Influence of natural weather variability on the thermal characterisation of a building envelope

With the rise in awareness of energy efficient buildings and adoption of mandatory energy conservation codes across the globe, significant change is being observed in the way the buildings are designed. With the launch of Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) in India, climate responsive designs and passive cooling techniques are being explored increasingly in building designs. Of all the building envelope components, roof surface has been identified as the most significant with respect to the heat gain due to the incident solar radiation on buildings, especially in tropical climatic conditions. Since ECBC specifies stringent U-Values for roof assembly, use of insulating materials is becoming popular. Along with insulation, the shading of the roof is also observed to be an important strategy for improving thermal performance of the building, especially in Warm and humid climatic conditions. This study intends to assess the impact of roof shading on building’s energy performance in comparison to that of exposed roof with insulation. A typical office building with specific geometry and schedules has been identified as base case model for this study. This building is simulated using energy modelling software ‘Design Builder’ with base case parameters as prescribed in ECBC. Further, the same building has been simulated parametrically adjusting the amount of roof insulation and roof shading simultaneously. The overall energy consumption and the envelope performance of the top floor are extracted for analysis. The results indicate that the roof shading is an effective passive cooling strategy for both naturally ventilated and air conditioned buildings in Warm and humid climates of India. It is also observed that a fully shaded roof outperforms the insulated roof as per ECBC prescription. Provision of shading over roof reduces the annual energy consumption of building in case of both insulated and uninsulated roofs. However, the impact is higher for uninsulated roofs (U-Value of 3.933 W/m2K), being 4.18% as compared to 0.59% for insulated roofs (U-Value of 0.33 W/m2K).While the general assumption is that roof insulation helps in reducing the energy consumption in tropical buildings, it is observed to be the other way when insulation is provided with roof shading. It is due to restricted heat loss during night.

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Zooplankton community responses to regional-scale weather variability: a synoptic climatology approach

Climate Research ◽

10.3354/cr01275 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 62 (3) ◽

pp. 189-198 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

AL Primo ◽

DG Kimmel ◽

SC Marques ◽

F Martinho ◽

UM Azeiteiro ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Regional Scale ◽

Zooplankton Community ◽

Synoptic Climatology ◽

Community Responses ◽

Weather Variability

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ANALYSIS ON BUILDING ENVELOPE AND BUILDING SERVICE EQUIPMENT DESIGN SPECIFICATION USING THE INPUT AND OUTPUT DATA FROM THE CALCULATION PROGRAM TO CONFIRM COMPLIANCE WITH BUILDING ENERGY CODE (PART 1): IDENTIFICATION OF THE DESIGN SPECIFICATION FOR NEWLY BUILT OFFICES IN JAPAN ACCORDING TO THE EVALUATION RESULT OF THE BUILDING ENERGY CODE

Journal of Environmental Engineering (Transactions of AIJ) ◽

10.3130/aije.85.859 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 85 (777) ◽

pp. 859-869

Author(s):

Masato MIYATA ◽

Susumu HIRAKAWA

Keyword(s):

Building Energy ◽

Equipment Design ◽

Building Envelope ◽

Design Specification ◽

Output Data ◽

Evaluation Result ◽

Input And Output

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Quality of the Building Envelope is the Basis for Creating an Environmentally Friendly Environment of Vital Activity

Zhilishchnoe Stroitel stvo ◽

10.31659/0044-4472-2019-6-10-15 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 10-15

Author(s):

I.L. SHUBIN ◽

◽

N.P. UMNYAKOVA ◽

I.V. MATVEEVA ◽

K.A. ANDRIANOV ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Environmentally Friendly ◽

Building Envelope ◽

Vital Activity

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Energy Impacts of Nonlinear Behavior of PCM When Applied into Building Envelope

10.2172/1219754 ◽

2012 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

P. C. Tabares-Velasco

Keyword(s):

Nonlinear Behavior ◽

Building Envelope

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Cyclonic and anticyclonic contributions to atmospheric energetics

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-92548-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Satoru Okajima ◽

Hisashi Nakamura ◽

Yohai Kaspi

Keyword(s):

Storm Track ◽

Mean Flow ◽

Weather Variability ◽

Jet Streams ◽

Near Surface ◽

Westerly Jet ◽

Track Dynamics ◽

New Findings ◽

Atmospheric Energetics ◽

Thermally Driven

AbstractMigratory cyclones and anticyclones account for most of the day-to-day weather variability in the extratropics. These transient eddies act to maintain the midlatitude jet streams by systematically transporting westerly momentum and heat. Yet, little is known about the separate contributions of cyclones and anticyclones to their interaction with the westerlies. Here, using a novel methodology for identifying cyclonic and anticyclonic vortices based on curvature, we quantify their separate contributions to atmospheric energetics and their feedback on the westerly jet streams as represented in Eulerian statistics. We show that climatological westerly acceleration by cyclonic vortices acts to dominantly reinforce the wintertime eddy-driven near-surface westerlies and associated cyclonic shear. Though less baroclinic and energetic, anticyclones still play an important role in transporting westerly momentum toward midlatitudes from the upper-tropospheric thermally driven jet core and carrying eddy energy downstream. These new findings have uncovered essential characteristics of atmospheric energetics, storm track dynamics and eddy-mean flow interaction.

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Critical Review of Polymeric Building Envelope Materials: Degradation, Durability and Service Life Prediction

Buildings ◽

10.3390/buildings11070299 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (7) ◽

pp. 299

Author(s):

Marzieh Riahinezhad ◽

Madeleine Hallman ◽

J-F. Masson

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Service Life ◽

Critical Review ◽

Life Prediction ◽

Building Envelope ◽

Service Life Prediction ◽

Degradation Mechanisms ◽

Material Component ◽

Aging Conditions ◽

Environmentally Sound

This paper provides a critical review of the degradation, durability and service life prediction (SLP) of polymeric building envelope materials (BEMs), namely, claddings, air/vapour barriers, insulations, sealants, gaskets and fenestration. The rate of material deterioration and properties determine the usefulness of a product; therefore, knowledge of the significant degradation mechanisms in play for BEMs is key to the design of proper SLP methods. SLP seeks to estimate the life expectancy of a material/component exposed to in-service conditions. This topic is especially important with respect to the potential impacts of climate change. The surrounding environment of a building dictates the degradation mechanisms in play, and as climate change progresses, material aging conditions become more unpredictable. This can result in unexpected changes and/or damages to BEMs, and shorter than expected SL. The development of more comprehensive SLP methods is economically and environmentally sound, and it will provide more confidence, comfort and safety to all building users. The goal of this paper is to review the existing literature in order to identify the knowledge gaps and provide suggestions to address these gaps in light of the rapidly evolving climate.

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