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.

An active pipe-embedded building envelope for utilizing low-grade energy sources

An active pipe-embedded building envelope, which is an external wall or roof with pipes embedded inside, was presented. This structure may utilize the circulating water in the pipe to transfer heat or coolth inside directly. This kind of structure is named ＂active pipe-embedded building envelope＂ due to dealing with the thermal energy actively inside the structure mass by circulating water. This structure not only deals with thermal energy before the external disturbance becomes cooling/heating load by using the circulating water, but also may use low-grade energy sources such as evaporative cooling, solar energy, and geothermal energy. In the meantime, this structure can also improve the indoor thermal comfort by tempering the internal wall surface temperature variation due to the thermal removal in the mass. This work further presents the thermal performance of this structure under a typical hot summer weather condition by comparing it with that of the conventional external wall/roof with numerical simulation. The results show that this pipe-embedded structure may reduce the external heat transfer significantly and reduce the internal wall surface temperature for improving thermal comfort. This work also presents the effects of the water temperature and the pipe spacing on the heat transfer of this structure. The internal surface heat transfer may reduce by about 2.6 W/mE when the water temperature reduces by 1℃ as far as a brick wall with pipes embedded inside is concerned. When the pipe spacing reduces by 50 mm, the internal wall surface heat flux can also reduce by about 2.3 W/m2.

Development of experimental study on coupled heat and moisture transfer in porous building envelope

A new facility was presented which can expediently and cheaply measure the transient moisture content profile in multi-layer porous building envelope.Then,a common multi-layer porous building envelope was provided,which was constructed by cement mortar-red brick-cement plaster.With this kind of building envelope installed in the south wall,a well-controlled air-conditioning room was set up in Changsha,which is one of typical zones of hot and humid climate in China.And experiments were carried out to investigate the temperature and moisture distribution in multi-layer building envelope in summer,both in sunny day and rainy day.The results show that,the temperature and humidity at the interface between the brick and cement mortar are seriously affected by the changes of outdoor temperature and humidity,and the relative humidity at this interface keeps more than 80% for a long-term,which can easily trigger the growth of mould.The temperature and humidity at the interface between the brick and cement plaster change a little,and they are affected by the changes of indoor temperature and humidity.The temperature and humidity at the interface of the wall whose interior surface is affixed with a foam plastic wallpaper are generally higher than those of the wall without wallpaper.The heat transfer and moisture transfer in the envelope are coupled strongly.

Integrated Building Envelope Design Process Combining Parametric Modelling and Multi-Objective Optimization

As an important element in sustainable building design, the building envelope has been witnessing a constant shift in the design approach. Integrating multi-objective optimization (MOO) into the building envelope design process is very promising, but not easy to realize in an actual project due to several factors, including the complexity of optimization model construction, lack of a dynamic-visualization capacity in the simulation tools and consideration of how to match the optimization with the actual design process. To overcome these difficulties, this study constructed an integrated building envelope design process (IBEDP) based on parametric modelling, which was implemented using Grasshopper platform and interfaces to control the simulation software and optimization algorithm. A railway station was selected as a case study for applying the proposed IBEDP, which also utilized a grid-based variable design approach to achieve flexible optimum fenestrations. To facilitate the stepwise design process, a novel strategy was proposed with a two-step optimization, which optimized various categories of variables separately. Compared with a one-step optimization, though the proposed strategy performed poorly in the diversity of solutions, the quantitative assessment of the qualities of Pareto-optimum solution sets illustrates that it is superior. © 2016, Tianjin University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Thermal performance of integration of solar collectors and building envelopes

The integration of building with solar collector was studied. The theoretical model of integration of building envelopes and flat plate solar collectors was set up and the thermal performance of integration was studied in winter and summer,and compared to envelopes without solar collectors. The results show that the solar collection efficiency is raised in the integration of building envelopes and solar collectors with the air layer doors closed. This is true whether in winter or summer. The increment is higher as the inlet water temperature increases or the ambient temperature is low. In winter,the heat loss is significantly reduced through integration of the building envelopes and solar collectors with the closed air layer doors. The integration with the open air layer door is worse than that without collectors. In summer,the heat gains of the integration of envelopes and solar collectors are more obviously reduced than envelopes without collectors,the integration with the open air layer door is a little better than the closed one,but the difference is very small.

Simulation of the Hygrothermal Behavior of a Building Envelope Based on Phase Change Materials and a Bio-Based Concrete

Phase Change Materials(PCMs)have high thermal inertia,and hemp concrete(HC),a bio-based concrete,has strong hygroscopic behavior.In previous studies,PCM has been extensively combined with many materials,however,most of these studies focused on thermal properties while neglecting hygroscopic aspects.In this study,the two materials have been combined into a building envelope and the related hygrothermal properties have been studied.In particular,numerical studies have been performed to investigate the temperature and relative humidity behavior inside the HC,and the effect of adding PCM on the hygrothermal behavior of the HC.The results show that there is a high coupling between temperature and relative humidity inside the HC,since the relative humidity changes on the second and third days are different,with values of 8%and 4%,respectively.Also,the variation of relative humidity with temperature indicates the dominant influence of temperature on relative humidity variation.With the presence of PCM,the temperature variation inside the HC is damped due to the high thermal inertia of the PCM,which also leads to suppression of moisture evaporation and thus damping of relative humidity variation.On the second and third days,the temperature changes at the central position are reduced by 4.6%and 5.1%,compared to the quarter position.For the relative humidity change,the reductions are 5.3%and 5.4%on the second and third days,respectively.Therefore,PCM,with high thermal inertia,acts as a temperature damper and has the potential to increase the moisture buffering capacity inside the HC.This makes it possible for such a combined envelope to have both thermal and hygric inertia.

Preliminary Study to Show the Effect of Building Envelope Materials on Thermal Comfort of Buildings Located in Hot Humid Climate

The main aim of this paper is to study the effect of building envelope constructed with different materials on thermal comfort of buildings located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Four different buildings constructed with brick, glass, stone, and gypsum are taken into account to study the difference in temperature of the indoor and outdoor environments. Also, this paper explores the heat conducted by walls of different materials with different thicknesses. In addition, survey is conducted among the residents of Jeddah to know their perspective about thermal comfort of buildings. From the study, it is found that building envelope constructed with glass is more effective compared to envelope constructed with other materials of with least thickness of wall. Also, it is found that the envelope constructed with brick is more effective in absorbing the heat provided the thickness of the walls remains the same.

Building Envelopes and Energy

In this paper, for a sustainable building in a Mediterranean climate areas, the relation between envelope and energy is discussed. The relation between envelopes and energy has been considered in all the phases of the life building （construction phase and during operation）. This has been made through global assessment of massive envelopes （with or without insulation） realized with blocks of different materials： natural stone, concrete and brick. For these types of envelope the thermal comfort of the rooms, the energy requirement for cooling and heating, economic and environmental aspects （costs and embodied energy） in the life cycle of the building have been studied.

Building Envelope Rehabilitation Costs： Determination and Variability

In recent decades, there has been a great deal of investment in Portugal in the construction of new buildings to the detriment of the rehabilitation of existing ones. As a result, the historic centres of towns and cities are deteriorating, while their suburbs are spreading. One of the main problems affecting the rehabilitation of residential buildings is that it is extremely difficult to accurately estimate the costs involved. Although there are established methods （and technical documents available） to aid the costing of new buildings, there is a lack of official information about the costs of rehabilitation work, particularly as regards the external envelope of buildings. This article demonstrates how to determine rehabilitation costs （with particular emphasis on the envelope of residential buildings） by gathering information from specialized companies, assessing price variability and consulting databases of rehabilitation costs from other countries. It also presents some examples of costing for particular rehabilitation jobs.

Performance Assessment of the Overall Building Envelope Thermal Performance-Building Envelope Performance(BEP)Metric

Today,to describe the thermal performance of the building envelope and its components we use a variation of metrics;such as,R-value,ACH(air exchange rate per hour),SHGC(solar heat gain coefficient)of windows,U-factor etc.None of these performance indicators is meant to represent the overall thermal performance.In this paper,such a metric is introduced,the BEP(building envelope performance)value.Unlike the thermal resistance,typically expressed as an R-value,the BEP-value considers additional elements of heat transfer that affect the energy demand of the building because of exterior and interior(solar)thermal loads:conductive and radiant heat transfer,and air infiltration.To demonstrate BEP’s utility,validation studies were carried out by comparing the BEP-value to theoretical results using whole building energy simulation tools such as EnergyPlus and WUFI Plus.Results show that BEP calculations are comparable to calculations made using these simulation tools and that unlike other similar metrics,the BEP-value accounts for all heat transfer mechanisms that are relevant for the overall energy performance of the building envelope.The BEP-value thus allows comparing envelopes of buildings with different use types in a fair and realistic manner.

Analysis of Thermal Behavior of Materials in the Building Envelope Using Building Information Modeling (BIM)—A Case Study Approach

Building envelope is a fence that controls heat exchange between interior and exterior and plays an essential role in providing thermal comfort conditions of residents. In recent years, due to the necessity of conserving energy and also preventing increased environmental pollution, the importance of sustainable construction has been doubled. Checking the problems of thermal behavior of the building envelope materials, and what influences in the heating and cooling loads exerted and energy consumption of buildings, are the questions that this research seeks to answer. In this regard, building information modelling analysis (BIM) has worthy contribution in the completion process of sustainable design;thus using software Design Builder, it is paid attention to simulation of the thermal behavior of two types of defined materials for the building envelope that was designed as a Research Institute of Renewable Energy of Yazd University. For Type 1 materials, two layers of brick have been selected, and for Type 2 a thermal insulation layer also added it. Results of the analysis showed that the use of materials Type 2 in the cooling load %4.8 and in the thermal load %62.5 reduction can be achieved which means reducing the load on active system and thus reducing the initial cost of building. Also reduction in annual energy consumption by almost %2.4 for cooling and %62.9 for heating buildings have been achieved, which makes saving non-renewable energy consumption, and consequently reducing environmental pollution as well as reducing current costs will be established.

Investigation the Correlation between Thermal Bridging and Geometries in Concrete Buildings

This article focuses on the investigation of the correlation between thermal bridging and various geometric configurations. The article employs QuickField software for conducting three-dimensional steady-state heat transfer simulations to investigate the thermal behaviors of diverse geometric shapes. Significantly, this study involves the simulation of four distinct geometries including concrete circular, square, rectangular, and triangular column through an insulated concrete layer while all geometries maintain the consistent surface areas. The simulations yield findings indicating that circular thermal bridging has the best thermal performance, while rectangular thermal bridging displays comparatively the lowest thermal efficiency. Furthermore, the results indicate that alterations in the perimeter of thermal bridge interfaces, while maintaining a constant area, exert a more pronounced influence on the thermal performance of the geometries compared to proportional changes in area while preserving the perimeter. The study’s findings aid building designers and architects in creating more energy-efficient structural and architectural elements by incorporating thermally efficient geometries and forms. .

A Theory on Increasing the Heat Transfer Performance of Building Wall

The target of traditional thermal conductivity of wall research is the spatial distribution form.In these studies,the change of thermal conductivity with temperature is neglected.Meanwhile,case studies are always used.This method needs large computation and it is hard to obtain the optimal result.In order to overcome the problems,a new approach has been put forward in this paper.Different from the traditional approach,the new approach solves an inverse prob­lem under the concept of passive ideal energy-saving buildings to obtain the optimal distribution of heat ability with temperature on an external wall.The result for a typical summer day shows the heat ability distribution of a wall in summer is a staircase.It is similar to the heat pipe.It is also found that the optimal heat transfer property of the exter­nal wall is closer to the heat pipe when its heat capacity per square meter(ρc_(p)L)is of extreme value.This study can provide guidance to researchers in building materials.

Sensitivity Analysis of Building Envelop Elements Impact on Energy Consumptions Using BIM

Lots of researches?have shown that the optimization of building envelope reduces building energy consumption during its lifecycle. Due to the uncertainty of the relationship between individual design parameters and building performance, the extent of impact cannot be well-understood. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate the impact extent for different design parameters and identify the one (s) that impact (s) more to the building performance and hence focus so as to improve building performance efficiently. In the present research, main design parameters that affect the building performance are selected to analyse the extent of the impact. Material quantities are extracted directly from the Building Information Modelling (BIM) model so as to calculate the embodied energy in material. Moreover, simulation of energy consumption is run for different scenarios during operation stage. Energy embodied in typical construction materials are calculated for each scenario accordingly. Finally, sensitivity analysis is applied to find the extent of impact on life cycle energy of building for the selected design parameters in terms of both embodied energy (EE) and operational energy (OE). A case study of a manufactory plant is carried out to investigate the impact of the selected design parameters.

DESIGN OF A LOW-ENERGY ENVELOPE SYSTEM FOR AN APARTMENT BUILDING THROUGH AN INTEGRATED DESIGN PROCESS:A CASE STUDY

The potential to conserve energy in an apartment building in Toronto,Ontario,Canada through the implementation of an advanced envelope system was explored in this study.This paper illustrates the possibility in reducing energy demand through an integrated design process(IDP),where research outcomes were incorporated into the architectural design.Using the floor plan and schematics provided by the designer,a building energy model was established in an advanced simulation program to evaluate the performances of nine low-energy envelope design strategies in reducing the heating and cooling energy consumption.Through this study,it can be concluded that performing detailed energy simulations early in the design process to identify which low-energy envelope strategies can be omitted or substituted in the final envelope design is crucial in identifying the most effective strategies for improving energy performance.This study also demonstrates the potential of collaboration between academia and industry in generating high performance buildings.

TOWARDS AN ACTIVE, RESPONSIVE, AND SOLAR BUILDING ENVELOPE

The key role of the building envelope in achieving building energy efficiency and indoor comfort for the user has been long established.The most promising-and innovative-strategy for the building envelope of the future is based on a dynamic,active and integrated solution,that is able to optimize the thermal performance,integrate the active ele­ments and systems,and exploit energy from renewable sources.This paper illustrates the most relevant results of a decade-long research activity carried out on active and inte­grated building envelopes at the Politecnico di Torino,in which numerical analyses and experimental campaigns,involving test cells and field monitoring,have been performed.The overall performances of different façade modules and the thermo-physical behaviour of various components,under different operating strategies,are presented and discussed.The analysis provides information on the contribution of each subsystem,e.g.glazing,sun-shading devices,natural and mechanical ventilation,...to the achieved energy efficiency and the overall performances of different typologies of Double-Skin Façades(DSFs)and Advanced Integrated Façades(AIFs).

Impact of light-weight external thermal insulation materials on building surrounding thermal environment in summer

The method for calculating wall surface heat storage coefficient was introduced,and the coefficients of several common walls with light-weight external thermal insulation materials and the traditional solid clay brick wall were calculated.In order to study the impact of light-weight external thermal insulation materials,a contrasting experiment was carried out between an external insulated room and an uninsulated room in August,2010,in Chongqing,China.The result shows that outside surface heat storage coefficient of the insulated wall is much less than that of the traditional wall.However,during sunny time,the surface temperature of external walls of the insulated room is obviously higher than that of the uninsulated room.In different orientations,due to different amounts of solar radiation and being irradiated in different time,the contrasting temperature difference(CTD) appears different regularity.In a word,using light-weight external thermal insulation materials has a negative impact on building surrounding thermal environment and people's health.Finally,some suggestions on how to eliminate the impact,such as improving the surface condition of the building envelop,and plating vertical greening,are put forward.

Assessment of green roof performance for sustainable buildings under winter weather conditions

A green roof is a specialized roof system that supports vegetation growth on rooftops.This technology is rapidly gaining popularity as a sustainable design option for buildings.In order to contribute to an understanding of green roof in regions with cold winters and snow,an on-site experimental investigation was present with a focus on the assessment of green roof performance during the winter.This field experiment took place on a six small buildings during the winter of 2010-2011.The work monitored three buildings with green roofs,two buildings with reference roofs and one building with a bare soil coverage for the roof.These six buildings were identically constructed and instrumented with sensor networks to provide heat flux data through the roofs.The 15 min averaged data were statistically analyzed for a week under the two separate periods,first without a snow cover and second with a snow cover.The results show that the roof type is a significant factor in affecting the thermal performance of these buildings.Most importantly,green roofs reduce heat flow through the roof and thus reduce the heating energy demand during the winter.However,the energy savings for buildings with the green roofs are reduced under snow conditions because the snow diminishes thermal resistance of the roof and increases the heat transfer process through the roofs.

Building dynamic thermal simulation of low-order multi-dimensional heat transfer

Multi-dimensional heat transfers modeling is crucial for building simulations of insulated buildings,which are widely used and have multi-dimensional heat transfers characteristics.For this work,state-model-reduction techniques were used to develop a reduced low-order model of multi-dimensional heat transfers.With hot box experiment of hollow block wall,heat flow relative errors between experiment and low-order model predication were less than 8% and the largest errors were less than 3%.Also,frequency responses of five typical walls,each with different thermal masses or insulation modes,the low-order model and the complete model showed that the low-order model results agree very well in the lower excitation frequency band with deviations appearing only at high frequency.Furthermore,low-order model was used on intersection thermal bridge of a floor slab and exterior wall.Results show that errors between the two models are very small.This low-order model could be coupled with most existing simulation software for different thermal mass envelope analyses to make up for differences between the multi-dimensional and one-dimensional models,simultaneously simplifying simulation calculations.

Dynamic thermal performance and energy-saving potential analysis of a modular pipe-embedded building envelope integrated with thermal diffusive materials

In the context of racing to carbon neutrality,the pipe-embedded building system makes the opaque envelopes gradually regarded as the multi-functional element,which also provides an opportunity for thermal insulation solutions to transform from high to zero-carbon attributes.Based on the re-examination of the heat transfer process of conventional pipe-embedded radiant(CPR)walls,the modular pipe-embedded radiant(MPR)wall integrated with thermal diffusive materials is proposed to enhance the heat transfer capacity of CPR walls in the direction parallel to the wall surface,thereby forming a more stable and continuous invisible thermal barrier layer inside the opaque envelopes.A comprehensive thermal and energy-saving analysis study regarding the influence mechanism of several key factors of MPR walls,e.g.,the inclination angle of the filler cavity(θ-value),geometry size of the filler cavity(a:b-value)and thermal conductivity of the filler(λf-value),is conducted based on a validated numerical model.Results show that the dynamic thermal behaviors of MPR walls can be significantly improved due to that the radial thermal resistance in the filler cavity of MPR walls can be reduced by 50%,while the maximum extra exterior surface heat loss caused by the optimization measures is only 2.1%.Besides,a better technical effect can be achieved by setting the major axis of the filler cavity towards the room side,where the interior surface heat load/total injected heat first decreases/increases and then increases/decreases with the increase of theθ-value.In particular,the MPR wall withθL=60°can obtain the best performance when other conditions remain the same.Moreover,the performance indicators of MPR walls can be further improved with the increase of the cavity size(a:b-value),while showing a trend of rapid improvement in theλf-value range of 2–5λC and slow improvement increase in theλf-value range of 5–12λC.In addition,the improvement effect brought by optimizing theθ-value is more obvious as the a:b-value orλf-value increases.