for Energy Saving in Clay Materials Processing

Requirements for the respect of the environment encourage to reduce the impact of human activity on the nature. Civil engineering answers these requirements by the development of ecological construction materials. This paper deals with the transformation of clay raw materials which enable the processing of environmentally friendly construction materials: in addition to their biodegradability, the alveolar fired clay materials allow energy saving in home heating thanks to their thermal isolation properties. But their manufacturing is a high energy consumption process, in particular during compaction, drying and firing which contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases. The goal of this paper is to study the rheology of clay pastes in order to develop low energy in manufacturing processes. For this purpose, theoretical and experimental approaches were carried out on six clay varieties. In the theoretical approach, a finite element (FE) simulation model has been developed for pressing a non-rigid material predicting deformations and stresses occurring within the clay structure. Experiments have then been carried out to validate the finite element modelling. In this experimental approach, the clay pastes were transformed with water content respecting the Atterberg limits which determine the plasticity of clays. The samples compaction has been carried out under variable loadings in order to determine the suitable low energy consumption loading.

A study of some Egyptian carbonate rocks for the building construction industry

A number of geotechnical analyses were carried out on selected carbonate rock samples from eight sites located in Egypt. This analysis was to assess the suitability of these rocks for building construction aggregate. The analyses included properties of uniaxial compressive strength, tensile strength, porosity, water absorption, and dynamic fragmentation. The success of building construction depends to a large extent on the availability of raw materials at affordable prices. Raw materials commonly used in the building industry include sands, gravels, clays and clay-derived products. Despite the widespread occurrence of carbonate rocks throughout Egypt, the low premium placed on their direct application in the building sector may be explained in two ways: firstly, the lack of awareness of the potential uses of carbonate rocks in the building construction industry(beyond the production of asbestos, ceiling boards, roof sheets and Portland cement); and secondly, the aesthetic application of carbonate rocks in the building construction depends mainly on their physical attributes, a knowledge of which is generally restricted to within the confines of research laboratories and industries. Thus this paper addresses the physical and mechanical characteristics of some Egyptian carbonate rocks, evaluating them for their suitability as building construction aggregates.

Life Cycle Assessment:Embedded and Maintenance Environmental Impacts of Social Interest Housing Construction Systems

Characterized by high consumption of natural resources and great generation of environmental impacts,civil construction becomes an important ally to the development of strategies for a more sustainable built environment.In this context,this article aims to evaluate construction systems of social interest housing and point out their participation in relation to total impacts,in addition to indicating the environmental impacts embedded in the construction materials present in these systems.To this end,a case study was selected to apply Life Cycle Assessment(LCA)methodology and assess impacts of the building materials used in a house of a social housing complex.LCA was applied to masonry,roof,coatings and floor systems.The scope adopted assesses impacts incorporated in construction materials,analyzing the stages of raw material extraction,materials production,transport to construction site,maintenance and materials replacement.Concerning life cycle inventory,Ecoinvent 3.6 database was used and environmental impacts were calculated using CML method with the aid of OpenLCA 1.9 software.In general,results showed that the maintenance phase has the greatest environmental impact participation related to analyzed systems.Furthermore,it was possible to conclude that coatings and masonry systems were the ones that most added to total environmental impacts.

Developing Sustainable High Strength Concrete Mixtures Using Local Materials and Recycled Concrete

This study presents the development of high strength concrete (HSC) that has been made more sustainable by using both local materials from central Texas and recycled concrete aggregate (RCA), which has also been obtained locally. The developed mixtures were proportioned with local constituents to increase the sustainable impact of the material by reducing emissions due to shipping as well as to make HSC more affordable to a wider variety of applications. The specific constituents were: limestone, dolomite, manufactured sand (limestone), locally available Type I/II cement, silica fume, and recycled concrete aggregate, which was obtained from a local recycler which obtains their product from local demolition. Multiple variables were investigated, such as the aggregate type and size, concrete age (7, 14, and 28-days), the curing regimen, and the water-to-cement ratio (w/c) to optimize a HSC mixture that used local materials. This systematic development revealed that heat curing the specimens in a water bath at 50℃ (122oF) after demolding and then dry curing at 200℃ (392oF) two days before testing with a w/c of 0.28 at 28-days produced the highest compressive strengths. Once an optimum HSC mixture was identified a partial replacement of the coarse aggregate with RCA was completed at 10%, 20%, and 30%. The results showed a loss in compressive strength with an increase in RCA replacement percentages, with the highest strength being approximately 93.0 MPa (13,484 psi) at 28-days for the 10% RCA replacement. The lowest strength obtained from an RCA-HSC mixture was approximately 72.9 (MPa) (10,576 psi) at 7-days. The compressive strengths obtained from the HSC mixtures containing RCA developed in this study are comparable to HSC strengths presented in the literature. Developing this innovative material with local materials and RCA ultimately produces a novel sustainable construction material, reduces the costs, and produces mechanical performance similar to prepackaged, commercially, available construction building materials.

Review on The Teaching of Building Materials in Higher Vocational Colleges Based on the“Three Educations”Reformation

Building materials is not only a basic course content of architectural specialization,but also a practical course content taught in higher vocational institutions.It has a large number of knowledge points,a large number of principled and operational contents,and weak logic,all of which have an impact on the teaching effect.It is necessary to strengthen research on higher vocational building materials curriculum against the background of“three educations”reformation,as well as explore curriculum teaching reform strategy in conjunction with the current situation of higher vocational building materials curriculum teaching,in order to cultivate talents of high quality and professional ability.

Value-added recycling of sludge and sludge ash into low-carbon construction materials:current status and perspectives

Sludge as the by-product of wastewater treatment usually accumulates toxic substances that require specific treatment before disposal.With the increase of sludge production,the safe and economic treatment of sludge has become a global issue.Construction filed provides a solution for consuming huge volumes of sludge and sludge ash owing to the similar chemical composition with cementitious materials.This paper critically reviewed the current status of recycling sludge and sludge ash into low-carbon construction materials and highlighted the future perspectives of sludge-derived construction materials.Furthermore,the immobilization mechanisms of heavy metals in sludge-derived construction materials were elaborated to promote the actualization of sustainable management of sludge and sludge ash.

River Sand Characterization for Its Use in Concrete: A Revue

Despite the gradual professionalization of the construction sector as well as the abundance of sand mining sites offered by the North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo Region, ignorance of materials by local builders persists. This is the case of quarries extracting river sand used to make concrete and mortar. However, the dosages of the various constituents are most often chosen on the basis of experience without any prior characterization of this material. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the characterization of river sand for its use in concrete in DRC. The origin and global use of river sand in construction are presented in percentage terms to highlight the importance of river sand as a construction material. The physical properties of river sand, including particle size distribution, bulk density, absolute density, and cleanliness are discussed in detail. The paper examines the effect of variations in river sand properties on concrete behavior, including density and compressive strength. Overall, this paper emphasizes the need to properly characterize river sand before using it in construction to ensure durable, high-quality structures. This will avoid the problems that are observed in particular a bad behavior of the coating on the walls;cracks and crumbling of the beams, lintels, posts and even the ruin of the structures.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES OF REFURBISHMENT VERSUS DEMOLITION AND RECONSTRUCTION:A COMPARATIVE LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF AN ITALIAN CASE STUDY

In the building sector,new standards for energy efficiency are reducing the energy consumption and the carbon emissions for building operation to nearly zero.As a result,the greenhouse gas emissions and related environmental impacts from mate-rials production,and especially insulation,are becoming key factors.In the near future,most of the building stock is expected to be refurbished and a great amount of construction materials will be consequently required.A relevant share of waste is generated from building construction and demolition and limiting the volume is a priority of the EU community.In this work the renovation of industrial buildings in a dismissed area located in Lecco,Italy,was considered as a case study.Five alterna-tive construction systems(EPS,WOOD,ROCK,PU,HEMP)for renovating the building envelopes were assumed,and a life cycle assessment(LCA)adopted in order to measure the environmental impact of each alternative.The results were compared with a scenario which included demolition and reconstruction of a similar building with the same net volume and thermal resistance.The results showed that timber and concrete are the most environmentally friendly materials to rebuild the structures in case of demolition,contrary to steel which leads generally to higher environmental impacts,except land use.In general,EPS,WOOD and HEMP technological alter-natives accounted for the highest scores,both in terms of burdens on the ecosystems and on depletion of resources,while ROCK accounted for the lowest scores.Finally,refurbishment scenarios generally accounted for a lower global warming potential(GWP)even if demolition,waste treatment and the benefit from recycling/reuse are taken into account.