Learning Outcomes

LO1 Review health and safety regulations and legislation associated with the storage, handling and use of materials on a construction site.

LO2 Discuss the environmental and sustainability factors which can impact on and influence the material choices for a construction project.

LO3 Present material choices for a given building using performance properties, experimental data, sustainability and environmental consideration.

LO4 Evaluate the performance of a given building in respect of its human comfort requirements.

Assignment Brief and Guidance

You are employed by a large general contractor, as a Design Build Technician. The company has recently appointed a new Managing Director who has decided to shift the company's focus towards greater use of sustainable practices. To achieve this, the Managing Director has asked you to prepare reports on how to improve sustainability and awareness of the environmental impact of construction activities within the construction process.

Task 1. As a relatively new member of the team on a new construction site which is being set up to build a combined office, warehouse and manufacturing unit on a brownfield site.

You have been asked to look after the safe storage of building materials, tools and personal protective equipment and the safe disposal of waste.

The site is roughly rectangular located on the junction between two trunk roads with footpaths and cycle ways running alongside of the roads. The other two sides of the site have a small road leading to an infant school along one side and a residential street on the fourth side.

a) Prepare a sketch of the layout of the site which has a construction fronting onto one of the main roads. The main building under construction is 80m long and 20m deep and occupies about one half of the total area of the site. The main health and safety concerns are the storage of construction materials, their safe use during the construction process and the safe disposal of any waste. Particularly consider asbestos and other hazardous demolition materials On the sketch, locate the building under construction and also locations of various storage areas for materials

b) State what materials would be needed during the preparation of the site including the demolition of existing buildings and in particular outline how the demolition waste is handled and stored before removal off site. Indicate what materials would be needed during the early phases of the construction after the site has been cleared.Also suggest materials involved in the construction of the main structure, what precautions will be needed in their handling and use.

c) Prepare a table summarising the main construction materials, what hazards they may present and what measures must be taken to reduce the risks to people working on the site or working moving or living near to the site. Explore, by giving an example, of how a risk assessment on the use of one such material would help to ensure a safe workplace.

d) Discuss the regulations and ACOPS that would apply to one activity on site during the foundation building

The attached information sources may be helpful to you

Advisory word count about 1000.

Task 2.

In the past the choice of building materials for the kind of project outlined in task 1 above would have been based on availability, cost and the ability to perform the role that the material has in the structure. Today it is necessary to add further criteria to fulfil the need to protect the environment, to use
• the minimum of materials that cannot be replaced (non-renewable),
• to maximise the recycling potential of non-renewable materials that have to be used and
• produce a waste management plan for the demolition stage of the work .
• To minimise the amount of embedded energy,
• use as much renewable material as possible, and
• minimise the energy needed to keep the internal environment of the new building at a comfortable temperature.
Consider ONE of the following materials to produce the main structure of the building and outline the arguments for and against its use from the environmental and sustainability point of view:

Structural steel
Cross laminated timber
One of the newer forms of concrete such as Novacem.

Compare the materials that might have been used for such a structure 50 years ago with what might be used today.

Task 3

Materials choice for a given building taking into consideration the performance properties, sustainability and environmental concerns

The building under consideration is the same as described in task 1. The additional information needed for this part of the assignment is the height of the building. It is 5 story building with a height of 20m to the eves. It has a flat roof which will be available as an outside space for the building's occupants. The basic structure will be conventional consisting of vertical columns which support each floor above the ground floor. There will be a grid of 17 rows of equally spaced columns across the frontage of the building, each row having 5 columns.

The columns and beams of such a building would often be made from either steel or concrete.

a) Analyse the advantages and disadvantages of these materials for this structure

b) Suggest an alternative material that has a smaller environmental impact which would could be used and compare its performance in use and its environmental impact compared to the conventional materials mentioned in part a.

c) Discuss the standards that would apply.

d) Give an example of the testing procedure that would be used to check that the material would be able to support such a structure.

e) Show how the standard ensures that wherever the test is conducted the results can be compared to other materials in a completely different part of the world

f) Examine any one of the case studies of projects approved under the BREAM scheme given and show how use of sustainable practices and considerations for material choice can improve the environmental rating of the completed building

g) Look at the maximum load that one of the columns made of reinforced concrete with a diameter of 0.5m could withstand. Use the following information Young's Modulus, 35GPa, Free length of the column 4m the column is effectively fixed at each end. The Euler Bending Equation is given.

Task 4

Evaluate the performance of a given building in respect to its human comfort requirements. Analyse the factors which will affect the internal environment of the building described in tasks 1,2 and 3.

a) Research the generally accepted indoor environmental conditions of temperature, relative humidity, radiant temperature, ventilation, reverberation and illumination. Make sure that you reference the source of your information

b) Estimate the rate in kilowatts at which heat needs to be generated in the building to maintain an inside temperature of 200C when the outside temperature is at 00C assuming that the windows make up 30% of the outside wall area. That the walls are insulated to a U value of 0.2,watts m^-20C^-1 the roof and floor to a U value of 0.23 watts m^-20C^-1 and the windows (triple glazed have a U value of 0.9 watts m^-20C^-1.
c) If the building is designed for 150 occupants some of whom are sitting most of the time but some are quite active assume that the average need for fresh air averages out at 8 litres per second per person. Calculate how much heat would be lost supplying this amount of cold fresh air when the outside air is at 00C assuming that the specific heat capacity of the air is 1kJm^-3oC^-1

d) One of the spaces inside the building is used for meetings and can hold up to 200 people if needed. The dimensions of this space are 17m x 30mx8m high. The walls of this are 30% glass with an absorption coefficient of (double glazing with 10mm gap) at 500Hz = 0.03, the walls of acoustic timber wall panelling 0.42, the floor as carpeted over concrete is 0.25 and the ceiling is covered with perforated plaster board with an absorption coefficient of 0.85. Calculate the reverberation time of this space.

e) What would you expect to happen to the reverberation time if the hall contained the maximum audience of 200?

f) What design considerations are needed to minimise the energy and other resources in use of this building?

Attachment:- Assignment_ScienceMaterials.rar