Waste generated by building construction and demolition (BCD) activities contributes to the major proportion of urban solid waste. A large amount of the waste is still sent to the landfill or ...downcycled globally. The adoption of circular economy (CE) in the building construction industry (BCI) could leverage significant gain in managing the waste from BCD activities. While studies have been conducted on CE in the BCI, a comprehensive review of the barriers to CE adoption in building construction and demolition waste (BCDW) management is thus far limited. Hence, to bridge this research gap and provide an improved understanding, the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) guideline was adopted to systematically explore related literature towards the development of a web of barriers, integrated framework, and implementation strategies for CE adoption in BCDW management. The barriers to CE adoption in BCDW management were gleaned from 23-countries and consolidated as institutional and regulatory barriers, technological and information barriers, and organizational barriers, among others. A blended conceptual framework indicating the causality and interrelationship among the groups of barriers was determined using the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach. Ultimately, integrated implementation strategies were put forward to combat the identified barriers. Theoretically, this study has created a distinct character of the barriers to and strategies for the comprehensive promotion, implementation, and diffusion of CE in BCDW management. It has made a useful contribution to the existing literature through the mapping of a comprehensive co-existence and relationship among the barriers. This study has triggered a variety of empirically based research studies on the barriers, and success factors to promote CE in BCDW from a developed and developing economies' perspective in the future.
•Barriers to CE adoption in BCDW management from 23 countries were examined.•The interrelationship among the group of barriers to CE adoption was evaluated via ISM and systems thinking.•A blended conceptual framework of the CE barriers was presented.•Implementation strategies to mitigate barriers and promote CE adoption in BCDW management were proposed.
The significant share of buildings from total energy consumption across the world has been mentioned and emphasized very well by several scholars. In this regard, there have been major developments ...and improvements in the expertise of developing and designing buildings to be adequately energy efficient. However, the recent studies show that there is still a considerable deviation between the intended and actual energy consumption of the completed buildings. Hence, this exploratory study aims to discover the origin of success and failure in achieving energy efficiency in building construction projects with a life cycle perspective and based on viewpoints of key participants in the project and constructed building's operation. To do so, 21 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Finnish project professionals representing client, design/planning experts, contractors and building operation/maintenance experts. Both thematic analysis and content analysis methods were employed for analysing the obtained research data. The findings reveal a set of challenges/barriers and solutions/enablers which account for failure and success of achieving energy-efficient buildings. The obtained results contribute to the existing body of knowledge and practices on achieving energy efficiency in building construction projects.
•Comparative study of embodied emissions, using process method and I-O analysis.•Detailed inventory of emission factors of commonly used building materials.•Case studies show characteristic of ...emissions, assessed by two alternative methods.•Proposed hybrid method for carbon assessment to improve accuracy and details.
In China, the rapid development of the economy has currently led to the extensive construction work. Therefore, determining the carbon emissions embodied in building construction could contribute to successfully implementing the national policy of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to provide a broad perspective on the carbon footprint of building construction. A comparative study was done on two alternative technics, namely, the process-based and the input-output analytical methods. The primary aim of this comparative study was to enhance the accuracy and detail of the data on the embodied carbon in building construction. Three buildings of differing heights and applications were assessed in the case study. The results indicated that materials manufacturing account for 80–90% of the total building embodied emissions. The main structure and the foundation work of the buildings were the sub-projects that contribute the most to embodied emissions (>60%). As both the process-level and the input-output methods have advantages and limitations, a hybrid approach was proposed that combines the advantages of the two methods. The results of this study could be helpful in the assessment and reduction of the embodied carbon typically associated with buildings.
Prefabricated construction has been used for public rental housing in Hong Kong. In order to speed up housing delivery, Hong Kong Housing Authority (HKHA) have employed advanced technologies, ...including Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), in some of their pilot prefabrication-based construction projects. However, the information obtained from BIM and RFID is not well connected and shared among relevant stakeholders. This paper introduces a multi-dimensional Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled BIM platform (MITBIMP) to achieve real-time visibility and traceability in prefabricated construction. Design considerations of a RFID Gateway Operating System, visibility and traceability tools, Data Source Interoperability Services, and decision support services are specified for developing the MITBIMP. A case study from a real-life construction project in Hong Kong is used as a pilot project to demonstrate advanced decision-making by using cutting-edge concepts and technologies within the MITBIMP to providing a basis for real-time visibility and traceability of the whole processes of prefabrication-based construction.
•The study extends 3D BIM application into nD by using IoT-enabled tools.•A framework of the nD BIM platform has been established.•nD system is to facilitate prefabricated construction by visualized services.•A case study has been used to demonstrate the usefulness of the platform.
Building Smart, Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructure in Developing Countries contains the papers presented at the International Conference on Development and Investment in Infrastructure ...(DII-2022). The contributions cover a wide range of topics related to infrastructure issues on the African continent: Sustainable Infrastructure Development Smart Infrastructure and Cities Quality and Resilient Infrastructure Education, Empowerment, Gender Equity, Wellness and Development Environmental and Waste Management/Facilities & Real-Estate Management Infrastructure, Investment and Finance- Trends and Forecasts Infrastructure: Shock Events, Procurement, Project Management, Health & Safety Infrastructure: Economic, Social/Environmental Sustainability Digital Innovation and transition in the built environment Building Smart, Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructure in Developing Countries evaluates innovations, empowerment, growth and sustainable development of infrastructure development in Africa, and aims at administrators, academics, and professionals.
This is an open access book. This book focuses on the durability problems of existing prestressed concrete (PC) structures caused by strand corrosion, clarifies the mechanical behavior of corroded ...prestressing strands, corrosion-induced cracking, bond degradation, prestress loss and structural performance deterioration, and proposes the corresponding prediction models. Its aim is to provide the knowledge, tools, and methods to understand the deterioration phenomena of PC structures. We hope that this text may be useful for those who work in the field of civil engineering. It is suitable for teachers and students majoring in civil engineering in universities, and researchers in the field of civil engineering. It is also suitable for practitioners of design institutes, construction units, supervising units and traffic management departments.
Inorganic materials have essential roles in society, including in building construction, optical devices, mechanical engineering and as biomaterials
. However, the manufacture of inorganic materials ...is limited by classical crystallization
, which often produces powders rather than monoliths with continuous structures. Several precursors that enable non-classical crystallization-such as pre-nucleation clusters
, dense liquid droplets
, polymer-induced liquid precursor phases
and nanoparticles
-have been proposed to improve the construction of inorganic materials, but the large-scale application of these precursors in monolith preparations is limited by availability and by practical considerations. Inspired by the processability of polymeric materials that can be manufactured by crosslinking monomers or oligomers
, here we demonstrate the construction of continuously structured inorganic materials by crosslinking ionic oligomers. Using calcium carbonate as a model, we obtain a large quantity of its oligomers (CaCO
)
with controllable molecular weights, in which triethylamine acts as a capping agent to stabilize the oligomers. The removal of triethylamine initiates crosslinking of the (CaCO
)
oligomers, and thus the rapid construction of pure monolithic calcium carbonate and even single crystals with a continuous internal structure. The fluid-like behaviour of the oligomer precursor enables it to be readily processed or moulded into shapes, even for materials with structural complexity and variable morphologies. The material construction strategy that we introduce here arises from a fusion of classic inorganic and polymer chemistry, and uses the same cross-linking process for the manufacture the materials.
Automation and robotics technology is expected to improve the productivity of the construction industry as well as to solve problems such as labor shortage and safety risks, especially for high-rise ...buildings. Substantial research efforts have been devoted to the field over the past decades, while the application rate at the construction sites is still limited. Although various reviews have summarized the research topics and future trends in this field, few research efforts have been made on a consideration of both academic research and practical application in the industry. Focusing on high-rise building construction, this study explores the development of both academic research and practical application of automation and robotics based on literature and market review. Scientometric and critical literature reviews were conducted to identify and analyze the development of key research areas based on academic publications from the 1980s to present. In the meantime, the development of basic technologies was summarized. The market review surveyed on existing products and developers of construction automation and robotics. By comparing the results of the literature review and market review, four development patterns of academic research and product application were identified, i.e., simultaneous development led by the same party, development at a similar pace with the two sides taking the lead in different aspects, academic research providing basic technologies for product development, and available technologies in academic research with no products found. Then three gaps in this field, i.e., the gap between academic research and products, the gap between products and application, and the gap between the construction industry and the robotics industry, were discussed with corresponding suggestions to narrow the gaps, followed by an outlook for future directions. This study contributes to the knowledge body by identifying and analyzing the key research areas and the development gaps systematically.
Construction and demolition waste (CDW) accounts for at least 30% of the total solid waste produced around the world. At around 924 million tons in the European Union in 2016 and 2.36 billion tons in ...China in 2018, the amount is expected to increase over the next few years. Dumping these wastes in sanitary landfills has always been the traditional approach to waste management but this will not be feasible in the years to come. To significantly reduce or eliminate the amount of CDW being dumped, circular economy is a possible solution to the increasing amounts of CDW. Circular economy is an economic system based on business models which replaces the end-of-life concept with reducing, reusing, recycling, and recovering materials. This paper discusses circular economy (CE) frameworks—specifically material recovery and production highlighting the reuse and recycling of CDW and reprocessing into new construction applications. Likewise, a literature review into recent studies of reuse and recycling of CDW and its feasibility is also discussed to possibly prove the effectivity of CE in reducing CDW. Findings such as effectivity of recycling CDW into new construction applications and its limitations in effective usage are discussed and research gaps such as reuse of construction materials are also undertaken. CE and recycling were also found to be emerging topics. Observed trends in published articles as well as the use of latent Dirichlet allocation in creating topic models have shown a rising awareness and increasing research in CE which focuses on recycling and reusing CDW.
Accelerated Carbonation curing (ACC) is an innovative curing procedure for precast concrete units, which results in sequestration of the carbon dioxide gas and its conversion into stable products. ...The effect of carbonation curing on mortar mixes incorporating cement kiln dust (CKD) as partial replacement of cement has been investigated in the present study. Carbonation curing was carried out for 12 h, followed by either sealed bag curing or water spray curing for 3 days. The effect of carbonation curing was studied in terms of compressive strength, porosity and pH of the mix, along with SEM to study the resultant morphology. It was observed that ACC led to better early age strength and lower porosity as compared to water cured mortars with at least 20% increase in the strength for each mix. The later age strength decreased slightly by ACC due to water loss, but could be compensated by adopting subsequent water spray. The microstructure analysis showed presence of C-S-H gel and CaCO3 for the carbonated mortars, contributing to the additional strength and reduced porosity. Stoichiometric analysis of the control mix at 3 days of casting also confirmed that carbonation curing enhances the compressive strength and decreases porosity of the mix. It was observed that the finer particle size of CKD particles and presence of alkali in CKD further promotes the carbonation reaction, and hence led to large improvement in the properties of the resultant mix.
•Accelerated carbonation curing (ACC) of cement kiln dust (CKD) mortars was performed.•The duration of ACC was kept 12 h after initial preconditioning.•ACC led to an increase in compressive strength of CKD mortars.•Porosity of CKD mortars decreased upon accelerated carbonation.
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