This two-part paper deals with the topic of environmental effectiveness of buildings. The goal of the paper is evaluation of expected embodied environmental impacts related with a detached family house. First part of the paper describes the evaluated building and used methods. Seven currently common variants of load-bearing structures (walls and floors) are described and compared. Five variants include masonry, while the sixth and seventh variant includes cast-in-place reinforced concrete structures. The evaluation follows Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology according to ČSN EN 15978 standard. The results of the evaluation are shown in the second part of the paper. Under the specified boundary conditions the variant with ceramic masonry filled with mineral wool has 5–14 % lower environmental impacts than other evaluated variants.

Long-time study of fibre-reinforced concrete, i.e. a composite material with a cementitious matrix, whose structure is hardened by usually randomly distributed fibres (steel ones in the most frequent case), demonstrates good mechanical and other technical properties, which makes possible its utilization in bearing structures. This stimulates the development of methods, non-destructive or low-invasive if possible, for the analysis of its structure, which determines crucial mechanical properties, e.g. fracture resistance under tensile loads. This article, coming from research activities of the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Brno University o Technology, brings an overview of available methods, namely direct methods coming from image processing and indirect ones utilizing measurements of electromagnetic quantities.

This two-part paper deals with the topic of environmental effectiveness of buildings. The goal of the paper is evaluation of expected embodied environmental impacts related with a detached family house. First part of the paper describes the evaluated building and used methods. Seven currently common variants of load-bearing structures (walls and floors) are described and compared. Five variants include masonry, while the sixth and seventh variant includes cast-in-place reinforced concrete structures. The evaluation follows Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology according to ČSN EN 15978 standard. The results of the evaluation are shown in the second part of the paper. Under the specified boundary conditions the variant with ceramic masonry filled with mineral wool has 5–14 % lower environmental impacts than other evaluated variants.

The article deals with hot-air treatment of a historically valuable Rožnov town office, built in 1770, which was transported to the Wallachian Open Air Museum in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm in 1924 as the first building of the currently extensive premises of this national cultural heritage. The method of wooden structure hot-air treatment was used for the first time in the territory of the Czech Republic in 2010. It has been used in western European countries (especially Denmark and Germany) approximately since 1930. This comprehensive method is governed by the German standard DIN 68 800 – Part 4 [1] and it is especially used for historically valuable buildings where emphasis is put on the preservation of the original wooden structure attacked by wood-destroying insects, usually of the long-horn beetle family (Cerambycidae) oranobium beetle family (Anobiidae). The goal of the article is to explain the hot-air treatment method to professional public using an example of one of implementations.

Water vapour permeability is one of significant material properties. The value of water vapour resistance factor is necessary to know to be able to rehabilitate structures, mainly after floods. One thing is essential – to know what are the values of water vapour resistance factor of the used material to know how long the structure will take to be dried and users can come back to live there.

The natural radioactivity lives mankind throughout its development. The effects of radiation to some extent they can influence the evolutionary history of life on Earth. It is therefore important to determine what values the natural radioactivity would reach different locations of the world.

This paper presents a technical solution for bended timber beams and their strengthening. Beams exposed to bending are of the most common use as structural elements. King-post trusses, sling-braced trusses, tie-rod trusses or additional timber beams were assembled to cover large spans in the past. These structures required using additional structural members which limited the space above or underneath a subjected beam. The technical solution presented herein considers a tie-rod truss principle applied on a beam, similar to post-tensioning reinforced concrete structures.

This article continues the discussion [4] from 2010. The wave theory light and of its diffraction was substantiated by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (l788–1827). Soon we will recall the bicentennial of his discovery. In 1819 Fresnel received Prize of the French Academy of Sciences for discussion of wave diffraction. Wave attenuation is caused by interference. Laws of wave diffraction also apply to the sound. According to them two-dimensional problem i.e. the sound attenuation of a wall with finite length can be solved.

The paper presents the first findings of comprehensive research program focused on the investigation of resistance of UHPC to deicing chemical agents and freezethaw cycles. Several series of tests were conducted to compare the behavior of UHPC and reference C40/50 class fibre-reinforced concrete.

Natural building materials are in recent years used still more often in civil engineering. One of these materials is also the straw. By its crushing and cutting into small pieces it is formed so-called crushed straw. The properties of this material, which are important for civil engineering, were not published yet unlike the properties of the straw in bales. In the Czech Republic there exist a many objects built from straw bales. In this paper there are described partial results of research which is implemented on Faculty of Civil Engineering, VSB – Technical University of Ostrava since 2013. The aim of this research it is to set fire resistance, thermal – technical properties and acoustical characteristics of crushed straw. There are described results of fire tests – flammability test and tests of single burning object (SBI). Subsequently there are referred results of thermal conductivity measurements, which were provided for different bulk densities of crushed straw.

Article discusses possible ways of shallow foundation during construkction and reconstrukction of objects placed in gap sites and other nearby buildings.

The subject of this paper is a comparison of two experiments of timber-fibre concrete floors in fire, which consist of steel fibre reinforced concrete boards and glue-laminated timber beams. Main aim of this project is to assess the using of steel fibre reinforced concrete board, which work together with glue-laminated timber beams to increase fire resistance and investigate its behaviour in loaded construction.

Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) and the rest of energy efficient buildings needs to be precisely and complexly optimised during the planning stage. This helps to improve not only the energy demand and the energy costs but also overall efficiency of planning process, function, longer lifespan together with lower maintenance costs. It is crucial to start with optimisation at the very beginning of planning stage – first concepts or even when defining the client demands. These are also moments when at the lowest price we can make biggest impact on future efficiency of a building during the whole lifecycle. There are some tips like qualified client input, integral planning, architectural competition or quality assessment which can significantly improve overall quality of projects.

Steel frame structures are commonly analyzed three dimensionally by 1D elements. Connection of elements to joints is assumed to be perfectly rigid, nominally pinned or semi-rigid. The new CBFEM method allows to properly model the connection. The bending/deformation stiffness, resistance and deformation capacity of connections of individual members is evaluated. CBFEM model is loaded with appropriate internal forces obtained by global analysis. The article explains loading of a detailed 3D model of a joint. It also addresses situation where actual structural design of the joint does not match theoretical expectations of the global analysis.

For more than a year, a nearly zero-energy standard has applied to certain buildings. In the Czech environment, specific technical parameters for such buildings have been known for three years. And for over six years, the Directive on energy performance of buildings has been in force, imposing the obligation upon EU member states to introduce this standard.

Nevertheless, it seems that for many experts, including those in the field of energy, this term is still quite unclear. Many imagine buildings coated with photovoltaic modules from the ground to the roof, buildings which are better than passive ones or buildings which are self-sufficient, i.e. completely independent of public energy networks. Given the fact that the concept of a nearly zero energy building is very distant from such notions, and because this standard will soon become obligatory for all buildings, including small family houses, let's have a look at what a nearly zero-energy building really is.

The article is dedicated to the diagnosis of classical reinforced concrete structure in the spirit of “Bata architecture” built in the 30s of the 20^th century. The preliminary inspection suspected presence of aluminous cement in concrete, which was subsequently confirmed by the detailed diagnosis.

The paper is focused on comparison of different types of compressive tests of samples exposed to high temperature. The tests could be divided into two basic types. The first type of the test is an ambient temperature testing to obtain residual compressive strengths and the second type is a hot state testing to obtain mechanical parameters of concrete exposed to high temperature.

The removal of unwanted material from the surface of historical artefacts is one of the most important and also the most delicate operations in the restoration of cultural heritage. In the Center for innovations in the field of nanomaterials and nanotechnologies a novel design concept of the cleaning microemulsions was developed based on a combination of the two functions, implemented by two components, namely a micellar solution or microemulsion of nonionic surfactants with the addition of co-surfactants and the specific solvents, which are selected according to the respective substances to be removed. The patented cleaning compositions can very effectively and selectively remove coatings of many substances important for the restoration practice, such as waxes, resins (e.g, Damara), paraffins, oils, water acrylate dispersions, hydrophobization coatings (both monomeric and polymeric) etc. Besides the efficient cleaning, the developed procedures have wider applications, such as in a new method of the hydrophobization of sandstone and limestone materials with a thin hydrophilic surface layer, which has been certified by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.

The paper presents an example of solving the propagation of noise from an air/water heat pump installed in the basement of an apartment building. Air intake and exhaust are brought out on the façade of the building, where it is calculated the noise situation in the protected exterior of the building. In the interior it is solved the propagation of sound from the plant room to the protected interior space. In conclusion, the results are compared with the data from the report on measurement at the realized work.