The construction industry is responsible for a large amount of both embodied carbon and emissions. Especially with concrete, there is still a lot of potential for designing recipes in a more ecological way. Approaches to reduce the environmental impact of concrete include the use of industrial and agricultural by-products. This study combines the approaches of replacing cement with granulated blast furnace slag and the use of NaOH-treated rice straw fibers. The research objective comprises the design of an ecologically optimized concrete as well as the question of whether a pretreatment of rice straw fibers with NaOH improves the performance of the designed concrete. The method includes mechanical and physical testing of the of the designed concrete as well as an optical analysis with a scanning electron microscope. The results indicated that treating rice straw with 1% NaOH indicates a better bond between fibers and the surrounding matrix. The tests in which the rice straw was treated with NaOH achieved a higher density, splitting strength, tensile strength and compressive strength. The study contributes an ecologically optimized concrete with granulated blast furnace slag and NaOH-treated rice straw concrete, which shows a great potential as an environmentally friendly, low-cost construction material.

The need for heating and cooling in traditional housing is becoming increasingly disadvantageous regarding high energy costs. But what is more concerning is the impact on our environment. The main goal of this paper is studying the prospects of using renewable energy for heating and cooling houses through an integrated bio-solar system in order to solve the energy scarcity problem. For this purpose, a simulation model for a bio-solar house made from different materials (walls made of bricks with straw bales and a roof made of concrete with straw bales) was developed successively in accordance with the energy balance and renewable energies such as biogas and solar energy were applied. This approach enabled an enhancement of the main factors affecting the performance of a building in terms of saving energy. The model was able to predict the energy requirements for heating and cooling of houses, the energy gained by a solar collector and by a biogas digester as well as the energy requirement for heating the biogas digester. Also, the purpose of this paper is to validate this developed simulation model by measuring energy requirements for heating of houses and solar radiation for solar collectors. The model is a simulation model for the bio-solar house with its three main parts—a straw house, a solar collector and a biogas digester. This paper demonstrates the values of the performed measurements and compares them to the theoretical, predicted values. The comparison indicates that the predicted energy requirements for the heating of buildings were a close approximation to the measured values. Another relevant deduction of the validation was the fact that the solar collector delivered the highest heat gain on 21st of June.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the safety of forklift brakes. The research methodology used to analyze forklift brake safety is presented using the checklist descriptive method. The study was conducted on 127 forklifts with an average age of 15 years, where it was found that about 10% of the forklifts did not have a proper parking brake and that about 2% of the forklifts had defective service brakes. Finally, the results obtained from the research on brake safety have been discussed and further research has been proposed.

Abstract Many parameters of living wall systems were investigated within the last years. It has been established that living wall systems reduce the urban heat island effect, bind dust and reduce noise pollution. Also the effect of the living wall system on the thermal insulation of the facade has been explored. But until now, there has not been any investigation on thermally well insulated facades. The thermal bridges were neglected in all published research until now. In the present paper this research gap has been taken up. Two living wall systems had been installed on three different facade types. One of them is thermally insulated, the other two are not. Long term measurements at the not thermally insulated facades showed an additional heat resistance value between 0.12 m² K/W and 0.39 m² K/W due to the living wall systems, while neglecting thermal bridges. The period of measurement was between 1st Mai 2015 and 31st March 2019. They have been calculated for the three investigated facades and two living wall systems by using AnTherm. For the anchoring devices two different scenarios were calculated. In one scenario the anchoring devices were made out of aluminum and in the other one they were made out of stainless steel. It turned out that the thermal bridges can not be neglected when it comes to thermally insulated facades. At the thermally insulated facades, the ΔU-Value ranges between 0.01 W/(m² K) and 0.08 W/(m² K). It cannot be neglected and ought to be taken into consideration.

Construction materials have a direct impact on the environment, on people, and their health. In addition, building insulation plays a decisive role in terms of energy consumption of buildings and regarding CO2-emissions over their whole life cycle. In order to achieve a holistic concept for green building worldwide, it is necessary to develop ecological insulating materials and to scientifically examine them in terms of their technical properties, as done with particleboards from agricultural waste presented in this article. This study aims to characterize the properties’ tensile and compressive strength, modulus of rupture (MOR), and elasticity (MOE) and thermal conductivity of particleboards affected by parameters, such as waste type (rice straw or flax shives), particleboard density, resin type, and content, as well as the use of treated rice straw. Particleboards made from flax shives had superior properties compared to the rice straw particles. The mechanical properties of the boards increase with an increasing resin content, except for the MOR and MOE, which decrease with an increasing resin content, and reach their peak value at a resin content of 10%.

Presently, almost all human activities (agriculture, transport, industry, construction sector, etc.) have an adverse impact on the environment. The construction sector in the EU alone accounts for a big part of the total energy consumption and emission of CO2. Two-thirds of the energy used in the construction sector in Europe goes to housing. As the number of residents grows, the requirements for new housing increase, causing an additional increase in energy consumption and new CO2 emissions for construction, maintenance, lighting, ventilation, cooling, and heating. Benefits of detailed planning of sustainable development of the construction sector are manifold. The most important benefits are sustainable use of resources, economic and social development of communities, increasing employment rates, improvements of living conditions and protection of the environment. Two scenarios for the development of an energy-efficient construction sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina with a focus on housing facilities are developed, in order to address the needs and benefits of detailed planning. Both scenarios analyze the effects on job creation, the impact of used construction materials on the environment and eco balance of local products. The difference in the solutions confirms the benefits of an interdisciplinary approach to the planning of sustainable systems so that not only technical, but also economic and social benefits can be evaluated thanks to the combination of methods used.

The trend of achieving sustainable development in the area of new, eco-friendly materials remains topical for many experts concerned with developing new materials applicable worldwide in civil engineering as well as elsewhere. Our research team has for many years been developing non-traditional materials that meet the current requirements. These materials are made with organic fibers – waste natural fibers produced by agriculture or waste industrial (locally produced) fibers. Their thermal and acoustic insulation properties are very close to those of conventional insulation materials (expanded polystyrene, extruded polystyrene, mineral wool, polyurethane foam), which are still finding broad use in the Czech Republic despite their harmful impact on the environment. The paper focuses on the various uses of several types of textile fibers (mainly by-products) in the development of modern insulation materials with a high value added. These materials bear several specific advantages over conventional insulations, which enable, among others, easier installation. Some of the newly developed insulations can also be used as core insulations in the manufacture of vacuum insulation panels (VIP).

In recent years, many researchers have addressed the issue of interior climate and how it affects human health. Investigations performed at schools and office buildings have found that CO2 concentrations often exceed the limit value of 1500 ppm given in Decree No. 20/2012 Coll., on technical requirements for buildings. In addition, interior space often exhibits very low relative humidity. This results in poor conditions that are detrimental to human health and not conducive to studying and work. One means of improving the interior microclimate is implementing green walls. These walls can help generate a much better climate and greatly enhance the mental well-being of the inhabitants. In addition, they greatly improve dust levels and acoustics in the room. The research compared the interior conditions in two classrooms at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Brno University of Technology. One had a green wall installed while the other was in its original configuration. CO2 concentration, temperature, and relative humidity were measured. A survey was conducted to assess the influence of the green wall on students and teachers (mental well-being, efficiency, productivity, creativity, etc.). Results obtained thus far show that the room with the green wall provides far better interior conditions, mainly in terms of lower CO2 concentration and higher relative humidity, improving students’ and teachers’ mood and health (as confirmed by the survey as well).

This paper shows how facade greening effects the heat resistance value on an old building. The facades of the building are made out of bricks. Two greened facades with different living wall systems have been researched and measured for one heating season. At the same time two not greened parts of the facade were measured. So far there does not exist any general method, how to calculate the U-value or particular heat resistance values of the greened facades. The method which is developed within this research-paper makes the comparison between the greened part of the facade and the not greened part possible. It turned out that there is a difference of the thermal resistance between greened and not greened parts of the facades in winter. The improvement by the greening will be discussed within this paper.