Sustainable Construction Materials, Systems, and Methods Research Thrust
There is great interest throughout the construction industry in using more sustainable materials. Given the environmental damage that is caused by excessive generation of CO2, due to burning natural gas, fuel oil, or coal in generating Portland cement and brick/masonry, the industry is moving toward developing less carbon-intensive materials for construction. Furthermore, considering that landfills are filled with great volumes of waste materials from demolished buildings and other infrastructure systems, and that some of these materials, such as plastics, cause environmental issues such as pollution and health risks, researchers are trying to find ways to use such waste materials, including industrial mineral wastes, in developing new building materials.
One of the active research areas for PHRC has been contributions toward such new materials and facilitating the use of these materials in building components through laboratory investigation of mechanical and structural characterization to establish acceptable performance levels for residential building construction. Recent studies include work on the development and/or incorporation of concrete made using industrial mineral waste (e.g., fly ash); concrete incorporating recycled plastic; hempcrete; and mass timber (e.g., cross laminated timber, log). Of great interest in this research thrust is the use of crop-based materials and systems for home building.
The PHRC has also been interested in contributing to newer and more advanced and sustainable construction methods—in particular, additive manufacturing, e.g., 3D printing of concrete and clay systems. Research efforts have focused on contributing to this method of construction because it has the potential to minimize waste during construction, can result in faster construction due to automation, and can also allow design flexibility. Besides the potential application of 3D printing, given that there is a growing interest in employing robots for home building in areas such as brick laying, tile laying, drywall installation, site layout and measurement, and site inspection using drones, PHRC is expanding the sustainable construction research thrust to embrace new R&D to contribute to these emerging areas.
