Table 2 Summary of key activities from... | Emerald Publishing

Table 2

Summary of key activities from the Rebuild project

Challenge	Activity and potential solution
Evaluating total stocks and flows of structural construction materials	Local authority data sets, land-use statistics, Google Earth, four-dimensional visualisation modelling and building typologies are being used to estimate total stocks of brick, steel, concrete at regional-scale and small-scale sample sites for most common building types/ages.
Overcoming the challenges of steel reclaim and reuse	Laser is used to cut welded shear studs to separate steel and concrete in composite construction.
Reuse of RC elements	Technical feasibility of joining reclaimed RC elements – for example, by cutting slots in reclaimed RC elements to accommodate reinforcement link bars.
Repair of concrete elements	Three-dimensional printing.
Overcoming the challenges of brick/concrete masonry recovery	Laboratory-scale development of punching and saw cutting to reclaim cement-bonded bricks has demonstrated the technical feasibility of these approaches. The next step is to prove their commercial viability by improved design and machinery implementation.
Creating new products to facilitate deconstruction of future composite steel-and-concrete construction	A new form of demountable shear stud to replace the traditional welded stud is being investigated and tested.
Creating higher-value products to improve the economics of reclaim	Technical options for remanufacturing the brick into higher-value products such as brick slips as facades for modern construction systems.
Comparative environmental assessment of virgin against recycled against reused products at regional scale	Initial work on product-against-product life-cycle assessment (LCA) comparison is underway. Novel regional-scale LCA and circularity metrics are being developed to enable regional whole-system comparisons.
New codes and industry standards to build confidence	The mechanical and durability properties of reclaimed materials will be compared to those of new ones, and draft design codes and standards will be produced.

Challenge	Activity and potential solution
Evaluating total stocks and flows of structural construction materials	Local authority data sets, land-use statistics, Google Earth, four-dimensional visualisation modelling and building typologies are being used to estimate total stocks of brick, steel, concrete at regional-scale and small-scale sample sites for most common building types/ages.
Overcoming the challenges of steel reclaim and reuse	Laser is used to cut welded shear studs to separate steel and concrete in composite construction.
Reuse of RC elements	Technical feasibility of joining reclaimed RC elements – for example, by cutting slots in reclaimed RC elements to accommodate reinforcement link bars.
Repair of concrete elements	Three-dimensional printing.
Overcoming the challenges of brick/concrete masonry recovery	Laboratory-scale development of punching and saw cutting to reclaim cement-bonded bricks has demonstrated the technical feasibility of these approaches. The next step is to prove their commercial viability by improved design and machinery implementation.
Creating new products to facilitate deconstruction of future composite steel-and-concrete construction	A new form of demountable shear stud to replace the traditional welded stud is being investigated and tested.
Creating higher-value products to improve the economics of reclaim	Technical options for remanufacturing the brick into higher-value products such as brick slips as facades for modern construction systems.
Comparative environmental assessment of virgin against recycled against reused products at regional scale	Initial work on product-against-product life-cycle assessment (LCA) comparison is underway. Novel regional-scale LCA and circularity metrics are being developed to enable regional whole-system comparisons.
New codes and industry standards to build confidence	The mechanical and durability properties of reclaimed materials will be compared to those of new ones, and draft design codes and standards will be produced.