WATER AND MEMBRANES FOR ARCHITECTURAL

Combination of Water and Membranes for Temporary

Architectural Applications

ABSTRACT

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the innovative combination of water and membranes for temporary architectural applications. Water can be useful, as a construction material, for three different purposes. First of all, thanks to its thermal mass, it can be used as a medium for cooling down or heating up buildings; secondly, water is uncompressible and, in combination with air, it can be used as part of a structural elements; thirdly the mass of water could work as a sound barrier so it can be used as sound insulation material. The following pages will focus on the second and the third use of water in architectural applications. The research investigates innovative applications of water in architecture and for this reason an empirical approach was required. Just few researches have been carried out about sound insulation properties of water and almost no literature have been found by the author about structural properties of water. In fact, at present time, water is considered nor a structural neither an insulation material for architecture. For this reasons standard computation software8 cannot deal with it. Thus, the research was based on the tests of two mockups. The first prototype concerns a 200 mm thick panel filled with water. The airborne sound insulation of this panel was measured in accordance with standard ISO 140-3. Results show that the single number rating for the airborne sound insulation Rw for an average water layer thickness of 200 mm is 48 dB. This value is comparable to the one of a 150 mm brick wall or 100 mm concrete panel. Predictions about sound insulation of the same system at different thickness and possible applications such as highway sound barrier or construction site sound barrier are presented in the following pages.

Table of Content

ABSTRACT2

Aims and Objectives4

Background of the Study4

Significance of the Study5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW6

Water Thermal Mass7

Thermal Properties of Materials8

Thermal Time Constant9

TTC and DHC Examples10

Building Which Is Externally Insulated With Internal Exposed Mass10

Building With Mass Insulated Internally10

Building With High Mass Insulated Externally And Internally10

Building With Core Insulation Inside Two Layers Of Mass11

Water as a Structural Element11

The Mock-Up14

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY16

CHAPTER 4: ANTICIPATED RESULTS18

REFERENCES19

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Aims and Objectives

The aim of this paper is to investigate the combination of water and membranes for temporary architectural applications. Water as a construction material, can be useful for three different purposes: first of all, thanks to its thermal mass, it can be used as a medium for cooling down or heating up buildings (Pronk et al, 2007, Pp 125); secondly water is uncompressible and, in combination with air, can be used as part of a structural element; thirdly the mass of water could work as a sound barrier so it can be used as sound insulation material (Rodrigues and Coutinho, 2008, pp 64). This paper shows the result of the structural behaviour. There is another paper about sound insulation properties of water. The research in both structural and sound insulation fields was ...