Epoxy clay nanocomposites have been proven to have improved mechanical, thermal and physical properties over pristine matrix. Thus, the fields of application of epoxy–clay nanocomposites along with their hybrid glass/carbon fibre reinforced composites have grown tremendously during the last few decades. The present review paper covers the research work performed on epoxy clay nanocomposites. It includes the influence of the processing techniques and parameters on the morphology of the nanocomposite, the methods of characterization and the effects of adding nanoclay on the mechanical and physical properties of composite. The improvements in the liquid barrier properties brought about by the addition of nanoclay platelets to epoxy resin are discussed. The variation of physical and mechanical properties with nanoclay type and content are reviewed along with the effects of moisture uptake on these properties. The advances in the development, characterization and applications of hybrid glass fibre reinforced epoxy–clay nanocomposites are discussed. Findings of the research work on the influence of nanoclay addition and exposure to water laden atmospheres on the behaviour of the hybrid glass fibre epoxy–nanoclay composites are presented. Finally, the potential health and environmental issues related to nanomaterials and their hybrid composites are reviewed.

The building sector is one of the crucial stakeholders in the global energy and environmental scenario. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool widely used to evaluate the environmental performance of buildings, materials and activities. Saudi Arabia has a rapidly growing construction sector with over $1 Trillion of ongoing projects. The housing sector, annually needing over 2.32 million new residential units in coming years, is yet to entertain environmental performance of buildings in its list of priorities. The present work undertakes a LCA study of a three-bedroom modern villa located in Dhahran. Providing the structural details of the villa, an account of the 18 main construction materials in terms of quantity and application has been produced. Embodied energy of these materials has been estimated adopting ‘cradle-to-gate’ approach. Environmental impacts of the materials have been modeled with the help of SimaPro software. The results suggest that concrete accounts for more than 43% of the total embodied energy of the house and is also the predominant material in terms of the overall environmental impacts. Steel is the second most prominent material both in terms of quantity and embodied energy.

The thermal characteristics of the phase change process due to three different configurations of the solution domain are studied using n-octadecene as a phase change material (PCM). The configurations include the PCM only, aluminum foam filled with the PCM, and aluminum mesh in the presence of the PCM. The time taken for the complete melting of the PCM is predicted for each configuration. In the analysis, the amount of PCM is kept the same for all configurations, and the amount of aluminum material is kept constant in the aluminum foam and the aluminum mesh configurations. The performance characteristics are the dimensionless temperature ratio ((T_max − T_b)/(T_max − T_in), where T_max is the maximum temperature, T_b is the bulk temperature, and T_in is the initial temperature), the minimum liquid fraction, the ratio of the cumulative energy stored during phase change over the total energy input to the storage system, and the total molten mass over the total mass of the PCM in each configuration. An experiment is conducted to verify the predictions of the numerical simulations for the aluminum foam. It is found that the experimental findings of the molten states of the PCM in the aluminum foam agree well with their counterparts predicted from the simulations. Aluminum mesh in the presence of the PCM significantly shortens the time required for complete melting in the thermal storage system.