Materials in Construction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Materials in Construction - Essay ExampleThis has two components viz. direct and indirect. Direct energy is the energy utilize to transport building products to the site, and then to construct the building while indirect energy is the energy used to acquire, process, and manufacture the building materials, including any transportation related to these activities.Different materials have different body forth energy. It is measured as a quantity of non-renewable energy per social unit of building material, component or system. It may be expressed as megaJoules (MJ) or gigaJoules (GJ) per unit of weight (kg or tonne) or area (square metre). Some embodied energy of common materials are presented in the table below.Embodied energy in construction has important connection to environment since CO2 emissions are super correlated with the energy consumption. Literatures show that on average, 0.098 tonnes of CO2 are produced per gigajoule of embodied energy. Therefore, the high the embod ied energy of a specific construction material the higher its environmental effects.The external envelope is the primary and critical component of a building that serves as insulator and a protective physical covering for the occupants. The envelope consists of the roof, walls, windows, and the doors. Design of a buildings external covering is based upon several performance objectives such as structural integrity, moisture control, temperature control, and control of tenor pressure boundaries.Common measures of the effectiveness of a building envelope include physical protection from weather and climate (comfort), indoor appearance quality (hygiene and usual health), durability and energy efficiency. In order to achieve these objectives, all building enclosure systems must include a solid structure, a drainage plane, an air barrier, a thermal barrier, and may include a vapor barrier. Moisture control is essential in cold climates.Since the building enclosure is