The partner organization, the National Aboriginal Circle Against Family Violence (NACAFV), is conducting a Feasibility Study for constructing on-reserve second-stage housing. A section of the Study is on the technical aspects of this type of housing which is for women who wish to leave their homes permanently because of domestic violence. The design of the housing unit emphasizes safety and security because an ex-partner or ex-spouse may be stalking a woman—since one of the most dangerous times for women living in domestic violence is when they are leaving.
Hollow core planks are used as floor systems in some structures. These planks are precast offsite of the structure and shipped to the building site for installation. They rely on the use of prestressing steel to help span large distances with minimal depth. The planks have several large voids in the interior of the concrete cross-section which results in a lower weight, more efficient structural element. These voids can cause strength problems in some circumstances, but this is mitigated by selectively filling the voids with concrete after casting of the planks.
A variety of alternative strategies have been developed for increasing the service life of reinforced concrete structures exposed to corrosive environments. An optimum design or repair strategy requires not only an estimate of upfront costs, but also the means to compare all associated costs against the potential extension to the life of the structure. Unfortunately, however, current asset management practice, which is typically based on tacit or implicit methods for asset condition assessment, performance prediction and management is no longer enough.
Factory-built structural insulated panels are used for off-site building construction to minimize the labour needed for construction framing, which aims to save construction time and improve the quality of the installation. The panels, instead of using wood or steel framing, are the structural support for walls. Although the insulated panels provide structure, additional reinforcements are needed in order for the panels to be used on a multi-storey residential building.
The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario reports that the masonry rate group cost per insurance claim is 2.44 times that if all other construction class rate groups. Manual lifting of concrete masonry units is required for masonry construction, and the pay masons receive is often commensurate with the number of units laid per day. Researchers have shown that, when lifting concrete masonry units, lower back compression forces in masons exceed the specific safe action limit despite the fact that the manual lifting load cutoff is not exceeded.
Hot summers and cold winters present a significant challenge for affordable housing. Effective utilization of solar energy for thermal comfort provides an environmentally sustainable solution to reduce utility bills. The objective of this research project is to investigate alternative solar technologies that can be combined with a thermal energy storage system and air source heat pump to provide an energy efficient and cost-effective solution for affordable housing. The proposed thermal energy storage system will be contained within insulated expanded polypropylene (EPP) wall panel system.
Porous Rubber Pavement (PRP) is a new type of permeable pavement in North America. It consists of stone aggregates, crumb rubber from recycled tires, and polyurethane as a binder. Due to a higher percentage of air voids (27% to 29%) and flexible nature, it offers extensive environmental and safety benefits, including improved stormwater management, reduced skid resistance, hydroplaning and greater potential for road traffic noise reduction. In the North American context, this material is currently used for low traffic roads and pedestrian walkways as a surface material.
This research proposed a method to conduct optimal CLT building design, which has minimum CLT usage and minimum operating energy consumption. This is a multidisciplinary research pushing the boundary of current definition of optimal design for each disciplinary to another level. With the developing of Building information modeling and automized simulation-optimization technology, the design of building will evolve to an interdisciplinary design in this decade, and this research demonstrate the benefit and application of integrated design.
The overall objective of this project is to enhance the strengthening efficiency of prestressed hollow-core slabs (PHCS) by using prestressed CFRP plates. More specifically, this project aims to investigate the behavior of the PHCS elements strengthened with prestressed CFRP plates. The application of the innovative patented anchor system developed at the University of Waterloo offers a good platform to facilitate the strengthening process in an efficient and cost effect way.
Concrete bridge decks have joints, which are created because of the method used to build a bridge structure. These joints allow water and other deleterious materials to pass through the bridge deck corroding the deck and the supporting girders. Link slabs are provided to conceal these joints. A link slab is a thin slab made of special concrete called ECC. The main ingredient of ECC is fly ash which comes from coal-fired thermal plants. These plants emit a large amount of pollutants. Hence, Canada and many other countries have decided to decommission all coal-fired plants.
