Glass Fibre Reinforced Gypsum Panels for Sustainable Construction

Abstract: Switch to energy-efficient air conditioning systems and the use of eco-friendly building materials would result in significant energy savings and reductions in CO2 emissions. Thermally activated building system (TABS) is a promising low-energy cooling technology, which provides better thermal comfort than the conventional air conditioning system. In TABS, cooled water circulated in the tubes embedded in one or any combination of roof, floor slab and walls, not only reduces the heat ingress but also cools the building. Integrating TABS with eco-friendly building materials like glass fibre reinforced gypsum (GFRG) could be an intertwining solution. A hybrid system that integrates TABS with GFRG roof is investigated in this study. The thermal behavior of this thermally activated glass fibre reinforced gypsum (TAGFRG) roof is analysed experimentally in terms of diurnal temperature gradients, thermal images of the interior and exterior roof surfaces, decrement factor and water temperature variations. The reinforcement zone of the TAGFRG roof handled a higher cooling load compared to that of air cavity zones. The diurnal temperature fluctuation of interior roof surface at the air cavity and reinforcement zones is reduced by 5.1 and 6.7 °C respectively by TAGFRG roof cooling.

Abstract: This paper aims to assess the factors favoring the adoption of the challenges faced and support mechanism, which will lead to the proliferation of glass fiber-reinforced gypsum (GFRG) technology in India.,Semi-structured interviews with 35 experts, including construction developers, architects, contractors, government officials and design consultants, were conducted. This qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis and matrix analysis.,GFRG-based buildings produce much less carbon footprints as compared to traditional ones and can be safely recommended as a promising, environmentally sensitive technology of the future. The major drivers in its adoption are its efficient construction capability, energy and soil conservation and significant waste reduction. Some of the challenges in implementation are long planning time, lack of skilled labor, lack of awareness about green building technologies and myopic perception of high cost incurred in green building adoption in people’s minds.,This study establishes that the construction industry has the potential to contribute toward creating a sustainable and green planet. It does so by evaluating and then positively positioning GFRG as an environmentally friendly building system.,The harmful effects of continuous environmental manipulation by humans leading to its degradation is a critical discussion agenda for most nations of the world. The issue has been taken up seriously by developing countries, and now, developing countries are also becoming sensitised to it. Several policies toward the attainment of this goal have been formulated and are being implemented by government and private bodies. Although some authors have studied the issues and challenges related to the adoption of green buildings, their attempts mostly focused on developed countries. Moreover, research that investigated the evaluation of the GFRG building system as a successful green technology of the future is inadequate.

Abstract: Construction and operation of buildings, though an integral part of our society, is a major contributor to the carbon footprint of the world exceeding beyond alarming proportions. Thus, there is a need for alternative construction technologies and materials to minimize the energy consumption and mitigate the consequences of climate change. Glass fiber reinforced gypsum (GFRG) is one such construction material derived from waste products of fertilizer manufacturing industry. This study focusses on the energy consumption of GFRG-based construction for a conditioned space under the influence of the wide-ranging climate of India. Transient thermal analysis over a time period of 24 hours is carried out to evaluate the heating and/or cooling loads for the representative summer, winter, and autumn days for five different climatic zones of India. The results are compared with a reference conventional brick wall having cement plaster coating on both sides. The analysis indicates that GFRG envelope results in a 47% – 84% reduction in cooling/heating loads. Further, the results are used to calculate the life cycle energy (LCE) for both the cases. A reduction in LCE by 59%– 69% is found to be achievable with GFRG panels over the conventional brick masonry–based construction.

Abstract: This study evaluates and compares the performance of the commonly constructed mass housing envelops in India with alternative building envelop constructions. These alternative construction scenarios are created with a material library comprising of the available alternative roofing and walling system combinations including some common emerging construction technologies standardized and advocated by the Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council of India. The common trend of housing envelop constructions in the country involves ordinary burnt brick walls and reinforced cement concrete roofing and beam-column system which is referred to as the base case building envelop in our study. We consider initial investment costs, thermal comfort perception and the initial embodied energy in a multi-objective evaluation framework for assessing free running building envelops. Rat trap bonded brick walls, glass fibre reinforced gypsum construction, light gauge framed steel (LGFS) constructions, monolithic concrete (MC) construction system, reinforced concrete ribbed roof and compressed stabilized earth block (CSEB) walls and CSEB filler roof slabs make repeated appearances in the multi-objective optimal solution sets or Pareto optimal solution sets. CSEB construction has lowest initial embodied energy, LGFS gives minimal thermal discomfort whereas MC construction system reports least construction cost. A predominance of lean envelop constructions is observed in the Pareto optimal solution sets considering minimization of construction cost, thermal discomfort and construction embodied energy.

Abstract: Considerable amount of energy is spent in the manufacturing processes and transportation of various building materials. Conservation of energy becomes important in the context of limiting of green house gases emission into the atmosphere and reducing costs of materials. The paper is focused around some issues pertaining to embodied energy in buildings particularly in the Indian context. Energy consumption in the production of basic building materials (such as cement, steel, etc.) and different types of materials used for construction has been discussed. Energy spent in transportation of various building materials is presented. A comparison of energy in different types of masonry has been made. Energy in different types of alternative roofing systems has been discussed and compared with the energy of conventional reinforced concrete (RC) slab roof. Total embodied energy of a multi-storeyed building, a load bearing brickwork building and a soil–cement block building using alternative building materials has been compared. It has been shown that total embodied energy of load bearing masonry buildings can be reduced by 50% when energy efficient/alternative building materials are used.

Abstract: In this paper an attempt has been made to develop a simple methodology to calculate embodied energy of the adobe house at Solar Energy Park, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi (28°35′N, 77°12′E) and its effect on the environment. The special feature of the adobe house is that, the whole house is constructed by using low energy intensive materials like soil, sand cow dung, etc. The embodied energy involved in construction of main structure, foundation, flooring, finishes, furniture, maintenance and electric work are 102 GJ, 214 GJ, 55 GJ, 5 GJ, 18 GJ, 59 GJ and 4 GJ, respectively. It is seen that the embodied energy involved in the maintenance of the adobe house (12% of total embodied energy) is significant. It has been found that approximately 370 GJ energy can be saved per year. The energy pay back time (EPBT) for the adobe house is 1.54 years. By using low energy intensive materials the mitigation of CO2 in the environment is reduced by an amount 101 tonnes/year. The adobe house is more environmentally friendly house in comparison to conventional buildings.

Abstract: The life cycle energy of a building consists of construction energy, operational energy and demolition energy. Construction refers to initial construction as well as recurring maintenance and repair work. Initial construction represents manufacturing of construction materials, transportation and site related on-site construction processes. Only a few studies focused on life cycle energy use of Indian residential buildings. However, the energy use due to on-site construction processes is either ignored or not modelled with adequate level of detail at present. This paper presents a case study on life cycle energy analysis of a residential development consisting of 96 identical apartment-type homes located in Southern India. Energy use due to transportation of materials and construction equipment use at site are quantified. Sensitivity analysis is carried out to study the influence of building service life and monthly electricity use per home on the relative significance of construction energy and operational energy. The construction energy is found to be a significant component of life cycle energy of residential buildings with partial or no air-conditioning. Further, reduced building service life period and increased energy efficiency achieved in the operational phase makes the construction energy as important as the operational energy with respect to life cycle.