Environmental zoning for service life prediction of building components in Malaysia

Abstract

Interactions between building materials and environment are very complex. More often than not, deterioration of building component is due to environmental loads with the result of reducing its durability. The environmental loads are less overlooked or underestimated in early design phase. Objective of this study is to distinguish the difference of environmental load for different area in Malaysia. The environmental data consist of climate and pollution data which extracted from the Malaysia Meteorology Department's data bank. From this study, six different environmental zones in Malaysia are distinguished. There are different characteristic of environmental parameters found where some of them dominant to others. This information can assist the engineer to justify the use of different technology, material or construction method in construction industry. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.