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Projeto de investigação
Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering
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Publicações
An experimental analysis on the thermal performance of rammed earth walls
Publication . Luso, Eduarda; Cabello, Isabel; Silva, Rui A.; Briga-Sá, Ana
Earth has been used as a building material since the beginning of civilizations and its utilization was widespread to most regions of the world, promoted by the high availability, easy access and low cost of the material. As result of the generalised use of raw earth as building material, many earthen building techniques were developed through time, where adobe masonry, rammed earth and wattle-and-daub are among the most important. Currently, it is estimated that one quarter of the world's population lives in buildings made of earth. However, during the last century, earthen materials fell into disuse in several developed countries with the popularization of concrete, steel and fire bricks. Nevertheless, earthen architecture has been receiving increasing attention in the last few decades, driven by its green building potential and by other features of earthen materials, which includes, among others, unique aesthetics and hygrothermal regulation capacity.
Several studies have been developed to characterize earthen solutions concerning physical and mechanical properties. However, regarding the thermal behaviour, it is known that the thermal conductivity of rammed earth is a parameter that depends on the characteristics of the soil (particle size distribution, mineralogy, etc.) and moisture content. Thus, given the soils variability, it becomes clear that further investigation should be addressed to characterize the thermal performance of rammed earth solutions, contributing to define more accurate thermal conductivity values for the design of rammed earth buildings. On this regard, this paper presents an experimental study that aims to characterize the thermal behaviour of rammed earth built with different soils and with different thicknesses. A continuous measurement allowed to obtain heat fluxes, inner surface temperatures and the thermal transmission coefficient of the tested rammed earth walls solutions. The results obtained so far confirmed that the type of soil and thickness significantly influences the thermal behaviour of the earthen material. It was also observed that the thermal transmission coefficient of a 50 cm thick wall is about 30% lower than the one verified for the wall with 35 cm, built with the same soil.
Assessing the vernacular built heritage of Montesinho Natural Park: an ICT-enhanced survey methodology
Publication . Tapiero, Juan; Vasconcelos, Graça; Graus, Sandra; Khei, Soon; Silva, Dener; Conde, Otavio; Ferreira, Tiago; Ortega, Javier; Luso, Eduarda; Rodrigues, Hugo; Vascvoncelos, Graça
The INHAVIT book is a 240 pages summary of the works carried out during the project. It includes 15 chapters describing the activities carried out, the main objectives of the project and the results obtained. The main objective of INHAVIT has been the study and identification of the physical, social and environmental vulnerabilities that may be contributing to the current state of progressive abandonment of several rural villages in the Montesinho Natural Park (MNP), in the northeastern Portugal, which is the case study of the research project. Once the vulnerabilities are well defined and better understood, the results aim to contribute to safeguarding the vernacular heritage by creating awareness and promoting its continuous occupation by improving its living conditions and its resilience to multiple hazards. The book also includes perspectives on the conservation of the vernacular heritage from recognized researchers in different geographies. The outcomes of the project are expected to help stakeholders and local communities to make decisions on how to intervene in the vernacular built-up environment to transform it into sustainable, resource-efficient settlements.
The complex problem and research objective has been tackled from different perspectives and research areas, involving theory of heritage conservation practice, conservation management, surveying and documentation, construction technology, digital models and virtual reality, thermal comfort, building energy consumption, nondestructive testing, long-term monitoring, social vulnerability, multihazard vulnerability, climate-related hazards, etc. This integrated multidisciplinary approach is considered a step forward in the topic of rural heritage conservation.
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Entidade financiadora
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Programa de financiamento
6817 - DCRRNI ID
Número da atribuição
UIDB/04029/2020