Editorial: Special subject on the mechanical behavior of fire dynamics in high-rise buildings

With rapid economic and social development in China, high-rise buildings have continuously sprung up since 2006. However, several big fire accidents in high-rise buildings such as the Beijing Television Cultural Center fire in 2009 and the Shanghai Jing＇an District fire in 2010 etc. have claimed people＇s lives and caused huge amounts of economic and property losses,

A New Dynamic and Vertical Photovoltaic Integrated Building Envelope for High-Rise Glaze-Facade Buildings

Substantially glazed facades are extensively used in contemporary high-rise buildings to achieve attractive architectural aesthetics.Inherent conflicts exist among architectural aesthetics,building energy consumption,and solar energy harvesting for glazed facades.In this study,we addressed these conflicts by introducing a new dynamic and vertical photovoltaic integrated building envelope(dvPVBE)that offers extraordinary flexibility with weather-responsive slat angles and blind positions,superior architectural aesthetics,and notable energy-saving potential.Three hierarchical control strategies were proposed for different scenarios of the dvPVBE:power generation priority(PGP),natural daylight priority(NDP),and energy-saving priority(ESP).Moreover,the PGP and ESP strategies were further analyzed in the simulation of a dvPVBE.An office room integrated with a dvPVBE was modeled using EnergyPlus.The influence of the dvPVBE in improving the building energy efficiency and corresponding optimal slat angles was investigated under the PGP and ESP control strategies.The results indicate that the application of dvPVBEs in Beijing can provide up to 131%of the annual energy demand of office rooms and significantly increase the annual net energy output by at least 226%compared with static photovoltaic(PV)blinds.The concept of this novel dvPVBE offers a viable approach by which the thermal load,daylight penetration,and energy generation can be effectively regulated.

nZEB:bridging the gap between design forecast and actual performance data

The nZEB objectives have raised the standard of building performance and changed the way in which buildings are designed and used.Although energy dynamic simulation tools are potentially the most suitable way for accurately evaluating and forecasting the thermal performance,they need several data inputs and user’s knowledge that can affect the reliability of the results.It is precisely these two aspects that proved to be particularly critical,since the reliability of the ICT calculation tools has been widely proven in recent time.However,in order to foster credibility in sustainable architecture,bridging the gap between predicted and measured performance is pivotal to boost the building market towards energy efficiency and provide reliable data to inhabitant,investors and policy maker.The present research aims to identify and quantify the main factors that affect the energy performance gap through a detailed energy analysis carried out on a case study,which can be considered one of the first nearly zero energy residential complex built in Italy.Based on the analysis,the study identifies the main causes of the deviation between the calculated and measured data and demonstrates how it is possible to achieve very reliable models and,therefore,real buildings.Although the procedure traces a classic model calibration scheme,actually it consists of a verification of possible downstream errors mainly due to human factors,such as the provision of incorrect technical data or inappropriate operation.Some observations on the technical,management and regulatory gaps that may generate these errors are reported at the end of the study,together with practical suggestions that can provide effective solutions.