The increase in heavy traffic load due to increasing number of vehicles and trucks with the effects of other exterior factors such air temperatures and moisture have caused distresses on pavement. In this study, the influence of laboratory aging on the mechanical properties of Polyethylene-modified concrete mixtures was studied utilizing different experiments. Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) waste plastic bottles was used at different percentage i.e. 1%, 2%, 3%, and 5% by weight of bitumen. The design bitumen content was obtained for dense mixture according to superpave system. Marshall Stability, Flow, indirect tensile strength, and tensile strength ratio at two aging levels are conducted to evaluate the performance change of asphalt mixtures. Mixtures were conditioned at shortterm aging temperature of 135°C for different time periods (2, 6 and 8 hrs). Long-term aging was completed after compaction of test specimens to the desired air void level of 4 ± 0.5% using Superpave gyratory compactor at three different temperatures (75, 85 and 95) °C and four aging periods (0, 2, 5, and 10 days. The results showed that adding PET polymer to paving blend has good significance; it improved stability, flow, HMA density in addition to moisture resistance because of great elastic ability provided by PET particles, it can be found that 4 and 5% of PET content gave the best results as compared with the control mixture.

The increasing need to provide standard comfort requirements inside buildings has made the construction sector one of the dominant energy consumers and a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Improving the thermal insulation efficiency of the building envelope by improving the thermal behaviour of the walls leads to giving an impetus towards reducing energy consumption. In this paper, an experimental embedding of Phase Change Materials (PCM) with perforated bricks wall. For PCM (Paraffin wax) packaging purposes, two configurations are used; capsules were manufactured to fit the size of the holes inside the bricks and a square thin container. Both packages are made from iron and filled with Paraffin (147 kJ/kg latent heat, 38℃ solid phase and 43℃ liquid phase) and closed in a way that prevents leakage. The experiments included constructing a cube-shaped zone from the sandwich panels material with a square hole (0.5m×0.5m) was made in one of its walls to place the test samples in it. The indoor test proceeded with 900W/m2 light intensity applied directly on the sample external surface. Four different samples named C1, C2, C3, and C4 have been used in this study. When compared to a traditional wall C1, the results showed that the heat flow was reduced by 35.7%, 17.4%, and 13.9% for C2, C3, and C4 respectively. All the models that included PCM got a reduction in temperature increases and a slowdown of thermal diffusion. Placing the PCM layer inside the brick holes achieved a maximum reduction in the heat flux compared to the reference model.

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Buildings are the major energy users and by 2035, they will be the fourth largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Phase change materials (PCMs) are applied to shift the peak-load to the off-peak-load, positively effecting the efficiency of the building. In this paper, an experimental embedding of PCM (Paraffin) with bricks in conventional wall layers is carried out. The effect of this on the thermal diffusion of the inner surface of the wall is studied. Capsules are manufactured to fit the size of the holes inside the bricks and they are filled with Paraffin (147 kJ/kg latent heat, 38oC solidified and 43oC liquidised) and closed in a way that prevents leakage. Each brick contained two rows of holes (5 holes per row). Capsules are placed in the holes at a rate of 5 capsules per brick and 10 capsules per brick. Three wall samples are experimentally tested: traditional wall, wall containing 5 capsules/brick and a wall containing 10 capsules/brick. The indoor test with light intensity has been fixed on 900 W/m2 during the heating period for 4 hours and the remaining period of cooling. The temperature measured and recorded for the internal, external surfaces and the middle of the wall using K-type thermocouples and datalogger. The results indicated that, bricks wall with 10 PCM- capsules per brick reduced the heat flux by 34.17% compared with traditional wall sample, and energy stored 50% more than a wall with 5PCM-capsules per brick. The lowest temperature of the internal wall surface of sample 10 capsules per brick is recorded compared to the reference wall where the difference is more than 3°C.