Now, Conserve Energy in Homes and Offices

With several inputs and innovations on concrete, the most widely used material in civil infrastructure, energy consumption in buildings can be reduced.

Speaking at CONSTECH 2011, an interactive session between practitioners and researchers in civil engineering organised by URC Construction, EBET Group of Institutions, and Dr. Mahalingam College of Engineering and Technology in Coimbatore recently, Surendra P. Shah, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Civil Engineering (Emeritus), Northwestern University, USA, said that world's expenditure on concrete was about one-third a trillion dollars.

Globally, buildings consumed 30 per cent of energy. Energy consumption could be reduced by prolonging the life of concrete, making it multi-functional, using less cement, making it a high performance material and recycling demolition waste concrete.

In an effort to reduce use of cement, fly ash content in concrete could be increased. Nano particles could also be used.

The life of existing structures could be prolonged by using fibre reinforced polymers, organic or inorganic coating to increase thermal efficiency and self-healing bacteria to seal cracks. Concrete was a high performance material. Energy consumption could be reduced by using self-consolidating concrete, aerogel or phase change materials, he said. The Hindu was the media partner for the event.