See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/335868676

Rapidly Constructed Two Storey Thermally Comfortable Houses for Tropical

Climates with Light Weight Loadbearing Concrete Panels

Conference Paper · July 2019

CITATION READS

1 524

5 authors, including:

Bryan Eric Thevarajah Hasitha Damruwan Hidallana-Gamage

University of Wollongong University of Moratuwa
5 PUBLICATIONS 12 CITATIONS 29 PUBLICATIONS 227 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

M.T.R. Jayasinghe Hashan Hasalanka

University of Moratuwa University of Moratuwa
121 PUBLICATIONS 827 CITATIONS 13 PUBLICATIONS 69 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Bryan Eric Thevarajah on 25 September 2019.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

ICCEA-2019-047

RAPIDLY CONSTRUCTED TWO STOREY THERMALLY COMFORTABLE HOUSES

FOR TROPICAL CLIMATES WITH LIGHT WEIGHT LOADBEARING CONCRETE
PANELS
T. B. Eric1*, S. G. W. Gunawardana 1, H. H. H. Hasalanka 1,
M. T. R. Jayasinghe 2, H. G. H. Damruwan 3
1Post graduate researcher, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa.
2 Senior Proferssor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa.
3 Senior Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa.

*Correspondence E-mail: [email protected], TP: +94778579164

Abstract: Apartments in tall buildings are often promoted as a solution to rapid urban migration
that is happening in the world. However, all the apartment houses that have been undertaken in
many parts of the world in large cities have not resulted in desirable results all the time.
Therefore, it would be prudent to have high-density developments on small blocks of land with
detached or semi-attached housing. Such high-density developments will be a special challenge
in tropical climates when the urban heat island effects are considered since a high density of
houses can often lead to lack of green cover, and hence to have somewhat higher temperatures
than the averages predicted for that locality.
The other biggest challenge that is faced in countries with tropical climatic conditions is the
extensive use of natural resources based walling materials like fired clay bricks, concrete blocks,
etc.; this practice has led to over-exploitation of natural resources and hence it is prudent to
explore the possibility of using alternative sources that will use much less amount of natural
resources. In this context, converting various types of waste materials to a useful building
material will also play a major role. One such material is the lightweight concrete panels
produced to have 70% of the volume as air using recycled already used Expanded Poly-Styrene
(EPS) panels manufactured in modular form with the dimensions of 0.6 m of length, 2.4 m of
height and in thicknesses of 75 mm, 100 mm, 150 mm, etc. The use of panels instead of individual
small units will allow rapid construction of a house, and it is shown that it is possible to complete
one such house having about 200 m2 with a rooftop terrace in less than 30 working days by
employing 6 Nos of semi-skilled workers.
In a detailed study carried out on with the tropical climatic conditions prevailing in Sri Lanka as
a case study, it is shown that there are so many strategies that can be very effectively used to
make such houses extremely thermally comfortable while almost eliminating the heat island
effects even if a high density has been achieved with individual blocks as small as 200 m2. The
research paper is intended to describe all these aspects by taking an actual two storey house with
roof terrace constructed in Sri Lanka in the wet zone.
Keywords: Tropical climate; detached houses; lightweight concrete; EPS

1. Introduction shortcomings of this kind of apartments in

the view of residents compared to the
The growth of population and the need to
migrate towards cities leads to high demand detached and semi-detached houses. Lack of
for dense accommodation. Various types of personal land plot, privacy concerns,
difficulty in transporting goods to the upper
living spaces are implemented in order to
floors, inter-floor impact noises (Tae-min et
provide dense accommodation. Out of these,
al., 2018) and level of thermal comfort
high-rise apartment buildings, terraced
achieved in these high-rise apartments are
houses, detached and semi-detached houses
some of them.
are some of the most welcomed ideas. High-
rise apartment buildings are commonly seen As a result, it can be widely observed that
all around the world as these can provide a people are moving towards detached
large number of units within a small land houses. Since the land prices are significantly
plot. However, there can be some increasing, it can be observed that the trend
ICCEA-2019-047

is to go for two storied houses rather than EPS as aggregates. EPS (Expanded
single storied houses to have more spacious Polystyrene) is usually used as an insulation
houses in a small land plot. The problem or packing material for single use and
arises when having two-storied houses in disposed of afterwards. In addition, these
small land plots which increases the density cannot be disposed of directly into the
of the houses leading to a reduced green environment as they do not decompose
cover area which will greatly contribute to easily. Due to that reason, there can be lots of
the Urban Heat Island effect (Sun et al., 2019). environmental issues in disposing of the EPS
(Kan and Demirboǧa, 2009b). Since EPS is
It is common to have a reinforced concrete
generated in large quantities as a waste
frame structure with various infill walls such
material, it would be highly beneficial if it is
as burnt clay brick walls or cement sand
reused without disposing to the
block walls for structures more than a storey.
environment.
However, the total cost of the house
increases with the cost of material due to a When we try to move towards these kinds of
shortage of natural resources especially alternatives, there can be barriers to change
aggregates, the construction time and labour the mindset of people to use the alternatives
required to complete the structure with rather than going for well-experienced
conventional methods. Therefore, there is a conventional techniques. In Sri Lanka, as the
need to find alternatives to overcome these precast constructions are rapidly taking the
issues. places in the construction industry, there is a
great opportunity to promote this method in
As an answer, expanded polystyrene (EPS)
the constructions. These panels are already
based lightweight concrete is used to
in use as partition walls and the next step
produce sandwich wall panels where coarse
would be to go for load-bearing walls. In
aggregate is replaced with EPS and cast in
order to foresee the difficulties and issues of
between two cement fibre sheets. This paper
using these panels in loadbearing
presents details of a two-storied house
construction and elaborative purposes,
constructed with EPS wall panels with
actual construction of a two-storied house is
various techniques to increase the thermal
carried out within the premises of the
comfort and reduce the contribution to the
factory.
Urban Heat Island effect. In the construction
of the proposed house, EPS lightweight 2. Objectives
sandwich panels are used as structural
The objectives of this paper are to explore
members (load-bearing walls) and NERDC
strategies that can be effectively used to
(National Engineering Research and
make detached or semi-detached houses
Development Centre) slab system is used for
thermally comfortable whilst reducing the
the construction of slab. It is observed, by
urban heat island effects where a high-
following the above-mentioned method, the density residential area has resulted with
usage of natural resources, labour such houses.
requirement and the construction time can
be reduced. 3. Literature review

When it comes to lightweight concrete, it has The literature found for some of the topics
higher thermal absorption, energy related to this paper is discussed below.
absorption and specific strength compared 3.1. EPS based lightweight sandwich
with conventional concrete (Xu et al., 2012). panels
According to the previous research,
lightweight concrete can be produced by As observed in the production of EPS
using a foaming agent or using a lightweight lightweight concrete, the aggregates are
aggregate such as EPS by replacement of replaced by EPS with the addition of some
aggregates (Kan and Demirboǧa, 2009a). The admixtures such as foaming agents and
lightweight concrete discussed in this paper super plasticisers. As the density of EPS is
will be lightweight concrete panels consist of significantly lower than that of concrete
ICCEA-2019-047

(mortar), segregation can take place. This can materials and labour (Sanjaya et al., 2015).
be avoided by adding ultra-fine silica fume This system includes a precast prestressed
to the concrete and it will improve the trapezoidal beam in an interval of 400 mm to
bonding between EPS and concrete (Babu 600 mm with a 50 – 60 mm thick in-situ cast
and Babu, 2003). In the production line, slab. The in-situ cast slab consists of 50 mm ×
manual compaction with bamboo sticks is 50 mm welded Galvanised Iron wire mesh as
carried out as mechanical compactors tend to reinforcement.
increase the segregation (Dissanayake et al.,
The construction process of this slab system
2017). The density of EPS is in the range of
starts with the placement of the precast
10-30 kg/m3 (Xu et al., 2012). When the EPS
beams in appropriate spacing on a firm wall
is added to the concrete, it will create
or a lintel beam. Once the beams are in place,
micropores, increasing the porosity and
plywood is used to create the bottom soffit of
along with that, the density of the concrete
the slab formwork. The bottom soffit does
will decrease. Due to the micropores created
not require props as the plywood boards are
by the EPS beads, the thermal conductivity
directly supported by the precast beams
will decrease, and the thermal insulation will
installed. The above-mentioned G.I wire
improve. A lightweight concrete mixture
mesh is placed while keeping the required
with EPS and resin will mitigate earthquake
cover for the reinforcement. In-situ mixed or
damages and the insulation characteristics of
premixed concrete is cast with mechanical
the material will be reinforced, which will
compaction. If required, electrical conduits
ensure the energy efficiency of the building
can be placed before casting the slab with the
(Kaya and Kar, 2016). However, it will
wire mesh. The general arrangement of the
reduce the compressive strength since the
slab system is shown in Figure 1 below.
compressive strength increases with the
density of concrete (Xu et al., 2012) and the
compressive strength of EPS is nearly zero. It
was shown that with the increase of EPS
quantity, the density decreases in the
concrete (Babu et al., 2005). Figure 1: NERDC composite slab system
Durable lightweight concrete panels with an This noble technology allows the casting of a
adequate strength which are having a lower slab of a typical size house within a day or
density (in the range of 650-750 kg/m3) can two, cutting down labour cost drastically.
be produced with EPS and sandwiched with Due to the use of prestressed trapezoidal
two cement fibre boards on each side. beams, the concrete used for the slab is
Cement fibre boards provide a smooth finish considerably less reducing the cost further.
to the panels and add durability by
providing a layer of less porosity. 3.3. Tropical climatic conditions
Dimensions of the panels produced are 2.4 m Cities in tropical climatic countries where
× 0.6 m with a range of thicknesses of 75 mm, most of the population growth takes place,
100 mm and 150 mm. EPS, cement, sand, fly have the most impact on global warming and
ash and water along with Polycarboxylate related greenhouse gas emissions (Butera,
superplasticizer is used in producing these 2018). This leaves a critical need for energy
panels and 5 mm thick cement fibre boards efficient living spaces and reliable renewable
were used to sandwich the panels. energy sources. In a tropical country like Sri
3.2. NERDC centre slab system Lanka, cooling of the living spaces is the
main concern rather than heating which
NERDC slab system is a cost-effective would be applicable only in some high-
composite slab system introduced by Dr. A. altitude regions. Figure 2 shows the plot of
N. S. Kulasinghe in 1987. This system has 8760 hourly data recorded over an annum for
many advantages over the conventional slab
system. To begin with, it saves about 30 – 40
% of the cost of construction including
ICCEA-2019-047

Figure 2: Data plotted on the psychrometric chart for Colombo/Ratmalana

(Rajapaksha, 2017)

Colombo/Ratmalana area plotted on the and parking spaces. In apartments, privacy is

psychrometric chart. a well-known concern. If proper steps have
not been taken for sound insulation, such as
This clearly shows a predominantly an
having a ticker floor slab, sound can be heard
uncomfortable thermal condition with 99%
from other units. In detached houses, the
of the points beyond the comfort zone (CZ)
houses are relatively far from each unit
according to ASHRAE 55 (Rajapaksha, 2017).
compared to apartments. Due to the
In order to make a dwelling place more
distance, the sound cannot be easily heard
thermally comfortable proper steps should
from the other units.
be taken. The fundamental comfort zone
shown in the Figure 1 can be further Transporting large goods to the apartment
extended when a wind movement is present. units on the upper floors can be near
The extended comfort zone can be easily impossible if the capacity of lifts is not
achieved by introducing fans which are less enough. Inter-floor impact noises can be a
energy consuming compared to air hindrance. The sources for the inter-floor
conditioners. Air conditioners are used impact noises can be classified into two;
widely to improve thermal comfort. This airborne and structure-borne (Tae-min et al.,
comes with high energy demand and a huge 2018). Airborne noises can be reduced by
carbon footprint (Fenner et al., 2018). Various installing insulation materials between walls
techniques can be used to make the house and the structure-borne noises are reduced
thermally comfortable with proper planning, by installing shock absorbing materials like
innovative selection of materials and carpets on the floor (Tae-min et al., 2018). In
inclusion of special features to the house. detached housing systems, inter-floor impact
These aspects will be discussed in depth in noises are well-reduced as it is a single-
the upcoming chapters of the paper. family dwelling place.
4. Detached houses in Tropical climatic As discussed earlier, in the tropical climatic
conditions countries a thermally comfortable dwelling
As discussed earlier in the introduction, the place is a necessary need. The level of
detached houses are preferred over multi- thermal comfort achieved in these high-rise
storey apartments. Having a personal land apartments is restricted by planners
plot is always preferable by most of the providing closer to a minimal number of
individuals. In a personal land plot, the openings required by the regulative
occupants can have their own home garden authorities for a single unit as multiple units
ICCEA-2019-047

are located at the same level. Rather than 5.2. Development of layout
avoiding this at the planning stage by the The layout of the house is carefully
provision of courtyards and lightwells, it is
developed to reduce the need for artificial
common to see mechanically ventilated or
cooling or ventilation. All the spaces are
air-conditioned spaces. In the detached open to the atmosphere according to the
housing system, the houses can be provided regulations of the local authority and the
with a generous number of openings due to Urban Development Authority (UDA) in
all or most of the external walls are open to
urban areas. The dimensions of the openings
the environment. Thus, allowing us to
are chosen according to the area that is
explore and practise more passive
utilised by the opening. This enables proper
techniques.
cross ventilation at the same time avoiding
5. Case study of the constructed two storey oversized openings that might jeopardise the
house structural integrity of the loadbearing walls.
The two-storey house mentioned above has As mentioned earlier, two storey house is an
been optimised in order to make it more excellent solution to have spacious dwelling
thermally comfortable in passive ways. places in a small land plot. Here, the ground
These passive techniques are discussed floor is equipped with a living room, a
under three main topics; development of the kitchen, a bathroom and two rooms which
layout, passive features and material can either be used as two bedrooms or as an
selection. office room and a bedroom. The upper floor
5.1. Material selection has the same arrangement as the ground
floor which can be used as a study hall, a
Materials used for the construction have a dining hall and two bedrooms. A balcony is
massive impact on thermal comfort and the also provided for the upper floor. The plan
cost of construction. Conventional materials view of the layout is shown in Figure 3.
like clay bricks and cement blocks have a
higher thermal conductivity compared to Due to the use of EPS based lightweight
EPS based concrete. The thermal sandwich panels, the dimensions of the walls
conductivity of the burnt clay bricks ranges are chosen in times of 300 mm to maintain
between 0.42 – 0.63 W/mK and for cement- the structural integrity of the panel and to
sand blocks, it is around 1.2 W/mK. The reduce the wastages as the width of a panel
same for the EPS based lightweight concrete is 600 mm. Therefore, any panels left as the
with density ranging from 400 and 800 balance can be reused again. In deciding the
kg/m3 ranges from 0.07 to 0.2 W/mK (Chen dimensions of the walls, a 10 mm allowance
and Liu, 2013). From these data it can be is considered as the mortar joints between
concluded that EPS based wall panels are the two panels had to be incorporated.
expected to provide better thermal comfort
in the house.
Dissanayake et al. (2017) concluded that with
the use of EPS based wall panels, the cost of
construction of masonry wall can be brought
down to about Rs. 3200/m2 from Rs.
4130/m2 and Rs. 4650/m2; the respective
costs when cement-sand blocks and burnt
clay bricks are used. Similarly, it is safe to say
the total cost will further reduce as the usual
practise is to go for concrete frame structures
which is costly with infill walls rather than
Figure 3: Layout of the ground and first floor
going for loadbearing construction.
ICCEA-2019-047

The same layout as the ground floor is 5.3. Passive features

adapted for the upper floor as well. This will In addition to the above-discussed
transfer the loads from the upper floor,
techniques, some passive techniques are
directly to the walls of the ground floor
used to improve the level of thermal comfort
without imposing a bending moment on the further. Awnings are provided for the
floor slab. To reduce the deadweight of the windows to reduce the direct sunlight
structure, 100 mm thick panels are used on entering the house (Figure 5). The awnings
the upper floor and 150 mm thick panels are
are cut and constructed out of the
used on the ground floor.
lightweight wall panels.
The floor is usually constructed out of 125
mm thick concrete slab. This would impose a
heavy dead load on the structure. To
minimise the dead load from the floor slab,
NERDC composite slab system is used. The
same is used as a roof slab since conventional
roofing materials like Calicut tiles and
asbestos roofing sheets are considered to be
heavy. In addition, land lost with the
construction of the house can be reclaimed
with the use of NERDC composite slab
system for the roof, providing space for
various activities such as gardening and Figure 5: Awnings for windows
drying goods. Having a flat roof that is
Concrete as a roofing material has its
accessible, gardening can be carried out. This
shortcomings. Concrete is a good thermal
would increase the green coverage of the
conductor and generally avoided for external
area, thus reducing the urban heat island
constructions (Latha et al., 2015). Therefore,
effect caused by high dense blocks.
the heat is absorbed and transferred into the
Access to the upper floor and the roof is house increasing the temperature inside the
provided with a staircase which is house. To reduce the dead load, the NERDC
constructed out of the lightweight panels slab system is used. However, this would
(Figure 4). The feasibility of using the EPS reduce the thermal comfort inside the house.
based lightweight panels have been already To mitigate this, lightweight wall panels are
assessed and the implications are explored cut into 600 x 600 mm pieces and arranged
by Vishnu et al. (2017). The space under the on top of the NERDC slab with a gap of 100
staircase can be used as a storage space to – 150 mm between each piece and finished
keep the belongings (Vishnu et al., 2017). with a 50 mm screed concrete. As EPS based
concrete acts as an insulation, resulting in a
reduction of heat transfer through the roof
slab. Further studies are carried out to
establish the parameters experimentally.
In addition to the insulative system
proposed, having a rooftop garden as
described earlier to reduce urban heat island
effects, will also reduce the heat gain by the
roof slab; increasing the thermal comfort
inside the house.
3. Conclusion
In a detailed study carried out on a two-
storey house with the tropical climatic
Figure 4: Staircase with storage space conditions prevailing in Sri Lanka, it is
ICCEA-2019-047

shown that there are so many strategies that Dissanayake, D. M. K. W., Jayasinghe, C. and
can be used with innovative material like Jayasinghe, M. T. R. (2017) ‘A comparative
EPS based lightweight concrete. They can be embodied energy analysis of a house with
used effectively to make such houses recycled expanded polystyrene (EPS) based
extremely thermally comfortable. In foam concrete wall panels’, Energy and
addition, it is shown that it is possible to Buildings. Elsevier B.V., 135, pp. 85–94.
almost eliminate the heat island effects even
Fenner, A. E., Kibert, C. J., Woo, J., Morque, S.,
if a high-dense housing has been achieved.
Razkenari, M., Hakim, H. and Lu, X. (2018) ‘The
Acknowledgements carbon footprint of buildings: A review of
methodologies and applications’, Renewable and
The authors of this paper wish to thank Prof.
Sustainable Energy Reviews. Elsevier Ltd,
C. Jayasinghe profoundly for the immense
94(March), pp. 1142–1152.
support and guidance provided to
successfully complete the paper. The support Kan, A. and Demirboǧa, R. (2009a) ‘A new
of N. Wijebandara, W. L. B. V. technique of processing for waste-expanded
Abhayawickrama and H. B. D. H. polystyrene foams as aggregates’, Journal of
Ariyarathne for their immense support in Materials Processing Technology, 209(6), pp. 2994–
planning and constructing the two-storey 3000.
house. Furthermore, sincere thanks to the
Kan, A. and Demirboǧa, R. (2009b) ‘A novel
staff of the Department of Civil Engineering,
material for lightweight concrete production’,
University of Moratuwa for the support and
Cement and Concrete Composites, 31(7), pp. 489–
guidance provided towards this research.
495.
Additionally, the authors are very thankful
to Eng. M. B. J. N Fernando for providing Kaya, A. and Kar, F. (2016) ‘Properties of
relevant information and support by concrete containing waste expanded
providing access to their factory which polystyrene and natural resin’, Construction and
manufactures lightweight concrete wall Building Materials. Elsevier Ltd, 105, pp. 572–
panels to gather information and materials. 578.
References Latha, P. K., Darshana, Y. and Venugopal, V.
(2015) ‘Role of building material in thermal
Babu, D. S., Ganesh Babu, K. and Wee, T. H.
comfort in tropical climates - A review’, Journal
(2005) ‘Properties of lightweight expanded
of Building Engineering. Elsevier, 3, pp. 104–113.
polystyrene aggregate concretes containing fly
ash’, Cement and Concrete Research, 35(6), pp. Rajapaksha, I. (2017) ‘Effect of Spatial
1218–1223. Ambience on Thermal Adaptation in Tropics:
Case of Free-running Shared Spaces in Coastal
Babu, K. G. and Babu, D. S. (2003) ‘Behaviour of
Hotels of Sri Lanka’, Procedia Engineering. The
lightweight expanded polystyrene concrete
Author(s), 180, pp. 975–985.
containing silica fume’, Cement and Concrete
Research, 33(5), pp. 755–762. Sanjaya, B. G. V., Srilal, W. M. S., Perera, W. W.
P. K. and Sooriyaarachchi, H. P. (2015)
Butera, F. M. (2018) Sustainable Neighborhood
‘Investigation on Improvement of Low Cost
Design in Tropical Climates. 2nd edn, Urban
NERD Slab System’, (December).
Energy Transition. 2nd edn. Elsevier Ltd.
Sun, R., Lü, Y., Yang, X. and Chen, L. (2019)
Chen, B. and Liu, N. (2013) ‘A novel
‘Understanding the variability of urban heat
lightweight concrete-fabrication and its thermal
islands from local background climate and
and mechanical properties’, Construction and
urbanization’, Journal of Cleaner Production.
Building Materials. Elsevier Ltd, 44, pp. 691–698.
Elsevier Ltd, 208, pp. 743–752.
Tae-min, K., Jeung-tae, K. and Jung-soo, K.
(2018) ‘SEA-FEM hybrid analysis for predicting
Inter-floor impact noise’, Applied Acoustics.
Elsevier Ltd, 129, pp. 397–407.
 ICCEA-2019-047

Vishnu, P., Thilakarathna, P. S. M., Mendis, P.

G. D. I. and Jayasinghe, M. T. R. (2017) ‘The
feasibility of using lightweight EPS based
panels for staircases of apartments’, in 8th
International Conference on Structural Engineering
and Construction Management.
Xu, Y., Jiang, L., Xu, J. and Li, Y. (2012)
‘Mechanical properties of expanded
polystyrene lightweight aggregate concrete and
brick’, Construction and Building Materials, 27(1),
pp. 32–38.

View publication stats