The pandemic readiness assessment of building design and engineering service-related legislation in Kazakhstan and the EU

PurposeThe current COVID-19 pandemic is influencing our life in every aspect, including working and living environments. Millions of people were forced to isolate themselves in their homes, which has posed significant pressure on buildings and shown us that our dwellings are not designed for such purposes. This is partly due to the fact that homes are designed and built for occasional use rather than isolated and long-term occupation. The legislative system of a country plays an important role in defining and shaping the conditions of people living there. Hence, the aim of the study is to evaluate the readiness of Kazakhstani and the EU construction-related legislation for pandemics.Design/methodology/approachPreviously developed pandemic-resilient indicators were used for the evaluation of construction legislation. Both legislative systems were reviewed, and the quality of responses was evaluated by assigning response scores.FindingsThe results based on response scores indicate that the environmental resource consumption sub-category was better covered by EU legislation. At the same time, the buildings’ health, safety and comfort are better taken into account in Kazakhstani legislation. Seven pandemic-resilient indicators were not responded to by any legislative system indicating a gap between current legislation and requirements for new living conditions.Originality/valueNo study has analyzed how COVID-19 can transform construction legislation. The study reveals the limitation of current construction legislation in Kazakhstan (KZ) and the EU, indicating the need for transformation to meet the requirements of the pandemic era

Green roof energy performance in different climate zones: a simulation study

Green roofs are widely used as a passive building design technique to decrease the cooling demand in buildings. The vegetation uses the energy of the surroundings during the evapotranspiration process, leading to a temperature decrease in air. This paper investigates the effectiveness of green roofs in 45 cities in different climate zones. The simulation of the energy performance of buildings is performed using DesignBuilder software, which integrates the EnergyPlus engine. The results show that green roofs effectively reduce the cooling load but increase heating energy consumption. The highest performance in total energy savings was in the arid zone with savings ranging from 3.2% to 9.1%, despite having a high heating demand. Tropic and temperate zones show relatively lower results, which vary from 1.4% to 4.1% and -0.2% to 4.2%. The cold zone shows the worst result, ranging by around 1%. Thus, green roofs show better performance in cities with high-temperature ranges, direct radiation, and humidity level

Evaluation of the Environmental Performance of Residential Building Envelope Components

The role of buildings in the context of addressing the consequences of climate change and the energy deficit is becoming increasingly important due to their share in the overall amount of green house gas (GHG) emissions and rapidly growing domestic energy consumption worldwide. Adherence to a sustainability agenda requires ever-increasing attention to all stages of a building0 s life, as such approach allows for the consideration of environmental impacts of a building, from design, through construction stages, until the final phase of a building0 s life—demolition. A life cycle assessment (LCA) is one of the most recognized and adopted models for the evaluation of the environmental performance of materials and processes. This paper aims to perform an LCA of four different types of residential buildings in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. The assessment primarily considered embodied energy and GHG emissions as key assessment indicators. Findings suggest that the operational stage contributed to more than half of the GHG emissions in all the cases. The results of the study indicate that there is a dependence between the comfort levels and the impact of the buildings on the environment. The higher the comfort levels, the higher the impacts in terms of the CO2 equivalent. This conclusion is most likely to be related to the fact that the higher the comfort level, the higher the environmental cost of the materials. A similar correlation can be observed in the case of comparing building comfort levels and life-cycle impacts per user. There are fewer occupants per square meter as the comfort level increases. Furthermore, the obtained results suggest potential ways of reducing the overall environmental impact of the building envelope components

Cost Modelling for Recycling Fiber-Reinforced Composites: State-of-the-Art and Future Research

Fiber-reinforced composites, such as carbon and glass fibers, are widely used across various industries. This is mainly a result of their outperforming properties in contrast with traditional materials. As a response to the environmental legal enforcement of the recycling of composite materials, several recycling methods such as mechanical, thermal, and chemical recycling, have been developed. Despite various merits, these recycling methods still face challenges, such as the heterogeneity of material, the quality of the recycled product, the high cost of recycling, and a lack of an established market. Since, in many cases, the financial aspect tends to be the major barrier to recycling composites, the appropriate cost modelling of the recycling process requires urgent consideration. To the knowledge of the authors, there is no prior research efforts on the reviewing of cost modelling techniques on composites recycling. Cost modelling research projects for different recycling technologies, with their findings and limitations, are sought from the literature and reported in this paper. It is found that recycling techniques still cannot compete with traditional landfilling in terms of cost, and are dependent on fiber recovery rates and plant capacities. Following a comprehensive literature review, research gaps are identified to formulate the research directions in this field

Evaluating the current state of digitalisation of the UK construction industry

Due to the significant role of the construction industry in terms of the impact on economies and the environment, digitalisation of this sphere deserves special attention. This study aims to evaluate the state of digitalisation of the UK construction industry from the perspective of construction professionals. A critical review of existing literature is conducted to identify and evaluate the (1) barriers to adoption and implementation of digital practices, (2) the gap in adoption between small and medium enterprises and large-sized companies, (3) currently available, and (4) future technologies. The findings of the literature review were further investigated by adopting the mixed method approach, combining qualitative and quantitative research methods to develop a comprehensive understanding of the digitalisation phenomena in the context of the UK construction industry. In total, 81 questionnaire responses were returned and 5 interviews were conducted to gauge the opinions of construction professionals. The results reveal how there have been minimal advancements, in line with prior predictions, and how there is still considerable room for improvement to digitalise the industry. The study is an up-to-date snap shot of the current reality in the field of construction digitalisation in the UK and therefore provides the actual picture of the current state of affairs that could be useful for the industry as a whole.</p

A COST MODELLING SYSTEM FOR RECYCLING CARBON FIBER-REINFORCED COMPOSITES

Cost-effective and environmentally responsible ways of carbon fiber-reinforced composite (CFRP) recycling are increasingly important, owing to the rapidly increasing use of these materials in many industries such as the aerospace, automotive and energy sectors. Product designers need to consider the costs associated with manufacturing and the end-of-life stage of such materials to make informed decisions. They also need to understand the current methods of composite recycling and disposal and their impact on the end-of-life costs. A comprehensive literature review indicated that there is no such tool to estimate CFRP recycling costs without any prior knowledge and expertise. Therefore, this research paper proposed a novel knowledge-based system for the cost modelling of recycling CFRP that does not require in-depth knowledge from a user. A prototype of a cost estimation system has been developed based on existing CFRP recycling techniques such as mechanical recycling, pyrolysis, fluidized bed, and supercritical water. The proposed system has the ability to select the appropriate recycling techniques based on a user’s needs with the help of an optimization module based on the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). Estimating recycling costs has taken into consideration various factors such as different material types in different industries, transportation, and dismantling costs. The developed system can be employed to support early-stage designers and decision-making stakeholders in terms of understanding and predicting recycling costs easily and quickly

Environmental assessment of recycling carbon fibre-reinforced composites: current challenges and future opportunities

The increasing application of carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites (CFRP) across different industries raises environmental concerns. It requires focusing on the end-of-life phase of the product/material. The environmental benefits of CFRP recycling over conventional ways of treatment are apparent. However, estimating the environmental impacts is followed up with various challenges. In this study, the aspects of environmental assessment of CFRP recycling and their respective challenges are examined. CFRP recycling methods such as mechanical treatment, pyrolysis, fluidized bed process, and solvolysis have been previously studied in the context of energy and environmental assessment under the Life-Cycle-Assessment (LCA) framework. This study focused on the identification of challenges associated with variability of applied methods used, comparability, scaling results, data, uncertainty, and resource-demanding process of LCA. Recommendations on overcoming the identified challenges are provided and discussed

A FUZZY LOGIC-BASED COST MODELLING SYSTEM FOR RECYCLING CARBON FIBRE REINFORCED COMPOSITES

Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers (CFRPs) are commonly used materials in manufacturing components and products in the automotive, aerospace, and wind energy industries generating thousands of tons of waste, thus creating a threat to the environment if not recycled. Therefore, it is important for both academia and industry to investigate various ways of recycling this material. However, there is an urgent need for a reliable cost predication system to assist in making informed decisions, planning sustainable treatment, and developing pricing strategies for different waste treatment scenarios. This research paper presents the development of a fuzzy logic-based system to perform cost estimation of recycling processes of the CFRP. The developed system has taken into consideration uncertainties such as the characteristics of End of Life (EoL) material including its size and weight, its origin and diversity of existing recycling methods, and quantity of recycling waste. Cost drivers were divided into categories such as dismantling, transportation, operation, and capital cost. The system was developed by creating 243 fuzzy rules and three levels of fuzzy sets. Moreover, an interactive user-friendly interface was developed to enable the user to use the system easily and efficiently. Finally, case study results were examined to compare the whole life recycling cost of four different recycling technologies in various scenarios of waste treatment. The developed fuzzy logic-based system has the capability in evaluating the cost structure of CFRP recycling techniques and take into consideration uncertainty factors. Hence, a major contribution of the developed system is its provision of the heuristic rules that aid the decision-making process for selecting a cost-effective recycling method. The visualisation facility of the developed system is also a useful tool in enabling potential users to forecast the cost of the CFRP recycling techniques upfront