DURABILITY OF NATURAL POZZOLAN-BASED MORTAR EXPOSED TO SULFATE ATTACK

Cement is a strategic commodity in the civil engineering for the construction of reinforced concrete structures. But its production generates around 5% of toxic gases such as CO2 responsible for environmental degradation. Furthermore, cement industry is a consumer sector of non-renewable energy. The use in the cement of natural additions is a solution to reduce the CO2 gas and the cost of production. The purpose of this work is the study of a sustainable building material: natural pozzolan Beni-saf (PNB) incorporated to mortars exposed to sulfate attack (5% Na2SO4). The loss of mass, monitoring the pH reading of each attack solution as well as specimens dimensions are different tests to study the durability of mortars made with 10, 20 and 30% of natural pozzolan. The result derived from this research is that pozzolan improves mortars resistance to sodium sulfate environment.</p

Impact of COVID-19 Crisis on Energy Consumption and Socio-spatial Behavior of the Residential Sector in Extreme Climates. Case Study Southwest of Algeria

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected the health sector, but has affected all aspects of people's lives, all economic, social and environmental sectors, including global energy. This article aims to study the impact of COVID 19 on the energy consumption of electricity, gas and water in the residential sector, where confinement has presented one of the associated measures taken by many countries to slow down. The objective of this article is to examine both the immediate and long-term impact of Covid-19 on energy consumption and on the socio-spatial behavior of occupants. The results show that there were variations in the domestic spatial spaces and a change in the social practices of each family. There is a sharp drop in the electricity consumption of single-family homes during the pandemic year. Other households have experienced an increase in electricity consumption during the summer months, mainly due to the periods of confinement such as travel restrictions imposed on the one hand and the harshness of the climate on the other. This study is essential for policymakers to detect changing patterns of electricity consumption in the context of emergencies such as the pandemic