The impact of passive design strategies on cooling loads of buildings in temperate climate

Society is increasingly demanding a more sustainable management of agro-ecosystems in a context of climate change and an ever growing global population. The fate of crop residues is one of the important management aspects under debate, since it represents an unneglectable quantity of organic matter which can be kept in or removed from the agro-ecosystem. The topic of residue management is not new, but the need for global conclusion on the impact of crop residue management on the agro-ecosystem linked to local pedo-climatic conditions has become apparent with an increasing amount of studies showing a diversity of conclusions. This study specifically focusses on temperate climate and loamy soil using a seven-year data set. Between 2008 and 2016, we compared four contrasting residue management strategies differing in the amount of crop residues returned to the soil (incorporation vs. exportation of residues) and in the type of tillage (reduced tillage (10 cm depth) vs. conventional tillage (ploughing at 25 cm depth)) in a field experiment. We assessed the impact of the crop residue management on crop production (three crops—winter wheat, faba bean and maize—cultivated over six cropping seasons), soil organic carbon content, nitrate (${\mathrm{NO}}_{3}^{-}$), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) soil content and uptake by the crops. The main differences came primarily from the tillage practice and less from the restitution or removal of residues. All years and crops combined, conventional tillage resulted in a yield advantage of 3.4% as compared to reduced tillage, which can be partly explained by a lower germination rate observed under reduced tillage, especially during drier years. On average, only small differences were observed for total organic carbon (TOC) content of the soil, but reduced tillage resulted in a very clear stratification of TOC and also of P and K content as compared to conventional tillage. We observed no effect of residue management on the ${\mathrm{NO}}_{3}^{-}$ content, since the effect of fertilization dominated the effect of residue management. To confirm the results and enhance early tendencies, we believe that the experiment should be followed up in the future to observe whether more consistent changes in the whole agro-ecosystem functioning are present on the long term when managing residues with contrasted strategies.

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Comfort within Budget: Assessing the Cost-Effectiveness of Envelope Improvements in Single-Family Affordable Housing

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13063054 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 3054

Author(s):

Renata Tubelo ◽

Lucelia Rodrigues ◽

Mark Gillott ◽

May Zune

Keyword(s):

Cost Effectiveness ◽

Affordable Housing ◽

Energy Use ◽

Thermal Conditions ◽

Building Envelope ◽

Single Family ◽

Design Strategies ◽

Housing Type ◽

The Cost ◽

The Impact

In Brazil, the delivery of homes for low-inc ome households is dictated by costs rather than performance. Issues such as the impact of climate change, affordability of operational energy use, and lack of energy security are not taken into account, even though they can severely impact the occupants. In this work, the authors evaluated the thermal performance of two affordable houses as-built and after the integration of envelope improvements. A new replicable method to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of these improvements was proposed. The case study houses comprise the most common affordable housing type delivered widely across Brazil and a proposition of a better affordable housing solution, built in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil, integrating passive design strategies to increase thermal comfort. The findings reveal a potential for improving indoor thermal conditions by up to 76% and 73%, respectively, if costs are not a concern, and 40% and 45% with a cost increase of 12% and 9% if a comfort criterion of 20–25 °C was considered. Equations to estimate costs of improvements in affordable housing were developed. The authors concluded that there is a great scope for building envelope optimisation, and that this is still possible without significant impact on budget.

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A Dynamic Analysis Of The Impact Of Air Pollution On The daylight Availability In An Open-plan Office In London

Light & Engineering ◽

10.33383/2020-064 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 94-103

Author(s):

Jiangtao Du ◽

Steve Sharples

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Simulation Analysis ◽

Design Stage ◽

Design Strategies ◽

Early Design Stage ◽

Pollutant Deposition ◽

Open Plan ◽

Building Project ◽

The Impact

The deposition of air pollutants on glazing can significantly affect the daylight transmittance of building fenestration systems in urban areas. This study presents a simulation analysis of the impact of air pollution and glazing visual transmittance on indoor daylight availability in an open-plan office in London. First, the direct links between glazing visual transmittance and daylighting conditions were developed and assessed. Second, several simple algorithms were established to estimate the loss of daylight availability due to the pollutant deposition at the external surface of vertical glazing. Finally, some conclusions and design strategies to support facade planning at the early design stage of an urban building project were developed.

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USING PASSIVE DESIGN STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE THERMAL PERFORMANCE OF SINGLE FAMILY HOUSES. A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Environmental Engineering and Management Journal ◽

10.30638/eemj.2020.002 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 11-18

Author(s):

Calin Gabriel Corduban ◽

Aurora Irina Dumitrascu ◽

Tania Mariana Hapurne ◽

Irina Bliuc ◽

Adriana Kadhim Abid ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Comparative Study ◽

Thermal Performance ◽

Single Family ◽

Design Strategies ◽

Passive Design

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Towards the Design of Resilient Waste-to-Energy Systems Using Bayesian Networks

Volume 2A: 44th Design Automation Conference ◽

10.1115/detc2018-85452 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

W. H. Jonathan Mak ◽

Michel-Alexandre Cardin ◽

Liu Ziqi ◽

P. John Clarkson

Keyword(s):

Bayesian Networks ◽

Net Present Value ◽

Energy System ◽

Waste To Energy ◽

Engineering System ◽

Design Strategies ◽

Expansion Strategy ◽

Fixed Design ◽

The Impact ◽

Initial Capacity

The concept of resilience has emerged from various domains to address how systems, people and organizations can handle uncertainty. This paper presents a method to improve the resilience of an engineering system by maximizing the system economic lifecycle value, as measured by Net Present Value, under uncertainty. The method is applied to a Waste-to-Energy system based in Singapore and the impact of combining robust and flexible design strategies to improve resilience are discussed. Robust strategies involve optimizing the initial capacity of the system while Bayesian Networks are implemented to choose the flexible expansion strategy that should be deployed given the current observations of demand uncertainties. The Bayesian Network shows promise and should be considered further where decisions are more complex. Resilience is further assessed by varying the volatility of the stochastic demand in the simulation. Increasing volatility generally made the system perform worse since not all demand could be converted to revenue due to capacity constraints. Flexibility shows increased value compared to a fixed design. However, when the system is allowed to upgrade too often, the costs of implementation negates the revenue increase. The better design is to have a high initial capacity, such that there is less restriction on the demand with two or three expansions.

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Environmental Design Strategies for Building Egress

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/154193120204600908 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 46 (9) ◽

pp. 865-869

Author(s):

Jake Pauls

Keyword(s):

Situational Awareness ◽

World Trade Center ◽

Environmental Design ◽

Design Strategies ◽

Building Evacuation ◽

Strategic Issues ◽

Trade Center ◽

Design Requirements ◽

The Many ◽

The Impact

The events of September 2001, 2001, plus the events' technical and political aftermath have helped to identify an unfortunate lack of research into building evacuation. The relative dearth of research is ironic given evacuation's central role in mitigation for a range of emergencies and its prominence in environmental design requirements in building codes and standards. The field of human factors has much to offer, for example, in a philosophical or strategic focus on human-centered design as well in more-prosaic issues such as exit stair width and handrail provision. Much of the available research addresses fairly low-level ergonomic issues such as exit stair width in relation to egress capacity and the impact on evacuation time. in addition to more-sophisticated research into the relatively simple issues, ahead lies more-difficult research relating to strategic issues and the provision of information to building occupants in emergencies, occupants' situational awareness generally, and the many social interactions—in seldom-considered environmental contexts—that are at the heart of major evacuations of large buildings such as in the case of the World Trade Center.

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Outer wall with thermal barrier. Impact of the barrier on heat losses and CO2 emissions

Przegląd Naukowy Inżynieria i Kształtowanie Środowiska ◽

10.22630/pniks.2020.29.2.19 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 223-233

Author(s):

Ewa Figiel ◽

Dorota Leciej-Pirczewska

Keyword(s):

Meteorological Data ◽

Renewable Energy Sources ◽

Outer Wall ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Temperate Climate ◽

Thermal Barrier ◽

Single Family ◽

Heating And Cooling ◽

The Impact ◽

Supply Systems

New demands for lowering energy consumption of buildings lead to many new solutions including, amongst others, the introduction of an outer wall thermal barrier for both heating and cooling effect. The analysed thermo-active-wall-barrier is a water-based system, where the pipes are embedded in the wall construction. It enables the use of a low-temperature barrier medium for space heating, thereby increasing the efficiency of all potential energy supply systems using renewable energy sources. The pipes form an active thermal barrier for heat transfer between the outer and the heated space. There are many possibilities to place the pipes in the wall for example in the case of energetic thermo-modernisation. Our research and calculations have shown that thermo-active-wall-barrier is sensitive to the location of pipes. The following paper also provides a study of the impact of thermal barrier on a building’s energy performance. The analysis was conducted for a single-family house in a temperate climate based on parameters taken from one of the Polish meteorological data-bases. Calculations using current procedure of evaluating building energy performance show, that the thermal barrier can contribute to signifi cant reduction of transmission energy loss thus lowering the environmental impact.

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The impact of molecular tumor profiling on the design strategies for targeting myeloid leukemia and EGFR/CD44-positive solid tumors

Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology ◽

10.3762/bjnano.12.31 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

pp. 375-401

Author(s):

Nikola Geskovski ◽

Nadica Matevska-Geshkovska ◽

Simona Dimchevska Sazdovska ◽

Marija Glavas Dodov ◽

Kristina Mladenovska ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cancer Treatment ◽

Solid Tumors ◽

Myeloid Leukemia ◽

Treatment Options ◽

Molecular Signatures ◽

Design Strategies ◽

Diagnostic Modality ◽

Safety And Efficacy ◽

Detection And Diagnosis ◽

The Impact

Nanomedicine has emerged as a novel cancer treatment and diagnostic modality, whose design constantly evolves towards increasing the safety and efficacy of the chemotherapeutic and diagnostic protocols. Molecular diagnostics, which create a great amount of data related to the unique molecular signatures of each tumor subtype, have emerged as an important tool for detailed profiling of tumors. They provide an opportunity to develop targeting agents for early detection and diagnosis, and to select the most effective combinatorial treatment options. Alongside, the design of the nanoscale carriers needs to cope with novel trends of molecular screening. Also, multiple targeting ligands needed for robust and specific interactions with the targeted cell populations have to be introduced, which should result in substantial improvements in safety and efficacy of the cancer treatment. This article will focus on novel design strategies for nanoscale drug delivery systems, based on the unique molecular signatures of myeloid leukemia and EGFR/CD44-positive solid tumors, and the impact of novel discoveries in molecular tumor profiles on future chemotherapeutic protocols.

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THERMAL COMFORT AND ENERGY SOLUTIONS FOR A BETTER RESIDENTIAL ENVIRONMENT IN MALAYSIA

PLANNING MALAYSIA JOURNAL ◽

10.21837/pmjournal.v13.i5.138 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

Author(s):

Noor Aziah Mohd Ariffin

Keyword(s):

Thermal Comfort ◽

Air Conditioning ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Data Monitoring ◽

Medium Density ◽

Design Strategies ◽

Residential Energy ◽

Passive Design ◽

Design Systems

In hot-humid Malaysia, there are around five million units of housing. Among these, the medium-density terraced are the most built. However, little emphasis was given to designing for thermal comfort and energy efficiency. Consequently, air-conditioning is ubiquitous with ever-rising residential energy consumption. This paper studied passive design systems to improve living conditions and conserve energy through orientation and insulation parameters for terraced housing. Utilizing a triangulation of methods to correlate between thermal comfort and energy performance, findings from the questionnaire survey, data monitoring and computer simulation contended that with the passive design strategies minimum thermal comfort is attainable and energy savings predicted.

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