Laney, M. (2014). Modeling the Thermal Characteristics of Masonry Mortar Containing Recycled Materials. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
As the building industry in the United States rapidly expands, the reuse of recycled demolition waste aggregates is becoming increasingly more important. Currently, the building industry is the largest consumer of natural resources. The constant use of raw virgin aggregate is resulting in depleting resources, lack of space for landfills, increasing costs, and heightened levels of pollution. The use of these recycled aggregates in building envelopes and the study of thermal properties are becoming a popular area of research in order to improve building energy usage. The construction of Zero Energy Buildings (ZEB) is encouraged by the United States government as a result of the unresolved finite resources and environmental pollution. The focus of this research is on the impact of using recycled demolition waste aggregates on thermal properties, including specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity, in masonry mortar applications. The new forms of aggregate were analyzed for efficiency and practical utilization in construction in seven locations across the United States by embedding the new material into the building envelope of a strip mall mercantile build model from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the EnergyPlus Building Energy Simulation Program (BESP). It was determined that the recycled aggregate mortar mixtures performed as well as or better than the traditional mortar mix. Opportunities for future research in recycled aggregate mortar mixtures exist in a regional analysis, a regional recycled aggregate cost analysis, and a life cycled cost analysis (LCCA).
