THE ROLE OF INNOVATIONS IN CONSTRUCTION

Innovation in building has been generated in many different way. Clients have set new problems, they have demanded better standards of comfort and convenience, better services and more economic solutions. Designers have looked to the potential of new materials to solve old problems in new and better ways. Constructors have used the new materials in an effort to reduce the cost of construction. Their freedom to choose materials is only complete when they are building directly for the market. Building offers a large potential market and producers of materials have naturally tried to exploit this market for their materials.

While innovation has added to the range of materials available for building, increased the number of possible techniques, and made it possible to provide a better standard of comfort and service, they have done little to reduce the cost of construction. Increases in the standards of living have led to a rise both in the national costs of building construction and in the cost of individual buildings. It is unlikely that demand can be met, unless higher efficiency and hence lower relative costs can be achieved.

There have been made various attempts to reach this goal. They have taken four forms: prefabrication⁽¹⁾, system building, mechanization, and rationalization of the erection process.

Prefabrication is a very popular method. It is connected with the use of standard components and it has been developing steadily over the last half century.

Mechanization has been mainly developed in three directions: earth movement, material handling, and concrete mixing. The greatest success has perhaps been obtained in earth moving, where the power and endurance of the machine in relation to its cost is so much greater than that of the man it replaces. Materials handling has developed in step with the growth of the size of building units. Machine concrete mixing also replaces labour in a very difficult task.

The development of prefabricated methods of building and that of mechanization has necessarily been accompanied by the rationalization of the erection process. Every point of building job must be preplanned so that all operations can be timed to fit into one continuous sequence of operation. To be successful such planning must be accompanied with very good organization so that all the various types of labour and material are brought on to the site at the right time.

Ex.1. Develop the idea “The role of innovation” from the point of view of

a) clients

b) designers

c) contractors

Ex.2 Answer the following question

How are these goals reached?

Problems to be discussed

See for additional material Unit VI

1. Types of construction

2. Basic principles of design

3. Skyscrapers, their advantages and disadvantages

4. New techniques

5. How to make building industry more efficient

6. Civil Engineer and his career

7. New trends in construction

(1)-prefabrication-заводское изготовление

UNIT II.

BUILDING MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT.

Key words: to withstand , to eliminate, to alloy , to reinforce, to conduct, to occur, to refer, to include, to obtain, to ensure, to cause, to handle, to erect, to adjust, to mount, to demand, to accommodate, to progress, to hoist, to discharge, raw materials, ability, reinforced concrete, advantage, property, weight, a crane , a tower crane, a boom, floor, load, curves, tracks, a rail-mounted tower crane, installation of separate elements, to lift materials.

Part I.

Ex.1. Translate the following international words and word combinations:

unique combination, modern product, metal part, chemical industry, rocket engineering, industrial application, to fabricate, domestic, transmission, natural resources, technology, fibrous materials, types of plastics, economic factors, special functions.

Ex. 2. Translate the following paying attention to the suffixes:

1.construction, protection, erection, application, prediction, possibility, ability, durability, reliability, conductivity, general, natural, structural, thermal, special, 2.durability, durable, duration, industry, industrial, industrialization

3.to apply, applicable, application, to suit, suitable, to depend, dependable, to rely, reliable, to remark, remarkable.

PLASTICS.

Material choosing is a vital step in modern construction. A lot of new materials have appeared nowadays and plastics are among them.

Today plastics are referred to as materials of great importance, for no other group of materials is able to offer such a unique combination of properties.

Because of their combination of mechanical and dielectric properties plastics found their major industrial application in the electrical industry. A great number of plastics used in the electronics field finds applications where a good insulation property is an essential quality, e.g. wire covering, diodes, transistors, etc. An increasing number of electronic auxiliaries previously made of metal is now being fabricated of plastics. These include many kinds of mechanical components required for computers.

The development of rocket and space engineering made it necessary to develop new types of plastics.

A great deal of research had been carried out before special grades of plastics were obtained for space technology. Now they are widely used in space vehicles because of their light weight and their ability of performing special function metals cannot do. Without such materials it would be impossible to build spaceships.

By alloying, modifying as well as by changing the structure of polymers, chemists and technologists are able to produce different kinds of plastics.

Metal replacement by plastics is often due to the economic factors only. [The use of plastics enables the manufactures to eliminate many expensive machining and finishing process.] Moreover plastic parts can be mass produced at a lower cost compared with metal parts.

Although plastic do not possess the high strength of steel they are suitable for many purposes. Plastics can be reinforced by incorporating fibrous materials such as glass fiber, nylon and, at last, pure carbon fibers. The carbon plastics are known to open up vast new possibilities in the engineering field. Already some of the latest aircraft engines are using blades made of such plastics. These plastics are able to withstand much higher temperatures than metals. There exist plastics which have high mechanical strength and are able to withstand the extremes of pressures. It gives them a great advantage over metals.

[Mention should be made that plastics are widely used in chemical industry, all plastics̉ advantage over iron is that they are highly resistant to corrosion and therefore ensure a much longer life.]

Generally speaking, in every branch of the industry from power transmission to communications and from spaceships to domestic appliances plastics are playing a vitally important role.

Ex.1. Find the equivalents:

Ex. II. Join suitable parts.

1. Material choosing is…

a) of no importance now days

b) not required by designers and engineers

c) a vital step in modern construction

2. Plastics found their major application in the electric industry…

a) because of their light weight.

b) because of their dielectric properties .

c) because of their combination of mechanical and dielectric properties

3.The development of rocket and space engineering made…

a) it necessary to develop new types of plastics

b)it necessary to create new materials

c)it necessary to provide this branch of science with new materials

4.Plastics are widely used in space vehicles…

a)because of their mechanical properties

b) because of their resistance to corrosion

c) because of their light weight and their ability of performing special function metal cannot do

Ex. III. Answer the question : Why are plastics so widely used in modern construction ? Comment on your choice.

1. Material choice is a very important step in modern construction

2. Plastics are widely applied in modern construction because they can withstand high temperatures

3. They possess many good properties but the most important is their unique combinations of such properties.

Ex. IV. Translate the following:

material choosing, insulation property, insulation property control, space technology , space technology requirement, metal replacement , plastics parts, plastics parts erection, aircraft engines, aircraft engines design, pure carbon, pure carbon fiber, unique combination, combination properties, unique combination properties, power transmission, power transmission line.

Ex. V. Translate the 8^th abstract of the text “Plastics” in written form

Ex. VI. Translate into Russian

1. A Bachelor’s degree is known to be the first step towards professional certification in most countries.

2. The carbon plastics were reported to have opened up vast new possibilities in the engineering field.

3. Material choosing is expected to play a vital step in modern construction

4. Plastics are assumed to withstand higher temperatures than metals

5. The state of construction site is said to play an important role in the erection of new objects

Ex. VII. Translate into English

1. Ожидают, что космические транспортные средства будут более надежными

2. Сообщают, что новый пятизвездочный отель будет построен рядом с аэропортом Хитрово в Англии

3. Известно, что первый небоскреб в Чикаго имел только 10 этажей

4. Говорят, что пластмассы не обладают высокой прочностью стали.

Read the text and answer the questions : “What does concrete consist of ? Whom was the discovery of reinforced concrete attributed to and why?”

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