Complex Engineering Problem

Subject: ME-418, Heat & Mass Transfer Marks: 20

CLOs: 4, 5,6 PLOs: 4,5,6,
The grand challenges of the 21st century require human race to solve problems and face
uncertainties that we have never faced before. According to World Economic Forum (2016),
the topmost important skill for the fourth industrial revolution by 2020 is Complex Problem
Solving. Therefore, it is ever more demanding to have competent problem-solving skills to
survive in this century. Students must equip themselves with abilities to think critically,
creatively and solve problems at all level of education especially at the tertiary level.
Moreover, engineering students are required to have the skills in knowledge acquisition,
synthesis, reasoning, problem analysis, operation and evaluation .
Following are the attributes of Complex Engineering Problem:

Problem Description:

The use of durable, attractive, and environmentally responsible building materials is a key
element of any high-performance building. The use of natural and health friendly materials
contributes to the well-being of the occupants and to a feeling of connection with the bounty
of the natural world.
We traditionally used earth bricks, concrete, steel and wood in construction. These have
been, and continue to be used in everyday construction, meaning the continued destruction of
trees for timber, and the mining of resources to produce steel , cement for binding sand,
gravel, and bricks. Concrete is one of the most used building materials in the world. It’s also
one of the worst materials.
Sustainable and green building is the future of construction. Not only does it help to protect
our environment, building greenly can reduce the cost of building operation over time. One
important aspect of green construction is to use sustainable natural building materials with
good insulation properties.
Natural building materials are materials used for building that are considered abundantly
available in that environment, and are renewable, recycled or reused. Natural building
materials are significant and many. Overall, they have less embodied energy than
conventional building materials, which results in less energy being required for their
production. Using locally sourced natural materials reduces the environmental impact that
goes into sourcing the material. These are materials that are more easily found in nature with
good thermal properties, and do not take as much energy ( carbon dioxide) to mass produce,
and do not contribute as much to the pollution of the earth as opposed to the conventional
building materials which have poor thermal properties.
Deliverables:
1. A comprehensive literature review (25 references) for Sample Characteristics of
Environmentally Preferable (EP) Materials
2. Detailed review about 20 construction materials along with their thermal properties
(25 references).
3. Select 5 local natural materials and compare their thermal properties with
existing(Concrete, steel, bricks, plaster etc) construction materials.
4. Simulate your own home in any software with existing materials and 5 selected local
natural materials and compare annual energy saving.
5. Calculate the critical thickness for 5 selected natural materials and perform cost
benefit analysis of replacing natural materials with exiting materials.
6. A declaration on first page that you have read all the instructions and has completed
all work following ethics and you are responsible what you have submitted.
Note:
➢ Use the standard SI unit .
➢ The submission deadline for assignment will be December 5, 2021 Sunday mid-night
(23:59) on Turnitin.
➢ Table, graph and text as image is not allowed and only word file submission will be
considered and any other format will be marked zero.
➢ The late submissions will be penalized as 10% marks deduction per day up to three
days.
➢ The submission after three days will not be considered.
➢ No resubmission is allowed.
➢ Percentage of originality is 75% and above this will be marked zero.
➢ Anyone found copying from other fellows by changing fonts style, software
rephrasing will be reported to Controller Examination as Unfair Means Case.
Turnitin.com details:

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