Retrofitting public spaces for thermal comfort and sustainability
This article discusses the retrofitting of public spaces in compact urban areas bearing in mind the need for outdoor thermal comfort. The role of paving materials and vegetation was focused on a field survey undertaken at a square in Porto, Portugal. The potential for microclimatic improvement of different combinations of paving materials and vegetation was explored through simulations with ENVI-met. The options, objectives and results of the simulations and an evaluation of Life Cycle Assessment related factors were addressed and discussed. The best improvement scenario was defined stressing the relevance of ‘cool&r...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - October 29, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Cortesao, J., Alves, F. B., Corvacho, H., Rocha, C. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Assessment of solar access in urban environment: The case of the renewal of a city block in Espinho, Portugal
The research project carried out aimed to establish guidelines for urban design, especially adjusted to specific climatic conditions and to local design practice. With the aid of a simulation program, Townscope III, several urban scenarios were characterized in what concerns solar access. Some results are presented for the specific case of a block in Espinho. Four different building models were tested. Solar access was evaluated and its repercussion on heating and cooling energy needs of the buildings was estimated. A virtual scenario with an increase of the density of the urban surrounding area was also assessed. (Source:...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - October 29, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Marques, B., Corvacho, H., Brandao Alves, F. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Electric vehicle deployment in urban areas
This study constructs the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of EVs, based on real data from the auto-industry, in order to assess the costs and benefits as well as the potentiality of electro-mobility deployment in urban areas. (Source: Indoor and Built Environment)
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - October 29, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Nanaki, E. A., Xydis, G. A., Koroneos, C. J. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Sustainable building strategies on regional scale: Proposal for the Valencian region in Spain
The regulatory framework established by the new European Directive on Building Energy Efficiency requires the implementation of measures to reduce energy consumption and increase the use of renewable sources. Therefore, efficiency improvement implies a reduction of energy demand in buildings, combined with improved performance of passive systems that provide smarter energy saving solutions. These actions have the potential to improve the benchmark of the entire performance, particularly when prioritizing renewable energy sources. At the regional scale, it is necessary to consider environmental conditions during the initial...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - October 29, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Alonso Monterde, M., Gomez Lozano, V., Guillen Guillamon, I., Higon Calvet, J., Lopez-Jimenez, P. A. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Smart energy dorms: Social and environmental analysis of Studentato San Bartolomeo
European energy politics, usually focused on the single building scale, are now broadening their field of interest towards a wider context, defining more adequate intervention strategies aiming at facilitating virtuous relationship between buildings at district, city and region levels. Themes related to human comfort are properly considered as well, both at physical and social level, namely relational comfort between people living in the same built environment. Again, relationship is the key word. In this context, university student residences have been often studied as large buildings hosting several and complex functions...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - October 29, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Albatici, R., Gabbi, F., Gadotti, A. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Promoting smartness among local areas in a Southern Italian region: The Smart Basilicata Project
Making cities smarter and more competitive is one of the major challenges of climate change and energy security. Smart city initiatives have arisen Europe-wide to help cities to start planning their future in a new way to become more sustainable and resilient. New business models need to be investigated to foster local business development, innovative local administrations and industries, valorize the cultural heritage and the research outcomes and promote community’s participation. This transition is even more complex and necessary for sparsely populated regions with poor infrastructures in the buildings, manufactur...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - October 29, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Salvia, M., Cornacchia, C., Di Renzo, G. C., Braccio, G., Annunziato, M., Colangelo, A., Orifici, L., Lapenna, V. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Renewable energy sources-integrated refurbishment approach for low-rise residential prefabricated building in Belgrade, Serbia
The refurbishment of the existing housing stock has a twofold aim: to decrease consumption of fossil fuels and to reduce the CO2 emissions. The main focus of the presented paper is the evaluation of the integrated design approach applied in scenarios for refurbishment of the prefabricated residential multi-apartment building. The criteria used in searching for the best approach to the renewable energy sources-integrated refurbishment were minimized energy loads, minimized CO2 emissions and improved indoor environment quality, health and comfort. After in-depth environmental analysis, a series of energy efficiency improveme...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - October 29, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Matic, D., Roset Calzada, J., Todorovic, M. S. Tags: Review Source Type: research
A Manifesto for A Zero Carbon Future Built Environment
(Source: Indoor and Built Environment)
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - October 29, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Jones, P. Tags: Editorial Source Type: research
Identification of constant contaminant sources in a test chamber with real sensors
Identification of contaminant sources is important for controlling indoor air pollution. Previous studies of source identification are mainly based on computational fluid dynamic simulation results, and studies based on experimental measurements results are scarce. In this paper, six source identification experiments, five with one source and one with two sources, were conducted to investigate the effectiveness of source identification in real situations. A multi-source identification model was developed based on real measurements. The effects of number, layout, sampling duration and sampling interval of the sensors and th...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - September 15, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Shao, X., Li, X., Ma, H. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Particle transport characteristics in indoor environment with an air cleaner
Air cleaner is one of the viable options for particle removal in the indoor environment. Therefore, it is vital to understand the performances of air cleaners under various working conditions. In this work, the models for airflow pattern and particle transport in a room with an air cleaner were developed by combining the Lagrangian discrete trajectory model with the Eulerian fluid method. The effects of the operating conditions of the air cleaner on the particle transport characteristics were numerically investigated, including the volumetric flow rate and positioning of the air cleaner as well as the ejection orientation ...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - September 15, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Jin, X., Yang, L., Du, X., Yang, Y. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
A new comprehensive evaluating method for assessing the sustainability credentials of the central air-conditioning system
A new comprehensive evaluation method for assessing the sustainability credential of central air-conditioning systems is proposed in this paper. The method is based on the relative coefficient index (K) of costs and benefits of the air-conditioning system. The paper introduces the concept and defined the parameters of costs (energy consumption costs, economic running costs and environmental impact) and benefits (indoor air quality and thermal comfort) and the mathematical principles for the determination and evaluation of these parameters. The parameters are then ranked with an index value for each component that make up t...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - September 15, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Ding, Y.-Q., Zou, S.-H., Yu, C. W. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Study of attached air curtain ventilation within a full-scale enclosure: comparison of four turbulence models
This paper presents a newly developed attached air curtain ventilation system. The airflow patterns produced by attached air curtain ventilation were modelled by computational fluid dynamic method. A full-scale experiment was conducted to determine the accuracy of four turbulence models: standard k–, RNG k–, SST k– and RSM-IP. SST k– model was shown to produce the most accurate results. The air distribution of attached air curtain ventilation within a full-scale enclosure could be predicted with an overall inaccuracy of 12%. All four models gave reasonably accurate prediction on air distribution for...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - September 15, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Yin, H., Li, A. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Economical control of indoor air quality in underground metro station using an iterative dynamic programming-based ventilation system
In this study, to maintain indoor air quality (IAQ) at a comfortable range with a lower ventilation energy consumption, the optimal set-points of the ventilation control system were determined. The concentration of air pollutants inside the station shows a periodic diurnal variation in accordance with the number of passengers and subway frequency. To consider the diurnal variation of IAQ, an iterative dynamic programming (IDP) that searches for a piecewise control policy by separating whole system duration into several stages was applied. The optimal set-points of the ventilation control system in underground D-subway stat...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - September 15, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Kim, M. J., Braatz, R. D., Kim, J. T., Yoo, C. K. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Investigating the effect of well geometry on the daylight performance in the adjoining spaces of vertical top-lit atrium buildings
This study investigated the impact of well geometry on the amount of daylight availability in the adjoining spaces around atria with vertical top-lit forms under overcast sky condition in Malaysia. The daylight levels in the central south office rooms were derived from scale model measurements, and predictions from the lighting simulation program Radiance in Integrated Environmental Solution <Virtual Environment>. A comparison of measured data and simulations has validated Radiance simulations of atrium daylighting. The simulations show generally good agreement with physical model measurements. More simulated data of...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - September 15, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Ghasemi, M., Kandar, M. Z., Noroozi, M. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Influence of control logic on variation of indoor thermal environment for residential buildings
This study proposes an advanced thermal control method that employs artificial neural network (ANN) models for predictive and adaptive thermal control. Two predictive and adaptive control logic approaches were proposed to simultaneously control indoor temperature and humidity as well as predicted mean vote (PMV) in a residential building. Their thermal performance was analysed and compared with that of non-ANN-based counterparts to evaluate architectural variables such as envelope insulation and building orientation. A numerical computer simulation method was used for the tests after demonstration of its validity based on ...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - September 15, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Woo Moon, J., Lee, J.-H., Kim, S. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
