New innovative building materials

The EU-funded BrightWall task has generated a translucent concrete wall that enables in normal lighting without associated reduced heat. This might assist European countries cut its electricity use to save cash, conserve environmental surroundings and bolster the economy.

© Danish Technical Institute

Electrical lights promise Europe’s towns glisten and sparkle, with architectural marvels lit up for many to see . The disadvantage to this permanent shine could be the energy your metropolitan areas’ structures eat. Building materials, including cup, regular cement and metal, signify structures require heating, air cooling and lighting effects.

The new material – called ‘BrightWall’, after the task – has actually such good insulation properties that it can help a building retain double the amount power as a typical concrete panel and up to 5 times a lot more than glass walls and windows. It also decreases the necessity for electric lighting effects and air cooling. This will make it the perfect building option and might assist the EU to meet its goals of cutting electrical energy use and attaining a 20percent rise in energy efficiency by 2020.

Innovative tubes — the little reply to a big issue

The BrightWall product is a tangible sandwich panel. It comprises two levels of strengthened concrete, with insulation between. This sandwich construction supplies the wall featuring its strength, load-bearing qualities and power to endure considerable fire examination. But it’s the revolutionary little tubes — light guides — that give the new wall its large energy-saving potential.

BrightWall task coordinator Johannes Portielje Rauff Greisen explains why these ‘light guides’ had been a key project achievement. A light guide is a tube manufactured from optical fibres. It works like a mirror tunnel; it transmits and reflects light that shines onto the orifice associated with pipe.

“The project group passed 5 000 light guides through all three chapters of the initial BrightWall to make a facade that's completely insulating which allows managed sunlight to feed in to the building, ” claims Greisen. When put in the cement, the light guides transfer a great deal sunlight into an area that the complete window location required is somewhat decreased. The light guides and a small modification of tangible casting procedure have enabled researchers generate a building product that's actually a wall and a window all-in-one.