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Although the use of diverse types of bricks as the primary construction materials has been considered for many years, vernacular earthen materials are also widely used for construction with low potential environmental impacts in developing countries. In this study, the life cycle of two types of building materials for wall building is investigated.

For this purpose, life cycle carbon emissions (LCCO₂) are compared and embodied energy calculation for rammed earth and fired clay bricks as two construction materials. The complete construction chain using rammed earth, as a modern norm, and fired clay bricks, as the most common construction materials in buildings, is investigated in this research.

Studies on the constructions in Kashan city in the north of Isfahan province, Iran, as a case study, showed that replacing the fired bricks with rammed earth would reduce the CO₂ emissions up to 1,245 kg/ton and 4,646 MJ/ton (i.e. more than 95%) of the embodied energy. It also shows that the choice of building materials should be important for building practitioners to consider the environmental impact.

This paper provide life cycle assessment of building materials. The findings of this study help builders and owner to choose sustainable building materials.

From the 2000s onward, construction practices of urban residential buildings in China have shown a material transformation from clay brick to aerated concrete block. Moreover, the consumption of insulating materials for buildings has been increasing due to the new requirements in building energy-saving standards. This transformation and the increased consumption of insulating materials might have a vital impact on a building’s thermal comfort and its associated energy flows. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the indoor thermal performance of urban residential buildings built with different materials and further discuss the correlations between indoor thermal comfort and the associated energy input.

This study investigated four residential buildings selected from four residential communities located in the cold climate zone of China. The Integrated Environment Solutions program was used to evaluate the thermal comfort levels and to quantify the operational energy consumption of the case study buildings. Additionally, the University of Bath’s Inventory of Carbon and Energy database was used to estimate the embodied energy consumption and CO₂ emissions.

The study found that materials transition and increasing consumption did not necessarily improve indoor thermal comfort. However, the materials transition has significantly decreased the embodied energy consumption of urban residential buildings. Furthermore, the increased utilization of insulating materials has also decreased the heating and cooling energy consumption. Therefore, overall, the environmental impacts of urban residential buildings have been reduced significantly.

In the future, residential buildings completed in the 1990s will need regular maintenance, such as adding insulation. Residential buildings completed based on the latest energy-saving requirements should optimize their ventilation design, for example, by increasing the ventilation rate and by reducing solar heat gains in the summer.

This paper investigates the effects of the materials change on thermal comfort levels and the environmental impacts of urban residential buildings in the cold climate zone of China, as these have not been the focus of many previous studies.

The purpose of this study is to design a DSS for construction sectors, which can determine the status of the related supplier alternatives, accompanying G-T, SC measures and their interrelated metrics. In today’s era, a supplier is observed as significant among entire agents of green supply chain (SC) management. Presently, it is determined that appraising worth of the supplier under green-traditional (G-T), SCs concerns still require the support of novel algorithmic/decision support systems (DSSs), which could embrace potential decision-making.

The authors have proposed a DSS (consisting of the implementation of multi-level multi-criterion decision-making [ML-MCDM], reference point approach [RPA] and multi-objective optimization on the basis of simple ratio analysis [MOOSRA] methods on constructed MCDM supplier evaluation appraisement module) for measuring the performance score of clay-brick suppliers coming under G-T SCs corresponding to fuzzy and non-fuzzy information. A comparative analysis is conducted among the performance scores against alternatives, obtained by the three methods, i.e. ML-MCDM, RPA and MOOSRA, for robustly making a potential decision.

The presented research offers a DSS toward managers of construction sectors for benchmarking the performance scores against supplier alternatives under G-T SC measures and their interrelated metrics, modeled by fuzzy cum non-fuzzy information.

Presented research work exhibited a DSS that can be used by construction sectors for benchmarking the supplier alternatives in accordance with their performance scores under G-T SCs. The MCDM G-T supplier evaluation appraisement module is constructed pertaining to small-scale clay-brick production units, located in the northern part of India to check the effectiveness of the proposed DSS.

Several trillion cigarettes produced worldwide annually lead to many thousands of kilograms of toxic waste. Cigarette butts (CBs) accumulate in the environment due to the poor biodegradability of the cellulose acetate filters. This paper presents some of the results from a continuing study on recycling CBs into fired clay bricks. The results show that the density of fired bricks was reduced by up to 30%, depending on the percentage of CBs incorporated into the raw materials. Similarly, the compressive strength of bricks tested decreased according to the percentage of CBs included in the mix. Nevertheless, by increasing mixing times, better quality bricks can be produced, even with the inclusion of high percentages of CBs. Longer mixing times increased dry density and compressive strength, equivalent to about 53% and 11% respectively. Microstructure observation using ESEM confirm the result by showing the apparent size of pores is reduced drastically and the distribution of pores becomes more uniform as the mixing time increases from 5 to 15 minutes, hence decreasing the porosity in the clay body which subsequently leads to a denser product with higher strength.

Studies the various contemporary standard brick products that are available and examines in detail their inherent properties and classifications which ensures that British bricks conform to the requirements of British Standards Specifications. These properties are significant and the engineer and architect must give them due consideration, for it is their responsibility to ensure they specify correctly for particular applications, and in so doing they should bear in mind that all bricks are not necessarily appropriate for all applications. This information will help professionals to make well‐considered judgements on brick selection and application.

Prolonged working in repetitive and awkward postures can result in musculoskeletal disorders among workers involved in labour-intensive jobs like those of brick kiln workers. Unlike other labour-intensive sectors, workers in this particular sector have a lack of awareness about musculoskeletal problems. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore musculoskeletal issues and associated risk-factors among brick kiln workers.

A questionnaire survey was conducted among 217 male and 111 female workers aged between 17 and 53 years. They were employed in traditional brick kiln units situated in Rajasthan, India. Postures were analysed by Rapid Upper Limb Assessment and Rapid Entire Body Assessment methods. Binary logistic regression was used to find the association between musculoskeletal problems and risk-factors.

For the mould evacuating task, wrist (76.2 per cent) and lower back (56 per cent) issues were the most frequently reported musculoskeletal problems, while in spading task, lower back (62.4 per cent) and shoulder (57.7 per cent) problems were prominent. Musculoskeletal symptoms in one or more body regions were associated with personal and work-related factors including the type of task and experience.

Kiln workers are exposed to high musculoskeletal and postural risks, particularly in spading and mould filling tasks. To reduce these risks, ergonomic interventions are needed.

It is recognised that the musculoskeletal health of brick kiln workers is a cause for concern. The present study provides the evidence of the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms experienced by brick kiln workers and the association of symptoms with various risk-factors, which has not been addressed in previous studies.

This paper aims to study the effect of the addition of water treatment plant sludge (WTPS) and processed tea waste (PTW) on the properties of burnt clay bricks. The reuse of WTP sludge as a raw material for brick production is a long-term approach, to sludge disposal, for economic and environmental sustainability. Sludge have been added at 10, 20, 30 and 40% and processed tea waste at 5% (by weight) in replacement of clay for brick manufacturing. Each batch of hand-moulded bricks was fired in a heat controlled furnace at a temperature of 990°C. The compressive strength has been found to increase with the sludge content, however, a slight decrease in compressive strength was observed with tea waste addition. Further, PTW addition has improved the thermal insulation of bricks as compared to controlled bricks. The study shows that 40% WTPS, 5% PTW and 55% natural clayey soil can be considered as an optimum mix for bricks with good compressive strength as well as improved thermal insulation property.

Four different mixing ratios of sludge at 10, 20, 30 and 40% of the total weight of sludge-clay mixtures were used to make bricks. Similarly, PTW was investigated as a substitute of natural clayey soil in brick manufacturing. Each batch of hand-moulded bricks was fired in a heat controlled furnace at a temperature of 990°C. The physical, mechanical and engineering properties of the produced WTPS bricks and PTW bricks were determined and evaluated according to various Indian Standard Codes of Specification for burnt clay bricks and certain reference books.

The results exhibited that WTP sludge and PTW can be used to produce good quality brick for various engineering applications in construction and building. Increasing the sludge content increases the compressive strength. Moreover, thermal insulation of PTW bricks depicted an upward trend when compared to controlled bricks. Hence, an optimum mixture of 40% WTPS, 5% PTW and 55% natural clayey soil was found, at which bricks showed good compressive strength as well as improved thermal insulation property of the building material.

The present work provides a sustainable solution for disposal of WTP sludge and tea waste. Utilization of these waste materials in brick manufacturing is viable and economic solution.

Bricks with 40% WTP sludge and 5% processed tea waste proved to be economic, technically sound for construction purposes with added thermal insulation properties.

Bulk amount of waste such as WTP sludge is a threat to society owing to its environmental implications of disposal. Authors propose to use WTP sludge and tea waste for brick manufacturing and provide a solution to its disposal.

Water treatment plant sludge along with tea waste have not been tried for brick manufacturing so far. Hence, the composition is new in itself and also have resulted into good performance.

The world abounds with numerous examples of fault‐free brickwork which have endured for centuries with little maintenance. In this country, bricks are an indigenous product and the use of brickwork is well understood, being a basically simple and economic method of building without sophisticated techniques.

This paper aims to contribute to the discussion of the experimental campaigns on Cultural Heritage buildings. By adopting integrated procedures it is possible to limit the invasiveness of the destructive techniques leading to reliable results. The purpose is the proper definition of the structural system, which represents the starting point of the following analysis's phases, not treated in this work. A methodology based on normative references and acknowledged non-destructive and partial destructive strategies has been conceived. The latter aims to an accurate comprehension of the structural information.

An integrated approach for the structural assessment of cultural heritage buildings is presented. The methodology defines an interdisciplinary procedure based on normative references, non-destructive and minor-destructive techniques. A funnel-shaped workflow is developed to characterize the structural system of the buildings. The non-destructive campaigns are widely extended. Then, in-depth analysis concerning partial demolitions and minor-destructive tests are performed. The dynamic identification of the building is executed to detect its global response. The final validation of the assumed mechanical values is obtained by comparing the experimental modes coming from the ambient vibrations and the analytical modes of the structural modelling.

This research belongs to the Protocol signed between the Municipality of Florence and Department of Earth's Science and Department of Architecture of the University of Florence for the seismic vulnerability assessment of relevant and strategic buildings.

The descripted methodology is targeted for monuments and special buildings where the use of destructive techniques is not possible or unrecommended.

Social implications are related to the conservation of Heritage buildings. The latter deals with: (1) risk assessment of the targeted buildings towards different hazard sources (e.g. earthquakes, floods); (2) knowledge path developed through non-invasive diagnostic campaigns oriented to the conservation of the manufact. Furthermore, the paper encourages towards the recognition of non-destructive techniques and ambient vibration tests for the achievement of higher knowledge levels.

This paper defines a funnel-shaped procedure defining hierarchical roles between the different available strategies. The originality of this contribution is firstly related to the methodological flowchart. It is targeted to limit the invasive tests and consequently achieving accurate levels of knowledge. Secondly, some novelty can be found in the adoption of improvement parameters from a regional database adopting a Bayesian approach.

Briefly reviews the history of the calcium silicate brick and examines the manufacturing process involved. Details various qualities of the bricks, including durability, precision, thermal conductivity and some more general attributes, and advises on which conditions are most suited to the use of calcium silicate bricks.