The Role of Advance Composite material In Contemporary Buildings

What is it about?

A B S T R A C T Composite materials have been used from the earliest times, from wood, which is a naturally occurring composite of lignin and cellulose, through straw reinforced clay bricks to reinforced concrete. In the 20th century, a new breed of composite materials was developed using polymer matrices with high performance reinforcement fibres. The great effect and uncompromising properties of advance composite materials has enabled the emergence of composites cut across all fields of application and all areas or work, just to mention a few aeronautic engineering, automobile engineering, and medicine, military and building construction. Therefore, with emphasis on building construction, advance composite material has played a vital role in today’s contemporary building construction method, by presenting its self as an alternative building construction material, its application has made the contemporary building construction much more flexible and achievable, compare to traditional building materials and its methods of construction. It further offers the building construction industry the technical know-how of having new possibilities of design styles, shapes and forms. Therefore, advance composite material proves it’s self to be a better and a new alternative building construction material that remains construction friendly and flexible based on its properties. This study therefore tends to provide an overview on advance composite material, its application as well as its role in today’s contemporary building.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

The Role of Advance Composite material In Contemporary Buildings * Ph.D. Candidate OBASANJO OWOYALE ADEOLA1 and Ph.D. Candidate MOHAMMED TAUHEED ALFA2 1,2 Department of Architecture, Cyprus International University, Nicosia, Turkey 1 E mail:obasanjoadeolaowoyale@yahoo.com , 2 E mail:mohammedtalfa@yahoo.com A B S T R A C T Composite materials have been used from the earliest times, from wood, which is a naturally occurring composite of lignin and cellulose, through straw reinforced clay bricks to reinforced concrete. In the 20th century, a new breed of composite materials was developed using polymer matrices with high performance reinforcement fibres. The great effect and uncompromising properties of advance composite materials has enabled the emergence of composites cut across all fields of application and all areas or work, just to mention a few aeronautic engineering, automobile engineering, and medicine, military and building construction. Therefore, with emphasis on building construction, advance composite material has played a vital role in today’s contemporary building construction method, by presenting its self as an alternative building construction material, its application has made the contemporary building construction much more flexible and achievable, compare to traditional building materials and its methods of construction. It further offers the building construction industry the technical know-how of having new possibilities of design styles, shapes and forms. Therefore, advance composite material proves it’s self to be a better and a new alternative building construction material that remains construction friendly and flexible based on its properties. This study therefore tends to provide an overview on advance composite material, its application as well as its role in today’s contemporary building. CONTEMPORARY URBAN AFFAIRS (2018), 2(3), 95-101. https://doi.org/10.25034/ijcua.2018.4723 www.ijcua.com Copyright © 2018 Contemporary Urban Affairs. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The human race has contributed tremendously to the improvement and processing of elementary building materials, they have become the reference point to mark the early stages of mankind discovery, invention and development, such as Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, etc. However the beginning of the recent hundred years positioned building materials to become more multifunctional and as well required the optimization of different properties. The evolution and concept of building materials has also been driven toward composite materials whereby two or more different material parts are being joined together to provide a better combination of properties (Wegst et al. 2015). However, the rapid growth in technological development of the 21st century played a great role in the emergence of advanced composite materials and its construction methods. It has also presented its self to be more dynamic, and as well made contemporary buildings to be more attractive and unimaginable, therefore based on some of the outstanding attributes advance composite material portray, the use and application of traditional building material and its construction method tends to decline with time in the nearest future (Karbhari, 1998). Advanced composite material has therefore presented its self with a much greater value and sustainability; the impact of these materials has also made contemporary buildings and their various design type embrace a much more dynamic and flexible system of construction. Building Materials can be described as the embodiment of a building or a structure, and it production accounts for 30-50% consumption of raw materials worldwide (Tagnit-hamou and Soliman, 2018). The early discovery of building materials cannot be undermining rather it can be registered as one which has gone through a unique and extraordinary historic path of discovery, starting from the early civilization of the cave men who had to source material like wood, stones strands to create shelter that can stand as a form of protection from the harshness of the weather and harmful element of the environment of stay. Ever since then man have never remained seldom in the search for possible innovative means to create materials that can go in hand with it environment, though the 19th century remains a remarkable era that can be remembered for it industrialization and the expansion of modern construction technological development which majorly had a great influence on building materials and its method of construction (Zabihi, 2010). Though the acceleration in advancement in technology of the past and much more innovative ideas today has lead in the creation of building materials that are gradually coming to the lam light. Today advance composite material can be regarded as one of the product of effective technological development of the 21st century (Ljungberg, 2007). These innovative building materials tend to play a great role in contemporary buildings, in terms of environmental friendliness and sustainability and as well tend to bridge the gap between already existing traditional building materials. 1. Materials and Methods This research employed the case study method for identifying various buildings across the world that have employed the instrumentality of environment friendly materials for construction and composition. The sources of the identified buildings are the internet and other archival materials which considers the use of sustainable construction materials for the purpose of their composition. A checklist was also prepared for the purpose of obtaining up-to-date information about the selected buildings and also prepare a basic appraisal and evaluation criterial for the purpose of determining the extent of sustainability of the identified buildings. 2. Discussions The awakening of 21st century paved way to vast technological advancement. However, these technological advancements majorly cut across the construction industry, by influencing its building material types as well as its methods of construction. This advancement further brought about a dynamic change in the building industry, by therefore producing innovative building materials (advance composite material) that offer unique properties as well as wide variety of functions, and structural performance qualities that are sustainable and environmentally friendly, and are as well very much impossible to archive with normal traditional building materials (Akadiri et al., 2012) in terms of it:  New aesthetic possibilities and ability to mould complex fluid and create design of different forms, shapes and styles  Being able to Provide special integrated surface finishes and effects  Being able to provide significant savings in weight usually up to 15%  Being able to ensure superior durability with degradation through life  Being able to provide Rapid installation and cost on site  Being able to Unlock the possibilities of architectural design  To ensure Temperature and chemical resistance  To ensure Flex performance  To ensure Dimensional stability. With the above mentioned qualities, architect, designers and engineers tend to play a vital role with the use and application of contemporary building material.

Perspectives