Fabric, as a flexible formwork for concrete, gives builders, engineers, and architects the ability to form virtually any shape. This technique produces a superb concrete surface quality that requires no further touch up or finishing. Woven polyolefin fabrics are recommended for this application. The texture of this fabric allows water from concrete mix to bleed, and therefore reduces the water-cement ratio of the mix. Due to the reduction in the water-cement ratio, a higher compressive strength in fabric-formed concrete is achieved, which is also suggested by earlier studies. The current research study was conducted to investigate and document the changes in concrete strength and overall quality due to these woven polyolefin fabrics. Use of fabric formwork will result in a decrease in construction cost, construction waste, and greenhouse gas emissions. Two sets of tests were conducted in this research study: a comparison of the compressive strength of fabric-formed versus PVC-formed concrete cylinders, and a comparison of the behaviour of the fabric-formed columns versus cardboard-formed reinforced concrete columns. Variables in this research were limited to two types of fabric that included one with coarse and one with a more refined texture, and two types of concrete that included ordinary and flyash concrete. The laboratory results revealed that the effects of fabric formwork on concrete quality in a large member are limited mostly to the surface zone and the core of the concrete remains the same as a conventionally formed concrete. Even though fabric-formed cylinder tests showed an average of a 15% increase in compressive strength of the concrete samples, the compressive strength of the reinforced columns did not dramatically change when compared to the companion cardboard formed control columns. This research confirmed that fabric formwork is a structurally safe alternative for forming reinforced concrete columns.

The housing of gestating sows in groups requires sound information about the adapted design of the pen floor. Slatted concrete floors are commonly used for effective drainage of manure but can cause feet injuries and lameness. In the present study, kinematics were used to characterize the gait of 12 gilts and 12 lame sows walking in a corridor on slatted concrete floors with different combinations of slat (85, 105 or 125 mm) and gap (19, 22 or 25 mm) widths. The nine experimental floors were tested with slats in the perpendicular and parallel orientation to the direction of animal walk, according to a duplicated lattice design. Gait parameters were quantified using spatial, temporal and angular kinematics for front and rear limbs. Some parameters were significantly affected by the treatments (p < 0.05), but the effects differed between gilts and lame sows and between slat orientations. Gap width had a significant effect on parameters such as back angle, stride length, foot height, and carpal and tarsal joint angle amplitudes. Slat width significantly affected parameters such as foot height, and carpal and tarsal joint angle amplitudes. Comparisons of the different combinations of slat and gap widths revealed that slats with a width of 105–125 mm and gap width of 19–22 mm had the least effect on the gait characteristics of the gilts and sows.

The use of structural insulated panels (SIPs) for wall and roof assemblies in residential and commercial buildings is a well-known construction technique. SIPs typically use a combination of either expanded polystyrene foam (EPS) or polyurethane foam (PUR) as the core material. The covering or skin is predominantly oriented strand board (OSB). The OSB is either bonded to the foam with adhesive in the case of EPS, while polyurethane is used to provide adhesion with PUR SIPs. This paper presents the results of research that investigated the use of industrial hemp mat used as a skin for soy-based polyurethane foam panels. A series of tests were conducted to investigate moisture resistance and flexural behaviour on hemp mat foam panels. Moisture absorption behaviour was evaluated on three specimen types: uncoated, earth plaster and tung oil treated hemp mat. The absorption coefficient Aw was determined for all specimens. The tung oil treated specimens exhibited a water absorption coefficient that was 5.3% of that for untreated hemp mat panel specimens. Flexural tests were conducted on dry specimens with earth-plastered hemp mat, tung oil coated hemp mat, OSB and, untreated hemp mat skins. Tung oil provided resistance to tension failure and increased capacity to withstand considerable deformation without tensile failure in flexural specimens. Compared with pure foam specimens, untreated hemp mat improved flexural performance by 16.3%.