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Measuring the “Health” of Buildings

The pandemic has forced us to rethink countless aspects of our lives, including the buildings we spend our days inhabiting. Social distancing requirements and efforts to reduce virus transmission in indoor environments demand that “healthy buildings” be a top priority for the real estate industry. But what constitutes a healthy building, and what are the differences between various building types? And what is the best way to quantify, track and compare the relative health of buildings? Offices spaces, hotels and even residential properties will want to find ways to differentiate themselves and quickly communicate their health and safety attributes to their respective occupants and consumers.

Energy monitor can find electrical failures before they happen

A new system devised by researchers at MIT can monitor the behavior of all electric devices within a building, ship, or factory, determining which ones are in use at any given time and whether any are showing signs of an imminent failure. When tested on a Coast Guard cutter, the system pinpointed a motor with burnt-out wiring that could have led to a serious onboard fire.

The new sensor, whose readings can be monitored on an easy-to-use graphic display called a NILM (non-intrusive load monitoring) dashboard, is described in the March issue of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, in a paper by MIT professor of electrical engineering Steven Leeb, recent graduate Andre Aboulian MS ’18, and seven others at MIT, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. Naval Academy. A second paper will appear in the April issue of Marine Technology, the publication of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers.

Can sensors speed Cobstruction? Purdue researches test concrete strength sensors

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Technology designed by Perdue engineers looks to verify concrete’s maturity onsite, without extensive offsite testing.

How long it takes to construct a building depends in large part on when the concrete of each floor is strong enough to take on loads. Purdue University engineers have developed sensors that could safely speed up a construction timeline by determining concrete strength directly onsite in real time.

Typically, concrete mix designs require testing before implementation in a construction project. Once those mixes have been vetted for use, the mix design cannot be altered without additional offsite testing.

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