January 22, 1998
BUILDING
ENCLOSURES AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE
by:
Eric F. P.
Burnett, Hankin Professor
Department of Civil &
Environmental Engineering
Dr. Burnett is currently the Bernard and Henrietta Hankin Chair at the Pennsylvania State University. He is cross-appointed to the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architectural Engineering. He is also the Director of the Pennsylvania Housing Research Center.
Dr. Burnett is a structural engineer with specialist competence in the broad areas of building science and technology, building performance and structural concrete. He has extensive experience of the building industry, having been involved in the design and construction of buildings on three continents. He has worked with and consulted to a number of R and D agencies in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere. As a consultant, Dr. Burnett has been involved in the design of a number of projects and in many building enclosure failure investigations.
Dr. Burnett’s current research interests are directed at the performance of building enclosures, i.e. wall systems, roofs, etc., and the integration of structural and control (heat, air, moisture) functions. Recent projects have involved reinforced polymer modified bitumen membranes, FRP and PVC structural elements, masonry (brick veneer/steel stud, tie systems, durability, etc.) A number of projects have been directed at the wetting and drying mechanisms in wall systems using a full-scale test facility. He has been involved in the development of a number of building systems in particular industrialized housing systems.
In the talk, Dr. Burnett will attempt to demonstrate the importance of the building enclosure in the following terms:
· proportion of the initial construction cost of a building and its significance with regard to operating, maintenance and repair costs.
· the vulnerability of the building enclosure to many forms of loading not the least of which is ignorance on the part of the design profession
· the liability implication of poor performance
· illustrate, by means of some case histories, the nature and consequences of poor enclosure performance.