Name: green features in a concrete building
Uploaded: 2024-11-07T14:48:55.000Z
Duration: 1 min 26 s
Channel: JoVE

K12 Standards

north-carolina-k-12-science-standard-course-of-study

North Carolina K-12 Science Standard Course of Study

9-12

Earth and Environmental Science

Earth and Human Activity

ESS.EES.5.3

design-example-sustainability-in-concrete-building

Design Example: Sustainability in Concrete Building

A construction firm specializing in concrete buildings constructed a sustainable commercial building.&#160;
The various sustainable practices incorporated in the concrete building include providing a concrete parking area under the building to create more open areas around it.
Some portions of the open areas use permeable concrete paver blocks that allow rainwater to flow through them.
Rainwater is collected and stored in an underground concrete cistern, from where it can be reused, facilitating water-efficient construction.
Using ready-mixed concrete with regional materials and some portions of slag cement, fly ash, and recycled aggregates enables material cost savings.
Incorporating reinforcements made from recycled steel adds to the material recovery.
Floors and ceilings are made of exposed concrete to minimize the use of coatings.
Using concrete roofing material with a high solar reflectance index and insulated concrete systems reduce the demand for air conditioning systems.
Lastly, a small depth from the building&#39;s facade to its core and large column-free spaces maximize the entry of natural daylight, increasing the energy efficiency of the building

design example: sustainability in concrete building

As the construction industry moves towards more eco-friendly practices, concrete&#39;s adaptability and its ability to incorporate sustainable features make it a key material in the drive towards greener building solutions.
There are multiple approaches to achieve sustainability in a commercial concrete building. For instance, construct a concrete parking area under the building, utilizing pervious concrete paver blocks in open areas to facilitate rainwater collection through an underground cistern. This water is then reused for gardening, enhancing water efficiency. Additionally, using ready-mixed concrete made from regional materials, slag cement, fly ash, or recycled aggregates reduces material costs, and reinforcements from recycled steel all promote material recovery.
For the building itself, using exposed concrete for walls, floors, and ceilings minimizes the need for paints and coatings, thereby reducing VOC emissions and enhancing indoor air quality. Moreover, concrete&#39;s thermal mass properties can be harnessed to regulate indoor temperatures. Concrete roofing materials with high solar reflectance or insulated concrete systems are recommended to lower air conditioning demands by mitigating heat absorption. Also, designs incorporating large column-free spaces and shallow floor depths to maximize natural daylight are possible in concrete buildings.

A construction firm specializing in concrete buildings constructed a sustainable commercial building.&#160;
The various sustainable practices incorporated ...

Education

JoVE Core

Civil Engineering

Unit 1

Design Examples

KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

green features in a concrete building

A sustainable concrete building can use several green design features to save energy, water, and materials. Concrete is a flexible material for these choices, so it supports eco-friendly construction in commercial buildings.

One strategy is to place a concrete parking area under the building. Open areas can use pervious concrete paver blocks, which let rainwater pass through and collect in an underground cistern. That stored water can then be reused for gardening, which improves water efficiency.

Material choices also matter. Ready-mixed concrete made from regional materials can lower transport needs. Slag cement, fly ash, and recycled aggregates can reduce material costs, and recycled steel can be used for reinforcement so more materials are recovered.

The building itself can also improve indoor conditions. Exposed concrete for walls, floors, and ceilings reduces the need for paints and coatings, which helps lower VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, in indoor air. Concrete’s thermal mass can help regulate indoor temperature, and roofing with high solar reflectance or insulated concrete systems can reduce air conditioning demand by limiting heat absorption. Designs with large column-free spaces and shallow floor depths can also bring in more natural daylight.

Green Features in a Concrete Building

design example: dimensioning of concrete masonry construction

design-example-dimensioning-of-concrete-masonry-construction

Sizing a Storeroom with Masonry Blocks

Sizing a storeroom with concrete masonry blocks starts with matching the wall plan to the actual block size and mortar joints. The site has concrete masonry units with a nominal size of 8 by 8 by 16 inches. The storeroom is planned with external dimensions of 12 feet long and 8 feet wide. The wall layout uses nine blocks along the length and six blocks along the width. Each block is actually 7 and 5/8 inches high and wide, and 15 and 5/8 inches long. A 3/8 inch mortar joint is included, so the...

design example: joints in concrete pavements

design-example-joints-in-concrete-pavements

Concrete Pavement Joint Types and Functions

Concrete pavement joints guide where slabs crack and help protect the pavement over time. They support the structural integrity and long life of the concrete by controlling movement and cracking. Contraction joints, also called control joints, are made by sawing a groove into the concrete soon after it hardens. This groove creates a weakened vertical plane. It encourages cracking at a planned location instead of letting cracks form randomly across the slab. Isolation joints are used where the...

design example: aggregate gradation

Choosing Well-Graded Sand for Concrete

Well-graded sand is important in concrete because aggregate choice affects strength, mix proportions, and cost. In concrete, sand is the common fine aggregate. When more than one sand source is available, its gradation often guides the selection. Gradation means the particle-size distribution of the sand. Engineers measure it with sieve analysis, which uses standard sieve sizes from 150 μm to 10 mm, from ASTM No. 100 to the 3/8 in. sieve. This test shows how much sand stays on each sieve and...

design example: managing concrete workability

design-example-managing-concrete-workability

Concrete Slump Test in Hot Weather

Concrete slump testing helps track workability during a raft foundation pour in hot weather. Workability means fresh concrete is easy to place, compact, and finish. In this example, the concrete had to be prepared for a large foundation, so keeping it workable was important for quality and durability. The first slump test showed low workability. The mix was losing water quickly, and the high temperature made the coarse aggregates hotter as well. To reduce that effect, the site engineer cooled...

design example: distributing reinforcements in concrete sections

design-example-distributing-reinforcements-in-concrete-sections

Sizing Steel Bars for a Concrete Beam

Sizing steel bars for a concrete beam helps meet a required reinforcement area. In reinforced concrete design, the steel must be arranged so the beam stays strong and uses material efficiently. This example uses a beam that needs a total steel cross-section of 4 square inches. The available bars in the example have a nominal diameter of 1.693 inches. Each bar provides a cross-sectional area of 2.25 square inches. When the engineer divides the required area by the area of one bar, the result is...

A sustainable concrete building can use several green design features to save energy, water, and materials. Concrete is a flexible material for these choices, so it supports eco-friendly construction in commercial buildings. One strategy is to place a concrete parking area under the building. Open areas can use pervious concrete paver blocks, which let rainwater pass through and collect in an underground cistern. That stored water can then be reused for gardening, which improves water...

key terms and concepts

Explore how concrete buildings can use rainwater collection, recycled materials, thermal mass, and daylight to support sustainable design.

Green Features in a Concrete Building | JoVE K12

JoVE Core Civil Engineering offers a foundational exploration of essential construction materials such as bricks, stones, steel, wood, and concrete, along with fluid mechanics topics like flow over immersed bodies, open channel flow, and dimensional modeling. It also covers key surveying concepts, including leveling, traverse adjustments, curve design, topographic mapping, and geospatial technologies (GPS & GIS). Science-in-action videos showcase laboratory research on materials, fluids, and surveying practices in real-world engineering systems.

civil engineering

ESS.EES.5.5

Louisiana Student Standards for Science

High School

Chemistry

Matter And Its Interactions

HS-PS1-6

Threats to Biodiversity

There have been five major extinction events throughout geological history, resulting in the elimination of biodiversity, followed by a rebound of species ...

The Carbon Cycle

Carbon is the basis of all organic matter on Earth, and is recycled through the ecosystem in two primary processes: one in which carbon is exchanged among ...

Energy Dynamics

The Food Chain
Energy is one of the most important abiotic factors in an ecosystem and organisms in an ecosystem are connected by the flow of energy and ...

What is Climate?

Climate refers to the prevailing weather conditions in a specific area over an extended period. As the saying goes, &#8220;Climate is what you expect. ...

Sustainable Development

As the human population continues to grow and use resources, we must be mindful of our planet&rsquo;s natural limits. Sustainable development provides a ...

Global Climate Change

Throughout its ~4.5 billion year history, the Earth has experienced periods of warming and cooling. However, the current drastic increase in global ...

Extinction

The History of Life on Earth
Fossils of organisms that were different from anything alive today had been documented as early as the 17th century, but it ...

Ecological Disturbance

An ecological disturbance is a temporary disruption in the environment resulting from abiotic, biotic, or anthropogenic factors, causing a pronounced ...

Climate Change

The certainty of climate change remains a public controversy despite the consensus among approximately 97% of active climate researchers, who not only ...

Habitat Fragmentation

Habitat fragmentation describes the division of a more extensive, continuous habitat into smaller, discontinuous areas. Human activities such as land ...

Analyze and interpret data to explain the impacts of land use on Earth's systems.

ESS.EES.5.1

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Water Quality Analysis via Indicator Organisms

Source: Laboratories of Dr. Ian Pepper and Dr. Charles Gerba -The University of Arizona
Demonstrating Author: Luisa Ikner
Water quality analysis monitors ...

Nutrients in Aquatic Ecosystems

Source: Laboratories of Margaret Workman and Kimberly Frye - Depaul University
Nitrogen and phosphorus are essential plant nutrients found in aquatic ...

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Turbidity and Total Solids in Surface Water

Source: Laboratories of Margaret Workman and Kimberly Frye - Depaul University
Turbidity and total solids are related measurements addressing clarity of ...

environmental-applications-of-microorganisms

Environmental Applications of Microorganisms

Microorganisms play a pivotal role in maintaining ecosystem balance by recycling essential elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, as well as ...

Dissolved Oxygen in Surface Water

Source: Laboratories of Margaret Workman and Kimberly Frye - Depaul University
Dissolved oxygen (DO) measurements calculate the amount of gaseous oxygen ...

The Water Cycle

The Earth&rsquo;s hydrosphere includes all of the areas where the storage and movement of water occurs. Since water is the basis of all living processes, ...

Biodiversity and Human Values

Human civilization relies on biodiversity in many ways. Sudden changes in species biodiversity result in environmental changes that can modify weather ...

Analyze and interpret data to evaluate how human use of ground and surface waters impacts water quality and availability in river basins, wetlands, estuaries, and aquifers.

ESS.EES.5.2

Measuring Tropospheric Ozone

Source: Laboratories of Margaret Workman and Kimberly Frye - Depaul University
Ozone is a form of elemental oxygen (O3), a molecule of three oxygen atoms ...

determination-of-nox-in-automobile-exhaust-using-uv-vis-spectroscopy

Determination Of NOx in Automobile Exhaust Using UV-VIS Spectroscopy

Source: Laboratories of Margaret Workman and Kimberly Frye - Depaul University
In the troposphere, ozone is naturally formed when sunlight splits nitrogen ...

What is Weather?

Overview

Weather refers to the current state of atmospheric conditions at a specific time and place. Weather is temporary and is influenced by the ...

The Sulfur Cycle

Sulfur, an important element in the chemical makeup of proteins, is recycled through the atmosphere and aquatic and terrestrial environments. Found in the ...

The Efficient Level of Pollution

Producing goods often results in pollution as a byproduct, but eliminating all pollution isn&#39;t practical. Doing so would mean halting the production ...

Construct an argument to evaluate the ways that human activities influence atmospheric composition.

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Source: Laboratories of Margaret Workman and Kimberly Frye - Depaul University
The United States consumes a large amount of energy &#8211; the current ...

Dye-sensitized Solar Cells

Source: Tamara M. Powers, Department of Chemistry, Texas A&#38;M University
Today&#39;s modern world requires the use of a large amount of energy. While ...

Energy

The universe is composed of matter in different forms, and all forms of matter contain energy.&#160; The different forms of energy on Earth originate from ...

Construct an argument to evaluate the benefits and trade-offs of using non-renewable or renewable energy sources for electricity production and transportation fuels.

ESS.EES.5.4

Proper Waste Disposal

Robert M. Rioux and Taslima A. Zaman, Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, PA

Users are responsible for the proper disposal of the waste ...

Green Marketing

Green marketing is about promoting products or services by highlighting their environmental advantages.
These products or services are produced and ...

The Efficient Amount of Recycling I

In an imaginary town, Greendale, residents carelessly dispose of recyclable plastics due to minimal additional trash pickup fees, leading to recyclable ...

The Efficient Amount of Recycling II

In the town of Greendale, tackling the recyclable plastic waste issue with price or quantity mechanisms, such as a disposal fee, quota, or disposable ...

Bioremediation

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Construct an argument to evaluate potential solutions that will ensure sustainable consumption of Earth's resources.

Community Diversity

Populations do not live in isolation; thus, every population interacts with others in certain ways. These interactions give rise to a network of ...

What is Conservation Biology?

Conservation biology is a scientific field that focuses on the preservation of biodiversity in order to protect ecosystems while meeting the needs of the ...

Construct an argument to evaluate a range of solutions to mitigate impacts of human activities on Earth's systems.

ESS.EES.5.6

Dimensions of Health and Illness

The factors influencing the health-illness continuum can be internal or external and may or may not be under conscious control. They are related to the ...

The Soil Ecosystem

Plants obtain inorganic minerals and water from the soil, which acts as a natural medium for land plants. The composition and quality of soil depend not ...

Analyze and interpret data to infer how use of natural resources impacts ecosystems and human populations, including human health.

ESS.EES.6.1

simulating-impacts-of-ice-storms-on-forest-ecosystems

Simulating Impacts of Ice Storms on Forest Ecosystems

Ice storms can have profound and lasting effects on the structure and function of forest ecosystems in regions that experience freezing conditions. ...

Construct an argument to infer how some natural hazards (such as flooding and wildfires) are increasing in frequency and intensity due to human activities.

ESS.EES.6.2

Construct an argument to explain how natural hazards and other environmental problems may impact some human populations more than others.

ESS.EES.6.3

Evaluate how human consumption patterns impact Earth's systems.

Green Features in a Concrete Building

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