Disaster resilience has recently caught the attention of the United States Congress. Representatives Davis (R-KY) and Diaz-Balart (R-FL) introduced a bill proposing tax credits for resilient construction. The bill refers to the FORTIFIED program by the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety.
In other action, the National Institute of Building Science recently provided testimony to the Congressional Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Subcommittee on Economic Development. ...
Sustainability Guidelines
Thermal Bridging Solutions in MSC
Carbon Working Group White Paper
Top 10 FAQs Answered
Sustainability Guidelines for the Structural Engineer
Learn strategies for integrating sustainability into structural design. More
Thermal Bridging Solutions in MSC
April 2012 Issue of MSC: "Thermal Bridging Solutions: Minimizing Structural Steel's Impact on Building Envelope Energy Transfer." More
Carbon Working Group White Paper
Structures and Carbon: How Materials Affect the Climate. More info.
Top 10 Structural Sustainability FAQs
The LCA working group provides answers to 10 FAQs asked by conscientious structural engineers, more
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Like a Radiator: Thermal Bridging
Categories :
Some architectural gems have recently taken a lot of heat for loosing a lot of heat. Thermal bridging is a pervasive problem for all structures with monolithic slab cantilevering balconies. The authors of this article hosted at buildingscience.com have turned their infra-red camera's on Chicago's iconic Aqua tower. Beyond simply highlighting shortcomings, some more efficient alternatives are proposed.
http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi062-thermal-bridges-redux/view
Link...
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Sustainable Infrastructure Update
Categories :
The recently revived Infrastructure Working Group (IWG) strives to engage the structural engineering community outside of building designers in an effort to disseminate the fundamental concepts of sustainability that are applicable to all types of structures.
While the LEED rating system has pushed building designers to develop and apply their fundamental principles of sustainability, the lack of such a driver within the bridge, tunnel, dam, levee, and other industries has left a gap in the sustainability...
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
10 Steps to Greener Concrete
Categories :
Carbon . CCMs . Features . Guidelines . SCMs
According to the World Business Council for Sustainable
Development (WBCSD), “concrete is the most widely used material on earth, apart
from water, with nearly three tons used annually for each man, woman, and
child.” Most structural engineers are familiar with efficient design practices
for working with concrete, but there are sustainable considerations that should
also be taken into account....
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Life Cycle Assessment
Categories :
The Life CycleAssessment (LCA) Group is working toward educating structural engineers on the
meaning and professional application of LCA criteria, procedures, and
measurements in order to make environmentally conscience decisions on the use
of structural materials.
Life cycle assessment
(LCA) is a method of measuring the total environmental impact of a product or
process, from acquisition of raw materials to end-of-life. For structural materials, the life cycle
generally includes extraction,...
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Thermal Breaks for Brick Shelf Angles
Categories :
The Brick Industry Association (BIA) has an article in their most recent issue of Brick in Architecture magazine which includes information and detailing of thermal breaks for brick shelf angles in veneer construction over cold-formed steel.
The link to the magazine: http://www.gobrick.com/Portals/25/docs/Publications/Brick%20In%20Architecture/BinA%2069-1%20Final%20PDF.pdf
The article begins on page 9; the section entitled “Thermal Design” begins near the...
Friday, August 3, 2012
Carbon White Paper Coming Soon
Categories :
The committee’s Carbon Working Group white paper, "Structure and Carbon: How Materials Affect the Climate" will explore how carbon dioxide and other emissions contribute to climate change, how the manufacturing of the structural materials in buildings creates such emissions, and the ways that structural engineers can make changes in their current practice to reduce greenhouse gases. In a nutshell, we aim to quantify the carbon footprint of structure, and provide tools for designers to...
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Gray to Green: How to Make Cleaner Concrete
Sustainable concrete has captured the imagination of always provocative Popular Mechanics. A recent web article explores radical new ways to green concrete. Most structural engineers are well versed in supplemental cementitous materials like fly ash and blast furnace slag, but have you considered rice husks, sewage sludge, and geopolymers? The article also suggests using prcelain from recycled toilets for aggregate and hempcrete blocks as an alternate to CMU. Finally, a PM article wouldn't be complete...
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