City University of Hong Kong Division of Building Science and Technology

BST21317 Construction technology 3 Group Assignment

Report submission date : 12-04-2010

Group members

Task 1 2 3 3 4

Name Liu Pui Ying Wong Suet Yee Mok Wing Hui Wong Wing Yee Leung Wan Ki

Student ID. 5147 7232 5147 8007 51479711 51443820 51480980

Background about the project site

The contract period would be 26 months with tender price of HK280 million for this project. To identify the site environment, the project located at a busy and crowded street in Hong Kong. There are adjoining buildings nearby. There would be constraints in using either the precast concrete or in-situ concrete. The proposed building is 38-storey high in both commercial and residential development. The superstructure is separately commercial and residential uses. There are 5-storey commercial malls and the remaining 33 floors would be for residential use. Now the superstructure which would be seated on 2m thick transfer plate would be 33-storey residential house for the project development. Below the transfer plate would be the 5-storey commercial malls. In this case, consideration for using whether pre-cast or in-situ concrete would be only for residential housing. Task1 1. Pre-cast concrete 1.1 Advantage Due to the promotion of using pre-cast concrete elements, the Building Department allows additional floor area which lead to about 2% increase in GFA extent of the project. This can increase the profit gain for the developer. As long as the pre-cast concrete is made in factory and then transport to the construction site, the quality of pre-cast concrete is ensured to be good. For manufacturing in a factory, the cost for pre-cast concrete is higher when compared with in-situ concrete. However, as the pre-cast concrete manufacturers have to join the market and make a competitive price for it. The developer can enjoy economic advantages from it. In addition to the lower cost, it reduced time for construction by installing it directly where in-situ concrete would be normally wait for formwork cutting and drying. So the construction time for every single floor would be reduced. As mentioned above, pre-cast concrete unit is manufactured in factories, the quality of units can be ensured. So the whole unit can install immediately in any seasons while strength of insitu concrete would be affected in rainy seasons.

Disadvantages Transportation As the pre-cast concrete units are manufactured in factories, they will be transported through long distance. During transportation, the large and heavy prefabricated concrete units might be damaged if accidents happened. Due to different units installed at the same time, there might be problems in water-tightness for joining units together. The joints need to be carefully joined to reduce the problems of leakage as Hong Kong has high rainfall every year. The pre-cast concrete unit would require sufficient working space for installation so that the plants can lift units to a higher level. This may be not adoptable in congested site area which is lack of working space. Precast concrete are mostly done for same designs. Extra time would be required for the factory for manufacturing a specific design. It is because the factory would have to enter new drawing to the machine and also require time for testing of the unit in order to control the pre-cast concrete unit quality. Therefore, the units are not that flexible at all to different building designs.

1.2 In-situ concrete Advantages Flexibility in different designs In-situ concrete can provide flexibility to different design appearance as the designed shape can be adjusted by the formwork shape. Working space In-situ concrete would require less working space when compared to pre-cast concrete. It is flexible to pour into confined area. Construction cost for in-situ concrete is acceptable since it is traditional method and competitive market. The price for it is in steady state. Disadvantages Construction time would be longer in rainy seasons as the strength of concrete would be affected.

Task2 2.1 Introduction

Building defects may occur in the different parts of the building due to the faulty design, poor-quality materials or poor workmanship. The defects may be different types of cracks, dampness, and risk of fire etc. to enhance a better property management, a long-effective maintenance plan is necessary to plan for the development.

2.2 Defects Cracks of Plastic Concrete

The cracks will occur on two types of concrete: plastic concrete and hardened concrete. Plastic concrete causes cracks due to loss of moisture caused by low humidity, wind or high temperature. Moreover, movement can be one of the reasons to cause cracking because any movement in the ground level may seriously affect the foundation of the entire building and it may bring out some cracks to the building such as hair cracks on the wall, or appear on the beams etc. This phenomenon may occur within a few hours after placing the concrete and settlement cracks may turn out too. It will increase the rebars size, or even decrease the cover of the concrete.

Dampness
It is a most common defect may occur in a building because every building is surrounded by moisture, and it cant be escaped. As mention before, moisture will move into the building by rising damp from the ground to the wall, it usually occurs near the wall edge and floor slab especially is the junctions. The other ways to get inside is rain penetration. We cannot control the weather so that if there is a rain, the water and moisture will spill inside the building from the leaking areas and cause dampness on the material. And the third cause is condensation, inadequate heating, insulation and ventilation is the reasons which cause condensation. Condensation may bring out fungi and bacteria and controlling ventilation is one of the ways to solve the defect.

Risks of Fire
It may occur because of the materials are easy to burn, and cause fire to the surface and structure of the building. When the expansion happens in the

material, movement may come and causes the cracks on the structure surface. If the cracking is too seriously, possibility of collapse will cause on surface or structure which means part of the structure will fall down and cause damage to the people. Final, the structure may not be proper cover by the sufficient FRP materials and expose to the outside that may easily get the risk of fire.

2.3 Maintenance Plan

A well-planned maintenance plan is need to be provided to the owner of the building for further reference. This is a programme which include lots of information with the minimize cost and time spend. Survey is the first requirement require within a regular period for reporting the present state of the building condition and deterioration with the grade of urgent to have maintenance for the defects. For the plan, it should be included different schedules for different kinds of building parts. The most important thing is state clear the nature of the work which will start to work. Specification of the work descriptions and the hand sketches or drawings with accurate dimensions measured according to the work is needs to contain inside the plan. As mention before, dimension is important. But the setting out of work content and materials requirement should be mention in the plan, in order to have a more specified description of work content and materials including dimensions, also, it is important to mention in the plan.

2.4 Conclusion
To conclude, although there are different defects causes by natural and man-made this may occur inside a building, those defects may cause seriously damage for the occupiers. To provide a better living environment, a long-term maintenance plan is major to provide with sufficient information likes drawings, cost for the owners to have estimation of the further works.

Task3 3.1 Introduction

Green building is defined as an approach to building design, construction, and management that reduces or eliminates negative environmental impacts while it promotes high building performance and occupant health. By using natural sunlight during busy hours, using recycled construction materials and designing green roofs covered with vegetation are all examples of green building practices. Designers and engineers of green buildings take a whole-building approach that considers how building systems react with one another and with the natural environment. Finally, green buildings consume less energy, save more water, generate less air pollutants, and provide healthier indoor environments. The practices of green building are as following: Integrated, whole building design choices; Environmentally responsible site practices; Energy conservation and use of renewable energy resources; Water conservation and reuse; Materials selected for environmental sustainability and human health; Waste reduction during construction and operations; Measures to ensure good ventilation and indoor air quality.

3.2 Concept of Green Building

The concept of Green Buildings can be envisioned as a new approach to save water, energy and material resources in the construction and maintenance of the buildings and can reduce or eliminate the adverse impact of buildings on the environment and occupant. The concept of Green Buildings put forward initiatives to encourage the design and construction of buildings with the following features: Adopting a holistic life cycle approach to planning, design, construction and maintenance; Maximizing the use of natural renewable resources and recycled or green building materials; Minimizing the consumption of energy, in particular those non-renewable types; Reducing construction and demolition waste. By referring the concept of green building, this concept integrates the building

an environment using green practices employed with a design purpose.

3.2.1 Design of Building

3.2.1.1 Maximizing the use of natural renewable resources:(i) Rainwater Utilization Systems The green building by its design and shape shall not disrupt the natural water flows, it should orient and stand just likes a tree. Rain falling over the whole area of the complex shall be harvested in full either to replenish the ground water table in and around the building or to be utilized in the services of the building. The toilets shall be fitted with low flesh fixtures. The plumbing system should have separate lines for drinking and flushing. Waste water from kitchenette, bath and laundry shall be treated and reused for gardening or in cooling towers of air conditioning. This system could help to minimize the usage of water, and save water as much as possible.

3.2.1.2 Minimizing the consumption of energy:(i) Rooftop planting By developing a podium garden on roof of commercial building and a sky garden on roof of residential building, the extra growing medium and vegetation insulates the building from intense temperatures and minimizes

heat gain. According to a Canadian study, even a six-inch of extensive green roof can reduce summer energy demands by 75 percent. A green roof's plants remove air particulates, produce oxygen and provide shade. They use heat energy during evaporation, a natural process that cools the air as water evaporates from plant leaves. (ii) Photovoltaic system The solar energy at the top of a green building is harvested to supplement the conventional energy. Photovoltaic system is a system using solar cells to convert the light energy into electrical energy. Photovoltaic installations on the building and carport roofs produce solar electricity. Although the energy collected is not enough to support the operations of the office buildings, it can help alleviate the heavy working load on electricity demands.

3.2.2 Construction of Building 3.2.2.1 Maximize use of green building material:According to an American study, building materials are responsible for about 20 percent of the greenhouse gasses emitted by a building during its lifetime. Therefore, green building shall use the products that are non-toxic, reusable, renewable, and recyclable wherever it is possible. Thus, local manufactured products are preferable so that the collective material environment of the locality remains a constant and the fuel for the transport of materials is saved. (i)Green cement Those precast concrete used in this construction could be produced by a green method, which produce both cement and aggregate, another component of concrete. Their method sequesters CO2 from power plant flues and mixes the gas with sea water to produce the mineral raw materials of concrete. For every ton of green cement Calera manufactures half a ton of fly ash from coal plants is used apart from preventing production and emission of CO2.

3.2.2.2 Reducing construction and demolition waste:To reduce the impact on the environment, the waste hierarchy helps to identify different options by ranking them in order of environmental impact. All wastage could be eliminated at the top of the hierarchy where it is possible. This method is shown as follow:

(i) Waste hierarchy

(a) Eliminate Eliminating waste entirely may not always be possible, but by not creating it in the first place reduces costs of raw materials. (b) Reduce Reducing the amount of waste you produce can be achieved in a number of ways, including the amount of packing used, reduce off-cuts and rejects, send information electronically, purchase material in bulk and use returnable containers. (c) Re-use To limit extra spend of buying items in, many wastage could be re-used to reduce waste:Packaging Packaging boxes can be re-used many times; Printer toner cartridges choose a supplier that has a returns policy so that they can be re-filled and used them again; Paper re-use paper from misprints and drafts as scrap paper in the office; Drums many raw materials are delivered in drums that can be washed and returned to the supplier or re-used on site as waste containers; Furniture and textiles waste furniture and textiles may be of use to charities or to waste exchange groups;

(d) Recycle Recycling is an increasing requirement through legislation in order to reduce the impact on the environment. Many items can now be recycled, speak to your local recycling centre or waste management contractor to find out what they are and how they should be segregated. (e) Disposal Disposal is the last resort when the other hierarchy options have been exhausted. There are legal obligations that all producers and handlers of waste need to comply with, so it is important that you contact your waste management contractor to discuss options like recycling to make waste disposal more efficient and save money. Summary To sum up, a green building shall use whole-building design to achieve energy, economic, and environmental performance that is substantially better than standard practice. By considering the building structure and systems holistically, they allow us to know how they best work together to save energy and reduce the environmental impact.

Task3 3.1 Introduction Nowadays, the quality of environment has gotten serious. It will make a bad impact on our society if ignoring this problem. In order to innovating the quality of life, the government has promoted green and sustainable building development
since 2001.

3.2 Concept of Green Buildings The definition of Green Buildings is that using environmentally technology and resource-efficient through a whole building life-cycle which includes design, construction, maintenance and demolition. The objective of green buildings is that reducing the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environmen. Also, the concept of Green Buildings put forward initiatives to encourage the design and construction of buildings with the following features: Adopting a holistic life cycle approach to planning, design, construction and maintenance; Maximizing the use of natural renewable resources and recycled/green building materials; Minimizing the consumption of energy, in particular those non-renewable types; and Reducing construction and demolition waste.
Now, we would like to apply the concept of green building in the design and construction of the proposed building in order to show how such concept could be achieved.

3.3 Design in commercial and residential buildings

In order to eliminating the impact of buildings on the environment, sustainavle design is necessary. Obivously, it takes advantages of using renewable resources. For examples, solar radiation, tides and winds are the most common types of natural resources. Also, minizing the amount of non-renewable source is another possible solution. However, we need to consider the feasibility of those resources for the buildings which are as follows:

3.3.1 Solar Power Supply(see Fig 1)

Photovoltaic system makes use of converter that generating the energy and then transfer into electrical energy. The system is constructed in the form of a panel, which

consists of on the roof of building mono-crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells. It is recommonded to use Photovoltaics becasue this system generate clean electricity. Also, it is common used for large-scale buildings. For maintenance, the requirement is minimal since regular inspection or repair only.

Fig 1 of Photovoltaic system

3.3.2 Water-Cooled Air Conditioning System (see Fig 21) For the commerical malls, Water-cooled Air Conditioning Systems is sutiable to use. As we know that the use of air conditioning in Hong Kong attributes a large proportion of our total electricity consumption. We need to tackle as soon as possible. A survey shows that the system can save more than 30% of energy consumption compared with old sysem. It is not only minizied he danage of environment, but also reducing the electricity bill.

Fig 2 Water-Cooled Air Conditioning System

3.3.3 Landscaping Greening plays an important role in building an environmentally friendly society since plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. For our case, there is a 2m thich transfer plate. We can landscape it as a sky garden for beautifing the surrounding environment. Also, trees and shrubs provide freshness, comfort and elegance for users enjoyment.

Fig.10 Sky Garden

3.4 Construction in commercial and residential buildings

Aside form design stage, we need to concern the selection of construction materials for environmental friendly. Besides, it is possible to reduce the amount of energy consumption and waste so that the air quality may be improved. 3.4.1 Renewable resources There are a number of benefits if using recyclec or reused materials which are a reduction in materials going to landfill, consumption of natural resources and transport and energy costs Therefore, It is the best sloution to be reused mterials time to time rather than discharging. Appling to the case, formwork is the sufficient reusable system that using repeatly. However, conerning the type of formwork materials, it is good suggestion to use metal formwork so that getting less waste than traditional timeber because of extendable duration. 3.4.2 Reduction of energy consumption The energy consumption on on-site activities and on operation of the office building can be reduced through the use of day-lighting, solar heating, breezes for natural cooling. Also, it shoild be switched off all plant or mechine when they do not use. Althought it might not take a significant preformance, we try our best to achieve the concept of green buildings. 3.4.3 Waste reduction For traditional method, lots of waste or dusts are created during the contruction period.

In order to minising constuction waste, it is strongly recommended to use precast concrete or prefabrication for external facades, staircases, etc in the residential building. It takes benefits of reduciotn of construcion time and the amount of dust. 3.5 Summary In order to reducing the impact of environment, it is necessary to provide green features in the new building developments. However, we need to concern the balance between economic and environment.

Task4 Prestressing
prestressing is the process of introducing internal forces or stress into a concrete or masonry element during the construction process in order to counteract the external loads that will be applied when the structure is bearing the loads. These internal forces are applied by tensioning high strength steel, which can be done either before or after the concrete is actually placed.

Pre-tensioning or Post-tensioning
Pre-tensioning The tension is applied to the tendons before casting of the concrete. The pre-compression is transmitted from steel to concrete through bond over the transmission length near the ends.

Fig.1 Stages of pre-tensioning

Post-tensioning The tension is applied to the tendons after hardening of the concrete. The pre-compression is transmitted from steel to concrete by the anchorage device.

Fig. 2 Stages of post-tensioning

Advantages of Using Prestressed Concrete

The prestressing of concrete has several advantages as compared to traditional reinforced concrete (RC) without prestressing. A fully prestressed concrete member is usually subjected to compression during service life. This rectifies several deficiencies of concrete. The benefits are listed. 1. Prestressing minimizes the effect of cracks in concrete elements by holding the concrete in compression. It can reduce the steel corrosion and increase in durability. Moreover, prestressing concrete can be higher stiffness and increase in shear capacity, which lead to improve the serviceability and become less deformation. In addition, it also can improve the structural performance under dynamic and fatigue loading 2. Prestressing allows reduced beam depths to be achieved for equivalent design strengths. Typical values of span-to-depth ratios in slabs are given below. Type of slab Non-prestressed slab Span-to-depth ratios 28:1

Prestressed slab

45:1

For the same span, less depth compared to RC member. It would get the benefit, such as reduction in self weight, more aesthetic appeal due to slender sections and more economical sections. 3. Prestressed concrete is resilient and will recover from the effects of a greater degree of overload more than any other structural material. If the member is subject to overload, cracks which may develop, it will close up on removal of the overload. Prestressing enables both entire structural elements and structures to be formed from a number of precast units, e.g. Segmented and Modular Construction. The advantages of precast construction are including rapid construction, better quality control, reduced maintenance, suitable for repetitive construction, reduction of formwork, and availability of standard shapes. 6. Lighter elements permit the use of longer spanning members with a high strength to weight characteristic. The ability to control deflections in prestressed beams and slabs permits longer spans to be achieved. Reductions in deflections under working loads can then be achieved by suitable eccentric prestressing. 8. Prestressing permits a more efficient usage of steel and enables the economic use of high tensile steels and high strength concrete. Prestressed concrete can provide significant cost advantages over structural steel sections or ordinary reinforced concrete.

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Disadvantages of Using Prestressed Concrete

Although prestressing has advantages, some aspects need to be carefully addressed. 1. Prestressing needs skilled technology. Hence, it is not as common as reinforced concrete. 2. The use of high strength materials is costly. 3. There is additional cost in auxiliary equipments.

4.

There is need for quality control and inspection.

Construction Applications of Prestressing

The construction possibilities of prestressed concrete are as vast as those of ordinary reinforced concrete. In our proposed project which is residential development with commercial malls, the superstructure would be using precast elements. This means that we would apply the pre-tensioning technique for the precast unit. There are some typical applications of pre-tensioning components in building as the following: 1. Structural components for integration with ordinary reinforced concrete construction, e.g. floor slabs, concrete beams,columns. 2. Water tanks and reservoirs where water tightness (i.e. the absence of cracks) is of paramount importance. 3. Construction components e.g. piles, wall panels, frames, window mullions, power poles, fence posts, etc. 4. The construction of relatively slender structural frames. There is some example for pretensioning components which would be suitable for our proposed project. Beams Beams are typically considered structural components and are made in one of three key shapes: Rectangular, Inverted Tee Beams and L Beams. They are horizontal components that support deck members like double tees, hollow-core and solid slabs, and sometimes other beams.

Beams can be reinforced with either prestressing strand or conventional reinforcing bars. This will depend on the spans and loading conditions. Prestressed beams are typically pretensioned and cast in a long-line set up similar to that used for double tees. Beams that are reinforced with conventional reinforcing bars can be cast as individual components. Fig. 3 Balcony beams were cast as one place with the cantilevered balcony slabs Hollow-core slabs Hollow-core slabs which are precast concrete units are used predominantly for floor and roof deck component for various structures. Besides that, these generally are cast using a long line method with prestressing beds, which extrudes the concrete and creates the voids by means of either a rotating auger or by placement of aggregate filter that is later removed.

Fig.4 Samples of Hollow-core slabs

Fig.5 Hollow-core slabs for different shapes to form the voids within the pieces

Mullions Mullions are thin, often-decorative pieces that fill open space in a building faade. They are often isolated elements forming a long vertical line, requiring them to be cast perfectly straight to avoid any visual deformities. To some degree, these variations can be handled by precast concrete connections with adjustability.

They can be made in a long line pretensioning facility and reinforced with prestressing strand or conventional reinforcing bars. Sizes and shapes (square or rectangle) can vary to satisfy both architectural and structural requirements.

Fig.6 Eagle Gate Plaza & Office Towers Solid slabs Solid slabs are used as structural deck components similar to hollow-core slabs. They can be made in a long-line pretensioning facility and reinforced with prestressing strand or cast in individual forms with either prestressing strand or conventional reinforcing bars. They are typically cast in the same position as used in the structure. The top side is troweled to the desired degree of smoothness or may be internally roughened to receive a cast-in-place concrete topping that will act compositely and provide additional strength.

Fig.8 Sample of solid slab

Fig.9 Velocity Multifamily Residential

Condos Shear Walls Shear walls act as vertical cantilever beams, transferring lateral forces acting parallel to the face of the wall from the superstructure to the foundation. Typically, there are two oriented to resist lateral loads along each principal axis of the building. They should be designed as load bearing panels. Shear walls typically are cast flat in an individual form with either prestressing strand or conventional reinforcing bars.

Fig.10 Interior shear wall system

Fig.11 Exterior shear wall system

Reference:
Lecture note Environmental Considerations in Construction by Raymond Li http://www.cityu.edu.hk/CIVCAL/production/advanced/ http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/misc/cdm/management_intro.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_building http://www.gov.hk/en/residents/environment/sustainable/greening.htm http://www.pci.org/resources/home_eng.cfm www.yde.co.il/Post-Tensioned-Building.aspx http://www.learnerstv.com/video/video.php?video=2506&cat=Engineering http://www.mwcog.org/uploads/pub-documents/yVhXWA20071213133242.pdf http://sipilbanyumas.blogspot.com/2010/03/concept-of-green-building.html http://businessmirror.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id =22350:building-green&catid=52:technology http://science.howstuffworks.com/green-rooftop.htm