Development and use of composite fibrous materials in the UK construction industry

The work described in this thesis is the result of a series of technological and economic studies carried out in 1974-76 on the development and use of new composite fibrous materials in the construction industry. The research embraces all technical, economic and managerial aspects of the design and development of building panels, units and systems made wholly or partly from composite fibrous materials, whether manufactured on site or off site. The main objective of the research has been to discover the significance and relative importance of factors affecting acceptance by, and use of new materials in, the construction industry using glass fibre reinforced plastics (G. R. P. ) as a model material and generalizing the findings as far as possible. It has been found that, although the relative importance of technical and architectural factors varies considerably from one material to another, the average cost of a product made froma given material relative to those of alternatives determines the extent of utilization of that product (or material). Attempts have been made to see if a reliable estimate could be made of the time-scale required for a new material to reach the traditional status; it has been shown that there is no single reliable method which can be used to arrive at the required estimate. However, from the available data, it has been estimated that the above time-scale is at least of the order of two decades. Methods for systematic development and marketing of new materials and products into the construction industry are given; these are based on the experience of reinforced plastics and aluminium alloys.