Modern trends in the development of the construction industry in the production of building materials

The paper describes the technology of manufacturing a construction product by vibrocompression using ash and slag waste from thermal power plants in the Pavlodar region. The task of the experimental research was to obtain a hollow wall stone based on ash and slag waste with a strength grade that is not inferior to products made according to the traditional recipe. The obtained samples with different ratios of components in the mixture were investigated for compressive strength, moisture absorption, frost resistance. It has been established that when ash and slag waste are added to the composition of the concrete mixture in an amount of up to 35 % of the mass of dry components, the strength characteristics of the hollow wall stone correspond to the selected brand

Identification of Methods of Reducing Construction Waste in Construction Enterprises Based on Surveys

The article presents the analysis of the dependence between methods of reducing construction waste and the size of the construction enterprise. The analysis was carried out for the following construction products: steel, concrete, wood, and small-sized (ceramic, concrete) and finishing (ceramic and stone tiles) products. Based on the literature review, the 13 most frequently used methods of reducing construction waste were identified. Surveys were then conducted among 140 construction enterprises. The research was conducted in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. In order to test whether there is a relationship between the used waste-reduction method for a given construction product and the size of the enterprise, the Pearson chi-square test of independence was used. The null hypothesis and the alternative hypothesis were formulated, and the critical level of significance α = 0.05 was adopted. The results were statistically significant for 7 methods of reducing construction waste. The identified methods include appropriate storage, the training of employees in the field of waste management, the use of monitoring systems, the appropriate transport and unloading of products, the appropriate involvement of subcontractors, the use of prefabricated elements, and the reuse of products on the construction site. Based on the conducted research, it was found that these methods are more often used with an increase in the size of the enterprise. The presented analysis emphasizes the urgent need to improve, integrate, and adjust the promotion of both the reduction of construction waste and the benefits of this reduction in construction enterprises, especially those of the smallest size.

Transforming Building Criteria to Evidence Index

There is increasing pressure from developers toward architects and engineers to deliver scientifically sound proposals for often complex and cost-intensive construction products. An increase in digitalization within the construction industry and the availability of intelligently built assets and overall sustainability make it possible to customize a construction product. This servitization of construction products is assumed to perform much preferably in satisfying stakeholders’ physical, psychological, and social needs. The degree to which these products are performing can be evaluated through an evidence index. This article aims to introduce a conceptual model of an evidence index and test it in the programming stage of a case study. The investigation follows the evidence-based design approach and renders evidence through key performance indicators in the programming stage of the building process. For testing the concept, a case study investigation was performed by simulating a novice research assistant, and the amount of evidence was collected and appraised for evidence index. The case study showed that key performance indicators of a servitized project could be evaluated on a four-point scale. The quality of the evidence index generation depended on the level of expertise the evaluator has in research and the skilful use of scientific databases.

Evaluating the comparability of environmental product declarations for use as a decision-making tool for building designers

With its inclusion to LEED®, use of EPDs in the construction industry will accelerate over time. This research examines current practices surrounding the use of EPDs in construction and addresses a key need arising from a case study completed on the first Canadian project to use EPDs. Findings suggest that lack of comparability between claims hinders the ability for them to be used as true, decisive comparative tools on projects. This informed the development of a semi-automated comparison tool for EPDs and PCRs. Three separate construction product categories were chosen for comparison to develop this tool: insulation, flooring, and cladding systems. Comparability was more evident in categories that have had early involvement in publishing environmental claims (such as flooring, because of its human health implications). However, there was concerning evidence regarding the comparability of EPDs that were comparable according to international standards were incomparable according to the comparison framework developed.

Evaluating the comparability of environmental product declarations for use as a decision-making tool for building designers

With its inclusion to LEED®, use of EPDs in the construction industry will accelerate over time. This research examines current practices surrounding the use of EPDs in construction and addresses a key need arising from a case study completed on the first Canadian project to use EPDs. Findings suggest that lack of comparability between claims hinders the ability for them to be used as true, decisive comparative tools on projects. This informed the development of a semi-automated comparison tool for EPDs and PCRs. Three separate construction product categories were chosen for comparison to develop this tool: insulation, flooring, and cladding systems. Comparability was more evident in categories that have had early involvement in publishing environmental claims (such as flooring, because of its human health implications). However, there was concerning evidence regarding the comparability of EPDs that were comparable according to international standards were incomparable according to the comparison framework developed.

Understanding of Construction Product Assessment Issues and Sustainability among Investors, Architects, Contractors, and Sellers of Construction Products in Poland

The building sector is one of the most critical branches of the economy influencing global warming today. Following the European Union’s Construction Products Regulation (CPR), the sustainable use of natural resources in construction is one of the seven basic buildings’ requirements. However, due to the lack of provisions in this regard, construction products are not yet subject to mandatory assessment and verification of the constancy of performance in this area. The paper presents the research results with the participation of 842 respondents who are investors, architects, contractors, and sellers of building materials. The analysis of their perceptions of issues related to the term sustainable development and knowledge of selected documents functioning in construction is presented. The share of people who correctly assigned the term sustainable development to equal treatment of environmental protection, economic development, and social development ranged between 52.5% and 65.7%. Knowledge of people associated with construction about the role of the declaration of performance (DoP) of construction products is high (from 73.9% to 99.4% correct answers). For Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), lower knowledge of this document’s role was noted, from 24.1% to 56.5% of correct answers. The obtained results indicate the need for further education.

An intelligent simulation-based framework for automated planning of concrete construction works

PurposeThis paper proposes an innovative intelligent simulation-based construction planning framework that introduces a new approach to simulation-based construction planning.Design/methodology/approachIn this approach, the authors developed an ontological inference engine as an integrated part of a constraint-based simulation system that configures the construction processes, defines activities and manages resources considering a variety of requirements and constraints during the simulation. It allows for the incorporation of the latest project information and a deep level of construction planning knowledge in the planning. The construction planning knowledge is represented by an ontology and several semantic rules. Also, the proposed framework uses the project building information model (BIM) to extract information regarding the construction product and the relations between elements. The extracted information is then converted to an ontological format to be useable by the framework.FindingsThe authors implemented the framework in a case study project and tested its usefulness and capabilities. It successfully generated the construction processes, activities and required resources based on the construction product, available resources and the planning rules. It also allowed for a variety of analyses regarding different construction strategies and resource planning. Moreover, 4D BIM models that provide a very good understanding of the construction plan can be automatically generated using the proposed framework.Originality/valueThe active integration between BIM, discrete-event simulation (DES) and ontological knowledge base and inference engine defines a new class of construction simulation with expandable applications.

Influence of basalt micro-fibres on the abrasion resistance of concrete in hydraulic structures

In hydraulic structures, abrasion resistance can be a significant driver in concrete specification. Basalt micro-fibres represent a potentially sustainable construction product and have been shown to provide various benefits in concrete, however the implications for hydrodynamic abrasion resistance are to date unclear. This paper is the first investigation of its kind to examine the abrasion resistance of basalt fibre-reinforced (BFR) concretes using the ASTM C1138 underwater test method. Towards this, concretes incorporating fibre dosages of 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 3 kg/m3 were tested. The relationships between concrete abrasion and its fundamental mechanical properties are evaluated. For the particular concretes examined, it is found that based on the Shapiro-Wilks tests at 95% confidence, abrasion loss in BFR concretes followed a normal distribution; the use of basalt fibre in contents of up to 3 kg/m3 did not have a significant effect on abrasion resistance, compressive and tensile splitting strengths, as well as modulus of elasticity. It can be concluded that basalt micro-fibre can be used for their other attributes such as controlling bleeding, shrinkage and plastic cracking in concrete hydraulic structures without deleterious effects on abrasion resistance. The regression models proposed to predict concrete abrasion loss from its mechanical properties were found to be only significant at 48 h for compressive strength and 24 h for both tensile splitting strength and modulus of elasticity.

A proposal to determine the distribution of lateral forces from loaded recycled plastic drainage kerbs

This study presents a detailed analysis of the lateral forces generated as a result of vertically applied loads to recycled plastic drainage kerbs. These kerbs are a relatively new addition to road infrastructure projects. When concrete is used to form road drainage kerbs, its deformation is minimum when stressed under heavy axle loads. Although recycled plastic kerbs are more environmentally friendly as a construction product, they are less stiff than concrete and tend to deform more under loading leading to a bursting type, lateral force being applied to the haunch materials, the magnitude of which is unknown. A method is proposed for establishing the distribution of these lateral forces resulting from deformation under laboratory test conditions. A load of 400 kN is applied onto a total of six typical kerbs in the laboratory in accordance with the test standard. The drainage kerbs are surrounded with 150 mm of concrete to the front and rear haunch and underneath as is normal during installation. The lateral forces exerted on the concrete surround as a result of deformation of the plastic kerbs are determined via a strain measuring device. Analysis of the test data allows the magnitude of the lateral forces to the surrounding media to be determined and, thereby, ensuring the haunch materials are not over-stressed as a result. The proposed test methodology and subsequent analysis allows for an important laboratory-based assessment of any typical recycled plastic drainage kerbs to be conducted to ensure they are fit-for-purpose in the field.