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GROWING ALTERNATIVE SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS: BIOCOMPOSITE PRODUCTS FROM NATURAL FIBER, BIODEGRADABLE AND RECYCLABLE POLYMER MATERIALS FOR LOAD-BEARING CONSTRUCTION COMPONENTS
Impact/Purpose:
ess our research, we set out to investigate the potential for using biocomposite and recyclable polymer materials in buildings, associated with all the external factors that would affect this choice. To this end we set the following objectives for the project:
- Evaluate the panels to improve thermal performance
- Determine the influence of air leakage on performance
- Optimize maximum panel sizes for manufacture and installation
- Evaluate the inclusion of 3rd glazing (middle) layer to improve performance
- Optimization of material properties for structural performance
- Optimization of composite core vs skin thickness for structural performance
- Impact testing and resistance for high performance applications
- Further environmental impact analysis
- Further building modeling to more accurately quantify energy performance compared to other systems
- Develop parametric optimization methods to customize the cell sizes
- Development of software evaluation tools
- Evaluate the panels to improve thermal performance
- Determine the influence of air leakage on performance
- Optimize maximum panel sizes for manufacture and installation
- Evaluate the inclusion of 3rd glazing (middle) layer to improve performance
- Optimization of material properties for structural performance
- Optimization of composite core vs skin thickness for structural performance
- Impact testing and resistance for high performance applications
- Further environmental impact analysis
- Further building modeling to more accurately quantify energy performance compared to other systems
- Develop parametric optimization methods to customize the cell sizes
- Development of software evaluation tools
Buildings (residential and commercial) account for about 40% of the total annual energy consumption in the United States of America, they produce 35% of the total carbon dioxide emissions, and attribute 40% of landfill wastes. The building industry is also a large consumer of non-renewable materials and this trend has escalated dramatically over the past century. To this end, we have been addressing sustainability concerns related to building construction materials through an integrative research approach applied to building façade elements where we can collectively influence design, materials, construction, energy consumption and disposal. We have been carrying out preliminary research in the design development phase of this project and during the second phase, we plan to create a framework and implementation plan for manufacturing, erection, use and disposal. The final outcome for construction will be an inevitable symbiosis of the process itself. The end result will be to propose a range of building products for transparent and translucent façade enclosures that holistically embrace all the manufacturing and end use issues from cradle to grave and life thereafter, using bio-composite and recyclable polymer materials. We have been modeling our research project on technologies and materials that will form a new paradigm that rethinks the design of building enclosures in the future. Alternative typologies of transparent and translucent load-bearing façade systems based on biocomposite and recyclable materials were investigated architecturally, structurally, thermally, materially and environmentally. Together with the means of manufacture, we show how efficiencies were obtained and verified. The success o
Description:
The Phase 2 proposal set out to define a number of limited research objectives to carry the project forward, based on the success of research and design carried out in Phase I through to the development and implementation of the project towards a marketable commodity for the building industry. During the course of Phase 1, a number of further challenges emerged that lay ahead together with important opportunities that became evident. The opportunities and innovation targets were set with the purpose of developing a product for market commercialization.
The scope of investigation included researching areas, necessary for establishing suitable manufacturing processes, installation and performance characteristics as noted in the following specific items:
- improved building environmental performance in terms of energy consumed in running a building
- establish sources of environmentally sustainable materials that will have a direct positive influence in promoting farming practices
- the bio-composite materials proposed are derived from sources that have far greater yield of biomass per acre, hence agriculturally more efficient
- include technologies that are easily transportable globally
- a light weight product that weighs approximately half of its equivalent glass based application
- is able to be constructed in larger panel sizes owing to its lighter weight and manufacturing technologies
- acts as a passive environmental skin that improves overall seasonal thermal performance
- a structure that acts both as a shading device and environmental modulator, providing increased efficiencies related to multiple performance functions
- provide a façade system that is much stronger than conventional façade systems, owing to the integrated composite action of the core and skin materials
- design a suitable manufacturing process what will allow the product to be produced using an automated jointing and assembly system