IVS Noble Solutions organized a workshop on Green Buildings: Achieveing Sustainability through Energy Efficiency, Environmental Monitoring and Structural health Monitoring at IIT Delhi on 7th November 2015. Four students namely Prateek Singh Patel (15622), Aman (15971), Raman Bhardwaj (15976) and Amandeep (16813) from Civil Engineering Department of Dronacharya College of Engineering Gurgaon attended the workshop.

The main objective was to disseminate the research outcomes on sustainable and built environment. The deliberations concentrated on determining effective strategies of implementing sustainable and built environment through use of green construction materials, energy efficiency, indoor air quality monitoring and advanced structural health monitoring.

The key features of this workshop was to discuss combining advanced materials, fabrication, analytical and modeling techniques for energy efficiency and environmental monitoring. It included:

1. Sustainable construction materials

2. Innovative building materials

3. Indoor air quality monitoring and modeling

4. New sensing solutions for structural health monitoring

5. Energy harvesting materials

The workshop was attended by practicing engineers ( government and private) from civil/environmental, entrepreneurs, directors & CMDs working in construction industry for Indian smart cities, faculty members of engineering colleges, scientists from government R&D organizations, government officers (ministries), research scholars, undergraduate and post graduate students, civil builders/contractors, key personnel from test centers, architects and consultants.

The key speakers for the event were:

Dr. Roger West, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Dr. B. Bhattacharjee, IIT Delhi

Dr. Mukesh Khare, IIT Delhi

Dr. Suresh Bhalla, IIT Delhi

Dr. T. Visalakshi, ABES Engg. College, Ghaziabad

Dr. Sumedha Moharana, Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida

Mr. Diwakar Bhagat, IIT Delhi

Dr. S. Bhalla started the workshop by delivering the welcome speech. He started his discussion by giving a Glimpse of Smart Sensing Research at IIT Delhi. He explained that with the rapid development of urbanization in some developing countries such as India numerous huge civil infrastructures have been built in recent years. The performance of these structures during construction, operation, maintenance, and repair becomes a major concern. In order to accurately assess the health condition of engineering structures and prevent potential failure, a variety of smart sensing technologies and methods have been successively developed in the past few decades, including fiber optic sensing (FOS), time domain reflectometry (TDR), micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS), particle image velocimetry (PIV), global positioning system (GPS), and wireless sensor network (WSN). Due to their inherent advantages, these technologies have played an increasingly important role in health monitoring of civil infrastructures.

Dr. Sumedha Moharana then discussed about Piezo- Sensors: New Age Sensors for Cost Effective Health Monitoring of Civil Structures. She explained that Structural health monitoring is an extremely important methodology in evaluating the ‘health’ of a structure by assessing the level of deterioration and remaining service life of civil infrastructure systems. She explained about the ways of obtaining and analysing data, sensor technologies and methods of sensing changes in structural performance characteristics. She explained the basic data transmission and the application of both individual technologies and entire systems to bridges and buildings. She further talked about the Structural health monitoring technologies: Piezoelectric impedence transducers for structural health monitoring of civil infrastructure systems; Wireless sensors and networks for structural health monitoring of civil infrastructure systems.

Dr. T. Visalakshi discussed about Experimental Investigations with Smart Sensors on Geopolymer Concrete: The Green Concrete for Sustainable Construction. She explained the initial efforts to explore a new application of metakaolin-based geopolymers to structural health monitoring. She further said that a distributed geopolymer-fiber optic sensing (G-FOS) system is proposed, where geopolymers are used as smart adhesives to affix optical fibers to existing in-service structures to form an integrated G-FOS sensor. Results of feasibility testing in the laboratory indicated that the tensile cracking strain of geopolymers can be controlled by finely tuning the Si/Al ratios or adding appropriate aggregate fillers such as sand, thus rendering the “smart” nature of geopolymers for deformation-based sensing.

Dr. Roger West started his session by discussing about Leaner Building. He said that Lean Buildings reduce energy flows by tapping basic natural heating and cooling techniques and renewable energy sources in ways that are region-specific and climate-sensitive. HE explained the Seven defensive and offensive strategies — from use of local and recycled materials to heavy insulation, from building orientation and passive solar systems to dense urban configurations. He further addressed the reduction of material and energy consumption in the U.S and similar climates. Issues of energy quantity and quality, energy codes and metrics, as well as building size and configuration, were also discussed.

Dr. B. Bhattacharjee started the session by discussing about Energy Saving Through Effective Use of Green Building Materials and Technology. He started his talk by explaining about Green building refers to both a structure and the using of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. In other words, green building design involves finding the balance between homebuilding and the sustainable environment.

He further added that Green buildings often include measures to reduce energy consumption – both the embodied energy required to extract, process, transport and install building materials and operating energy to provide services such as heating and power for equipment.

As high-performance buildings use less operating energy, embodied energy has assumed much greater importance – and may make up as much as 30% of the overall life cycle energy consumption. To reduce operating energy use, designers use details that reduce air leakage through the building envelope (the barrier between conditioned and unconditioned space). He also explained high-performance windows and extra insulation in walls, ceilings, and floors. Another strategy, passive solar building design, is often implemented in low-energy homes. Onsite generation of renewable energy through solar power, wind power, hydro power, or biomass can significantly reduce the environmental impact of the building. Power generation is generally the most expensive feature to add to a building.

Dr. Mukesh Khare then talked about Wall Panels Indoors : Sampling and Monitoring Protocol for VOC Measurements. He explained that Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are part of the large hydrocarbon family, a vast array of aliphatic, aromatic hydrocarbons, their halogenated derivatives, alcohols, ketones and aldehydes. VOCs have a property of conversion into vapour or gas without any chemical change. He said that the first step of monitoring of VOCs is the collection of air sample. Different methods of VOC sampling in air are practiced worldwide for this purpose. He added that measurement of VOCs in ambient air is often difficult, because of the variety of VOCs of potential concern, the variety of potential techniques for sampling and analysis, and the lack of standardized and documented methods.

Dr. S. Bhalla gave a glimpse of Engineered Bamboo Research at IIT Delhi. He said that Engineered bamboo products result from processing the raw bamboo culm into a laminated composite, similar to glue-laminated timber products. These products allow the material to be used in standardised sections and have less inherent variability than the natural material. The mechanical properties of two types of commercially available products – bamboo scrimber and laminated bamboo sheets – and compares these to timber and engineered timber products. It was explained that engineered bamboo products have properties that are comparable to or surpass that of timber and timber-based products. Potential limitations to use in structural design are also discussed.

Mr. Divakar Bhagat conducted the last session on high capacity structural members using bamboo for sustainable construction. He explained that bamboo has good engineering properties and it is a feasible substitute for other materials for housing and construction sector. Bamboo has high tensile strength, very good strength to weight ratio. It can be easily worked upon by simple tools. It can resist forces created by high velocity wind and earthquake. Bamboo and components made of bamboo are environment friendly, energy efficient and cost effective.

The workshop hosted an exhibition on Smart Sensors and Bamboo. The visitors were explained about them thoroughly.

The session ended with a valedictory session. Overall it was very knowledgeable session and provided a learning experience for all the participants.