The environmental impact assessment of materials is usually based on laboratory tests, mostly in combination with models describing the longterm fate of the substances of interest in the targeted ...environmental compartment. Thus, laboratory tests are the fundamental link to achieve appropriate assessment conclusions which makes it essential to generate consistent results. This just as applies to the leaching of cementitious materials. In Europe, the leaching behavior of monolithic building materials is tested in the Dynamic Surface Leaching Test following the specification CEN/TS 16637–2. An interlaboratory comparison on European level regarding this technical specification showed relatively high intra- and interlaboratory variations for the tested materials (monolithic copper slag and cement stabilized coal fly ash). Therefore the German Committee for Structural Concrete (DAfStb) framed a guideline to specify additional testing conditions for cementitious materials. To assess the possible improvement by this guidelines measures, a round robin test with 11 participants from Germany and the Netherlands was conducted. This work aims to provide insight into the factors to be considered in the testing of alkaline materials, including sample preparation, and highlights crucial procedures and their manifestation in the results. All evaluated parameters showed improved results compared to the earlier round robin test. The relative standard deviations for repeatability (RSDr) and reproducibility (RSDR) of the elements calcium, barium, antimony, chromium, molybdenum and vanadium, which are the parameters evaluated in both round robin tests, were RSDr = 4%, 4%, 2%, 5%, 5%, and 5% respectively (4% in average) for this work, in comparison to the European round robin test with an average RSDr of 29% (17%, 17%, 20%, 40%, 36%, and 42%). The RSDR improved from 41% (30%, 36%, 29%, 57%, 40%, and 56%) to 14% (12%, 8%, 6%, 28%, 15%, and 12%). CO2 ingress during testing and the inaccuracy of eluate analytics for concentrations close to the determination limits were identified as the main sources of error.
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•Leaching test after CEN/TS 16637–2 needs specifications for cementitious materials.•Leaching of cementitious materials highly dependent on CO2 ingress.•Amendments: Average relative standard deviations improved by ∼25%.•Results form basis for risk assessment of emissions by leaching.
This study examined whether simplified life cycle-based calculations of climate change contributions can provide better decision support for building design. Contributions to climate change from a ...newly built office building in Gävle, Sweden, were studied from a life cycle perspective as a basis for improvements. A basic climate and energy calculation tool for buildings developed in the European project ENSLIC was used. The study also examined the relative impacts from building material production and building operation, as well as the relative importance of the impact contributions from these two life cycle stages at various conditions.
The ENSLIC tool calculates operational energy use and contributions to climate change of a number of optional improvement measures. Twelve relevant improvement measures were tested. The most important measures proved to be changing to CO
2 free electricity, changing construction slabs from concrete to wood, using windows with better U-values, insulating the building better and installing low-energy lighting and white goods. Introduction of these measures was estimated to reduce the total contribution to climate change by nearly 50% compared with the original building and the operational energy use by nearly 20% (from 100 to 81 kWh/m
2
yr). Almost every building is unique and situated in a specific context. Making simple analyses of different construction options showed to be useful and gave some unexpected results which were difficult to foresee from a general design experience. This process acts as an introduction to life cycle thinking and highlights the consequence of different material choices
Some animals adapt well to losing limbs, which may be due to an accident or amputation that was necessitated by a birth-defect or a cancerous growth. Others suffer greatly from having less limbs, ...negatively affecting their quality of life. Current advancements capacitate us to provide plastic prosthetic limbs by using additive manufacturing. However, modelling and printing proves challenging. This article describes the three steps taken to design an eco-friendly prosthetic for a disabled donkey, made out of plastic parts and belts. First, we sought to gain a better understanding of eco-design to increase durability of the prosthetic. Second, using computer aided design and optimisation, we explored optimal models in order to achieve a lightweight structure to sustain the weight of the animal. Third, the materials Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene and Polyethylene Terephthalate were considered to reduce environmental impact and maximise quality of life for the donkey. The product will be printed and fitted to a disabled donkey.
Provider: - Institution: - Data provided by Europeana Collections- El proyecto de Fachada FB720 es una de investigación subvencionada por el Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (CDTI) ...del Estado Español (IDI-20090761). Su objetivo es el diseño y desarrollo de una fachada ligera, modular tipo “unitized”, de bajo impacto ambiental y alta eficiencia energética, destinada principalmente a obras de rehabilitación o nueva construcción en el ámbito de la Península Ibérica. Las estrategias técnicas para conseguirlo son: la reducción del consumo de materia, el uso de materiales renovables o reciclados y la optimización de las partes opaca y transparente como elementos de control solar. El diseño de la fachada parte de una propuesta de b720 arquitectos y cuenta con la participación de diversas empresas y centros tecnológicos asesores. En el Análisis de Ciclo de Vida participó como asesora la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) en colaboración con la asesoría ambiental Societat Orgànica. En la evaluación térmica y lumínica (que no se presenta en este documento a causa de su limitada extensión) participó la consultora JG Ingenieros. Las características de la fachada FB720 han sido verificadas mediante la contabilización de su impacto ambiental en todas las fases del ciclo de vida, a través de simulaciones energéticas en fase de uso y mediante ensayos físicos realizados sobre diversos prototipos. Estos procesos han incluido, además, sucesivas acciones de rectificación y ajuste para la optimización del diseño. Los primeros resultados han sido obtenidos comparando la fachada FB720 con dos alternativas estándar: ligera modular y convencional pesada. Estos resultados muestran que el consumo de energía y las emisiones de CO2 debidas a producción de materiales, transporte, construcción, mantenimiento y desconstrucción son un 50% enores en el caso de la fachada FB 720. En cuanto a la evaluación lumínica y térmica, el ahorro de energía de la fachada FB720 en los espacios arquitectónicos inmediatamente en contacto con el cerramiento es al menos de un 10%, en diversas localizaciones climáticas y para diferentes niveles de carga interna.- All metadata published by Europeana are available free of restriction under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. However, Europeana requests that you actively acknowledge and give attribution to all metadata sources including Europeana
•The shock and steady state pressures were obtained using a force transducer in a soft body projectile impact experiment.•Good agreement between the shock pressure derived from the force history and ...the shock Hugoniot pressure was obtained.•The presence of a dynamic steady state pressure that is much higher than the expected stagnation pressure was found.•For the experiments a new, efficient and economical sabot to launch a low strength projectile was developed and applied.
For a soft body projectile striking a target or the shock loading of a soft body material, the determination of the interface shock pressure, shock speed and applied steady state pressures is important but has been hindered by technical challenges even with the use of sophisticated embedded pressure sensors in the target surface. Difficulties interpreting the results render the accuracies sometimes questionable or impossible to reproduce. Here we propose a simple impact experiment using a force sensor and an analysis procedure to derive the interface pressure from the force/time history. The results are compared to those obtained from shock Hugoniot and penetration equations. We came upon the presence of a dynamic pressure that is significantly higher than the expected stagnation pressure. This method could be used to determine and characterise the shock and steady state pressures of a wider range of materials under impact and shock loading conditions.
The energy crisis in the 1970s led to increasingly stricter building codes, resulting in the currently required nearly zero-energy buildings. Nonetheless, the energy saving potential of further ...increasing insulation packages decreases as a result of the inverse correlation of thermal transmittance with insulation thickness. Therefore, a balance is required between the potential energy savings and the material impact using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This balance is studied for a demonstration building called ‘The Mobble’. For the LCA, the Ecoinvent database and impact assessment method ReCiPe H/A (2016) are used. For the potential energy savings dynamic energy simulations are run in Modelica/Dymola. To ensure equal comfort, thermal comfort is modelled using Human Thermal Module. An optimisation using the trade-off between material impact and operational energy by considering the optimal insulation thickness is executed on three levels: (1) building envelope (insulation, glazing type), (2) HVAC system efficiency (constant, demand based, personal comfort systems) and (3) electricity mix. This additionally enables to assess the robustness of imposing strict insulation requirements in e.g. building codes. The results show that even when extremely advanced demand based systems are adopted, the optimal insulation thickness ranges between 22 cm and 28 cm and is thus hardly affected, neither by user behaviour. However, the choice of energy mix does have a considerable impact on this optimal insulation thickness, and entails a shift in optimal insulation thickness from 20 cm - 30 cm–10 cm - 20 cm when a lower environmental impact for the electricity mix is considered (compared to the current Belgian electricity mix).
•Life cycle assessment considering material impact, energy use and thermal comfort.•Personal comfort systems are a good energy conservation measure.•HVAC system efficiency hardly influences the building envelope design.•The choice of energy mix considerably influences the optimal insulation thickness.
To achieve climate neutrality, future urban heating systems will need to use a variety of low-carbon heating technologies. The transition toward low-carbon heating technologies necessitates a ...complete restructuring of the heating system, with significant associated material requirements. However, little research has been done into the quantity and environmental impact of the required materials for this system change. We analyzed the material demand and the environmental impact of the transition toward low-carbon heating in the Netherlands across three scenarios based on the local availability and capacity for sources of low-carbon heat. A wide range of materials are included, covering aggregates, construction materials, metals, plastics, and critical materials. We find that while the Dutch policy goal of reducing GHG emissions by 90% before 2050 can be achieved if only direct emissions from the heating system are considered, this is no longer the case when the cradle-to-gate emissions from the additional materials, especially insulation materials, are taken into account. The implementation of these technologies will require 59–63 megatons of materials in the period of 2021–2050, leading to a maximum reduction of 62%.
Nanotechnologies have been advantageous in many sectors and gaining much concern due to the unique physical, chemical and biological properties of nanomaterials (NMs). We have surveyed peer-reviewed ...publications related to “nanotechnology”, “NMs”, “NMs water treatment”, “NMs air treatment”, and “NMs environmental risk” in the last 23 years. We found that most of the research work is focused on developing novel applications for NMs and new products with peculiar features. In contrast, there are relatively few of publications concerning NMs as environmental contaminants relative to that for NMs applications. Thus, we devoted this review for NMs as emerging environmental contaminants. The definition and classification of NMs will be presented first to demonstrate the importance of unifying the NMs definition. The information provided here should facilitate the detection, control, and regulation of NMs contaminants in the environment. The high surface-area-to-volume ratio and the reactivity of NMs contaminants cause the prediction of the chemical properties and potential toxicities of NPs to be extremely difficult; therefore, we found that there are marked knowledge gaps in the fate, impact, toxicity, and risk of NMs. Consequently, developing and modifying extraction methods, detection tools, and characterization technologies are essential for complete risk assessment of NMs contaminants in the environment. This will help also in setting regulations and standards for releasing and handling NMs as there are no specific regulations. Finally, the integrated treatment technologies are necessary for the removal of NMs contaminants in water. Also, membrane technology is recommended for NMs remediation in air.
