AISC Thermal Bridging Survey

AISC and University of Alaska Anchorage are conducting a survey on thermal bridging and current design practice. See below for the notice from AISC and follow the link to provide your own survey responses.




Engineers and Architects:

We would like your help in completing a short survey to gather information on how engineers and architects currently address thermal bridging in steel building construction. The online survey can be completed at the following link: http://uaa.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_4VJE9y2o5doWmax.

Thermal efficiency and performance are important aspects to the design of steel buildings, particularly as we strive to design more sustainable structures. Steel members that penetrate the building envelope act as thermal bridges, channeling heat into or out of the building, and it can be a significant problem to the building's thermal performance. Scott Hamel of the University of Alaska at Anchorage is currently conducting a research investigation sponsored by AISC on steel connection details that provide adequate thermal breaks in the building envelope.  The results of the survey will be consolidated into a report and made publicly available.

Questions or comments about the survey can be directed to:
Scott Hamel, P.E., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
University of Alaska Anchorage
sehamel@uaa.alaska.edu
907-786-1070

Enclosure Considerations for Tall Wood Buildings

RDH Building Sciences is hosting a seminar this week about mass timber's exposure to weather. Lunch is provided.
May 8, 2014, 12pm - 1:15pm.


2101 N 34th Street, Suite 150
Seattle, WA 98103

Tall Wood Buildings – Enclosure Considerations
The construction of mass timber and taller wood buildings is becoming more common in
North America. The increased exposure to weather and new timber construction methods
pose unique challenges for the design and construction team. This presentation provides
guidance on building enclosure design and detailing published in two recent industry
guidelines.

Presenter: Graham Finch, Dipl.T., M.A.Sc., P.Eng.

Email jkies@rdhbe.com or call 206.489.2198 if you would like to invite yourself or if you have questions. 

April committee meeting minutes and preview for May

See here for April's meeting minutes. Join us May 28, 2014 back at CPL. Adam will be presenting on the PSU Sustainable Structures Symposium, including his own presentation from the conference. Please contact Adam or Kyle for call-in information if you can't attend in person.

Sean passed along an article on some innovative sustainable buildings that I’ll also post:

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3029434/the-top-10-most-innovative-sustainable-buildings-of-2014

If you have something you’d like to share with the committee, let me know.

Recent articles and research

Last meeting I mentioned a couple of recent areas of research and articles. See below for links.

Interlocking CLT
The University of Utah's Integrated Technology in Architecture Center is studying various CLT configurations that minimize the use of adhesives and make use of beetle kill pine.
http://itac.utah.edu/itac/ICLT.html

"Slab Happy"
A look at concrete slab insulation from the insulation perspective.
http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-059-slab-happy
Also see the Building Science site for other articles on thermal bridging and other construction issues. This article covers the thermal bridges on the Aqua Tower in Chicago:
http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi062-thermal-bridges-redux

Last-minute announcement for Cascadia GBC event on LCA

Tonight, April 23, at 6pm, the Cascadia GBC Seattle LEED Users Group (SLUG) is hosting a discussion on the MR credits in LEED v4, with a focus on the life cycle assessment (LCA) requirements.

More information at:
http://living-future.org/events/leed-v4-world-renowned-expert-life-cycle-assessment-expert

April Committee Meeting and March Minutes

The minutes for last month's meeting are here. Thanks to Rachel for enlightening the committee on the 2012 state and city energy code provisions.

Our upcoming meeting is this Wednesday at Coughlin Porter Lundeen at noon. Note that they have moved to the 9th floor of the Norton Building at Second and Columbia.   We will continue discussion of the provisions in the 2012 energy code that will impact structural design. We will also recap the CarbonCure concrete presentation.

USGBC Partners with UL to Improve MR Transparency

US Green Building Council, creator of LEED rating system, issued a press release to talk about teaming up with another big player:

USGBC and UL Environment Announce Exclusive Strategic Partnership on Building Materials & Products Transparency

The first initiative of the partnership is the creation of a joint Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). EPDs are a standardized way of quantifying the environmental impact of a product or system. The joint USGBC-UL EPDs are a solution to increase transparency in building materials and products that are being used in our buildings, homes, schools, hospitals and other structures.

Here's an article that summarizes some of the reasoning. Apparently this came to the ire of some other companies involved in creating Life Cycle Assessments and EPDs, maybe because they see UL as a competitor, or because they have already spent time and resources working to existing standards.

http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2013/12/2/UL-USGBC-Team-Up-to-Standardize-LCA-Rules/

From the article:

there are multiple LCA software tools, which all use the chosen data differently. This can lead to sometimes-disparate results: in a recent analysis of biomass emissions, for example, UL found a 30% difference in outputs between two different software programs. “Those inconsistencies have to be known, and they have to be fixed,” he said.