Environmentally Friendly Facade Elements made of thermal insulated Textile Reinforced Concrete (INSU-SHELL)

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

BACKGROUND

Concrete is the main building material used in civil engineering construction. Due to the immense energy consumption and the large amounts of cement used, the production of cement contributes 5% of the man-made annual CO2 emission worldwide.

OBJECTIVES

The INSU-SHELL project aimed to minimise the amount of concrete necessary in the construction of the facades by using a high-tech, thermally insulated textile reinforced concrete (TRC) technology. The new system would enable the construction of thinner walled building facades offering a superior performance than comparable materials made out of GRC (glass fibre reinforced concrete). Similarly, conventional steel reinforced concrete facades require a minimum thickness of 70 mm, whereas the new reinforced concrete would allow wall facades of just 10-20 mm. The project would demonstrate the economic and environmental friendly benefits of the TRC technology in a full-scale industrial application i.e. used in the construction of the facade of a large public building. Improved insulation offered by the technology would enable energy savings. Furthermore, a reduction of CO2 emissions would be achieved both in the production process (through reduced need for concrete) as well as during implementation and recycling.

RESULTS

The demonstration of the new technology was successful, although the area demonstrated, was smaller than originally envisaged. The technology was implemented as part of the new building facade of the (INNOTEX) textile research centre at RWTH Aachen University. The system was developed according to the architectural and structural-physical requirements of the new building. The design met these requirements and shows the potential of the new TRC technology. According to the beneficiary, it is superior to conventional materials in terms of load bearing capacity, overall wall thickness and efficiency.

Most of the expected goals were achieved:

The innovative facade system using textile-reinforced concrete (TRC technology) was demonstrated in full-scale (although the facade area was smaller than originally proposed). The technology offers the potential for reducing the concrete amounts necessary for facades, by using a concrete-textile combination (from 70 mm thickness of concrete panels down to 15 mm).

The global warming potential was cut by an estimated 55 %. Savings of CO2 equivalents are approximately 80 kg/m². Additionally the reduced weight (by 83%) of the elements reduces transport emissions.

The energy footprint for the facade system was calculated with 1026 MJ/m² compared to 1823 MJ/m² of a conventional facade, i.e. it is nearly 45% less. However, the energy footprint for maintenance and recycling were not investigated. Taking these into account, the beneficiary estimates the footprint for daily use should be the same as the compared conventional facade, as the insulating characteristic were of similar quality.

Dissemination to the interest groups was carried out and will be continued after the project end. Notably, a neighbouring building is planned with a similar facade. The new façade was implemented as part of the new institute building of ITA (INNOTEX 2.BA). The elements were developed according to the architectural and structural-physical needs. The design meets the requirements and shows the potential of TRC (Textile Reinforced Concrete). The façade is superior to conventional building techniques in aspects as load bearing capacity, overall wall thickness, material efficiency and freedom in design.

The construction of the building started, however, around one year earlier than originally planned. This placed the project under pressure to produce the facade elements in time. In turn, this meant higher staff and external assistance costs and resulted in higher specific costs – estimated at around €450 /m². In order to be competitive, the beneficiary says these costs would need to fall below €300 /m². It is convinced that this threshold will be met in the planned second university building.

In terms of job creation the potential is very high, once the economic breakthrough is achieved. This is one of the few high tech products, where manual work input is higher than for the conventional alternative. Thus there would be a real net job creation.

Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report (see "Read more" section).