Sustainable building repair: A K-means approach to addressing fissures in ceramic brick partition walls

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to determine, catalogue, and quantify failures appearing in ceramic brick partition walls after the delivery of buildings, based on claims filed by users and on the philosophy of 'learning from failures'. To examine the more than 600 cases presented, technical affinity groups were defined for the descriptors used, a series of checks were carried out using cluster analysis, a proprietary procedure was implemented for calculating the risk of demands being filed, and a final risk assessment process was made, divided into five categories. It was found that there is a recurring presence of large cracks due to incorrect bond/connections between brick wall panels. The repair of the most frequent cause of 'Incorrect lock/connection of the panes' was analysed in terms of CO2 emissions. The study of a large number of real cases, such as has been done in this paper, can allow us to advance and define new strategies to significantly minimise future failures, making it difficult for them to reach the usage phase of the building. The access to a type of data source never before used in the world to corroborate the types of damages and causes that occur in partitions (indicating their recurrence and evaluating user dissatisfaction) is unprecedented.