Journals
Conferences
Posters
Bridging technology and society around the challenge of renovating cultural heritage buildings for actual use and sustainable energy consumption.
Journals
Rubio-Aguinaga A, Fernández JM, Navarro-Blasco I, Alvarez JI. (2024). Air lime renders with microencapsulated phase change materials: assessment of microstructural and thermal properties. Construction and Building Materials, 452: 138862, 1-19. DADUN
Microencapsulated phase change materials (PCMs) have been successfully integrated into air lime-based rendering mortars to enhance thermal properties, aiming to boost the thermal efficiency of the buildings in which are applied. Two microencapsulated PCMs, with melting points at 18℃ and 24℃, were seamlessly introduced into fresh rendering mortars in varying proportions (5 %, 10 %, and 20 % by weight of lime), in formulations that include different chemical additives, such as a superplasticizer (polycarboxylate ether) and an adhesion enhancer (starch-based additive). In some mixes, metakaolin (MK) was also added as a mineral admixture. Starch addition was seen to promote the formation of aragonite and vaterite (calcium carbonate polymorphs), facilitating the smooth integration of microcapsules within the lime matrix. Hotbox simulations with tested materials containing as low as 0.01–0.04 g of PCM per gram of dry mortar, yielded outstanding energy efficiency values (822.4 and 732.8 kJ/m2, respectively, for PCMs with melting points at 18℃ and 24℃). Temperature attenuations of up to 6.1°C during the heating stage and up to 3.9°C during the cooling stages were observed. This outcome not only emphasizes the potential for enhancing thermal efficiency through PCM incorporation into air lime renders but also hints at a remarkable future for energy-efficient construction materials.
Ria L. Mitchell, Andy Holwell, Giacomo Torelli, John Provis, Kajanan Selvaranjan, Dan Geddes, Antonia Yorkshire, Sarah Kearney. (2024). Cements and concretes materials characterisation using machine-learning-based reconstruction and 3D quantitative mineralogy via X-ray microscopy. Journal of Microscopy.
3D imaging via X-ray microscopy (XRM), a form of tomography, is revolutionising materials characterisation. Nondestructive imaging to classify grains, particles, interfaces and pores at various scales is imperative for our understanding of the composition, structure, and failure of building materials. Various workflows now exist to maximise data collection and to push the boundaries of what has been achieved before, either from singular instruments, software or combinations through multimodal correlative microscopy. [...] Here, we apply three AI and machine-learning-based reconstruction approaches to cements and concretes to assist with image improvement, faster throughput of samples, upscaling of data, and quantitative phase identification in 3D. We show that by applying advanced machine learning reconstruction approaches, it is possible to (i) vastly improve the scan quality and increase throughput of ‘thick’ cores of cements/concretes through enhanced contrast and denoising using DeepRecon Pro, (ii) upscale data to larger fields of view using DeepScout and (iii) use quantitative automated mineralogy to spatially characterise and quantify the mineralogical/phase components in 3D using Mineralogic 3D. These approaches significantly improve the quality of collected XRM data, resolve features not previously accessible, and streamline scanning and reconstruction processes for greater throughput.
Rubio-Aguinaga, A.; Fernández, J.M.; Navarro-Blasco, Í.; Álvarez, J.I. Study on the Interaction of Polymeric Chemical Additives with Phase Change Materials in Air Lime Renders. Polymers 2024, 16, 1121.
The interaction of microencapsulated phase change materials (PCMs) with polymeric chemical additives in an air lime binding matrix was studied. These polymer-based additives included an adhesion booster (derived from starch) and a superplasticizer (polycarboxylate ether). Two different PCMs with melting points of 18 °C and 24 °C were assayed. The microcapsules were composed of melamine, with paraffin-based PCM cores. Measurements of zeta potential, particle size distribution, adsorption isotherms, and viscosity analyses were performed to comprehend the behavior of the polymer-based additives within the air lime matrix and their compatibility with PCMs. Zeta potential experiments pointed to the absence of a strong interaction between the lime particles and the microcapsules of PCMs. [...]
Conferences
E. Tziviloglou, C. Stentoumis, J. I. Alvarez, E. Stathopoulos, S.Diplaris, A. Sfetsos, D. Vlachogiannis and I. Karatasios. (2024). Resilient and adaptive renovation of 20th century buildings towards net-zero carbon built heritage – The approach of SINCERE research project. MONUBASIN 2024 .
SINCERE is European collaborative research project, which highlights the significance of Built Cultural Heritage and develops a variety of tools to minimize its carbon footprint and enhances the energy efficiency in historical buildings, through the use of innovative, sustainable, and cost-effective restoration materials, energy harvesting technologies, ICT tools, and socially innovative approaches (Fig.1). The project employs a multi-scale approach, addressing material, building, neighborhood, and city levels, focusing on the structure, external envelope, and transparent elements of buildings. SINCERE offers a range of sustainable restoration options evaluated through Digital Twin (DT) tools tailored to the needs of historical buildings. This enables the selection of optimal solutions for structural and thermal retrofitting, and the planning of necessary adaptation measures for addressing the climate change challenges and enhancing energy efficiency.
Christos Stentoumis, Minas Katsiokalis, Panagiotis Bikiris, Nikos Karantakis. (2024). Engineering a BIM-based mixed reality application for the life-cycle management of buildings. XR SALENTO 2024.
Building stock is a significant capital for every society and signifies its prosperity, while, on the other hand, it has a significant life␂cycle cost for its design, construction, operation, and demolition or reno␂vation phases. Simultaneously, buildings have a huge environmental im␂pact because of the energy and natural resource consumption involved in construction and operation. Hence, efficient life-cycle building manage␂ment is important to reduce resource usage and improve human comfort. Building information modelling (BIM) has gradually gained attention in recent decades and is widely considered a key to digitising and optimis␂ing the building life cycle. Yet, there are important challenges in the standardisation of methodologies, interoperability of solutions and data exchange, as well as the usability of BIM-related solutions. Moreover, modern or renovated buildings produce extensive real-time data on top of the static data organised in BIM. It is commonly accepted that most professionals in the field do not have access to the critical static or dy␂namic data that accompany a building project. In this research and in␂novation work, we propose an approach for openness and interoperability of building data across the different phases of a building’s life cycle via a BIM-based mixed reality platform.
A. Rubio-Aguinaga, J.M. Fernández, I. Navarro-Blasco and J.I. Alvarez. (2024). Green Way of Improving the Thermal Efficiency of Mortars by the Addition of Biobased Phase Change Materials. In Proceedings of P.B. Lourenço, M. Azenha and J.M. Pereira (Eds.) "SUBLime Conference 2024 - Towards the Next Generation of Sustainable Masonry Systems: Mortars, Renders, Plasters and Other Challenges”. MATEC Web Conf. 403 03007 (2024). Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, November, 2024.
The thermal efficiency of air lime-based mortars was improved by directly integrating varying amounts (5 wt. %, 10 wt. %, and 20 wt. %) of a microencapsulated biobased phase change material (PCM) into the fresh mortars. This PCM is made of vegetable oils and other organic wastes from the agri-food sector. The mortar formulation was optimized by adding different chemical additives and mineral admixtures. The mortar formulation was meticulously designed to produce rendering mortars that are easily workable, crack-free, and fully adherent for use in building envelopes. Positive outcomes in thermal efficiency tests have demonstrated the ability of these materials to store thermal latent energy, offering an environmentally friendly alternative to enhance the thermal comfort of building inhabitants.
Posters
E. Çam, L. Kyriakou, J.M. Fernández, I. Navarro-Blasco and J.I. Alvarez. (2024). Optimization of Air Lime Concrete and Air Lime-based Ternary Mixtures with Sustainable Additives for Enhanced Performance in Heritage Buildings. 3rd International Conference on Green Construction (ICGC2024) Córdoba, Spain, 21-24/10/2024. Poster Presentation.