scholarly journals Evaluation of Residents’ Comfort in High-Rise Residential Buildings in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuloh Jung ◽  
Jihad Awad ◽  
Nahla Al Qassimi

The global record of 1,700 % urban footprint growth in only 38 years made Dubai one of the fastest growing cities in the world. The density of the metropolis population is approximately 762.6 individuals/ km2, and high-rise residential buildings in Dubai have reached 581,166 units (79%) in 2020 and become a common residential type. The objective of this study is to provide basic data for the design of high-rise residential buildings in the future by evaluating the health of the residents of high-rise residential buildings in Dubai. As a methodology, the Todai Health Index, a structured health assessment tool, was used for high-rise residents’ survey. For the analysis, the health evaluation data from residents were used as the dependent variable, and the number of living floors as the architectural characteristic and the indoor temperature and humidity condition as the residential environments were analyzed as the independent variable. The result had shown that residence floor is irrelevant to overall health, changes in the health status compared to those in the previous year, and the occurrence of daily disease health evaluation by the Todai Health Index. It was statistically proven that the thermal environment has a significant correlation with the residence floor, but the effect of the thermal environment on health was not strong. However, the humidity environment has a very strong relationship with the health of residents. The humidity environment has a very close relationship not only with the occurrence of daily diseases of residents but also with the health evaluation analyzed by the Todai Health Index. There is a significant relationship between the humidity environment and both physical and mental health. It was analyzed that a slightly humid condition had a positive effect on health.

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-269
Author(s):  
Xiaoxin Man ◽  
Yanyu Lu ◽  
Guolei Li ◽  
Yanling Wang ◽  
Jing Liu

A recent trend in China has seen super high-rise residential buildings spreading to severe cold regions. These buildings face tough challenges concerning building energy consumption and the thermal environment due to their stack effect. The stack effect is greatly influenced by air infiltration, but current guidance on component airtightness is often neither specific nor consistent for different buildings. This paper presents field measurements and numerical simulations of airtightness performance and stack pressure distribution for a a 106.7-m high-rise residential building in Harbin, Northeast China. An airtightness field test was performed using the fan pressurisation method, and measured values were utilised as the input data for predictions. The numerical analysis was implemented by applying CONTAMW, and the simulation results were compared to measurement data. The results demonstrated that the measured components were all leakier than the current standards allow. The greatest stack pressure difference on the ground floor reached 51.5 Pa, considered a severe stack effect. Furthermore, the influences of the location and airtightness of different staircase doorways on the stack effect were studied and analysed. This research assists in clarifying the significance of building airtightness in cold climates and in reducing the stack effect of high-rise buildings.


2013 ◽  
Vol 409-410 ◽  
pp. 526-530
Author(s):  
Min Fang Su ◽  
Hong Guo

Based on the structure feature and energy consumption situation of high-rise reinforced concrete residential buildings which built in end of last century, it discussed the main energy-saving renovation technologies and methods. Demonstrating high-rise reinforced concrete residential building of Taiyuan as a case, it analyzed its heat loss problems and defects of original design. Energy-saving renovation plan proposed and put reconstruction technologies of building envelope and heating system in practice. It discusses energy-saving renovation effects, energy efficiency. Indoor thermal environment improved significantly after energy-saving renovation on building envelope and heat system.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dixon Thomas ◽  
Sherief Khalifa ◽  
Jayadevan Sreedharan ◽  
Rucha Bond

Background:: Clinical competence of pharmacy students is better evaluated at their practice sites. compared to the classroom. A clinical pharmacy competency evaluation rubric like that of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP)is an effective assessment tool for clinical skills and can be used to show item reliability. The preceptors should be trained on how to use the rubrics as many inherent factors could influence inter-rater reliability. Objective:: To evaluate inter-rater reliability among preceptors on evaluating clinical competence of pharmacy students, before and after a group discussion intervention. Methods:: In this quasi experimental study in a United Arab Emirates teaching hospital, Seven clinical pharmacy preceptors rated clinical pharmacy competencies of ten recent PharmD graduates referring to their portfolios and preceptorship. Clinical pharmacy competencies were adopted from ACCP and mildly modified to be relevant for the local settings. Results:: Inter-rater reliability (Cronbach's Alpha) among preceptors was reasonable being practitioners at a single site for 2-4 years. At domain level, inter-rater reliability ranged from 0.79 - 0.93 before intervention and 0.94 - 0.99 after intervention. No inter-rater reliability was observed in relation to certain competency elements ranging from 0.31 – 0.61 before intervention, but improved to 0.79 – 0.97 after intervention. Intra-class correlation coefficient improved among all individual preceptors being reliable with each other after group discussion though some had no reliability with each other before group discussion. Conclusion:: Group discussion among preceptors at the training site was found to be effective in improving inter-rater reliability on all elements of the clinical pharmacy competency evaluation. Removing a preceptor from analysis did not affect inter-rater reliability after group discussion.


2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahrzad Soudian ◽  
Umberto Berardi

This article investigates the possibility to enhance the use of latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) as an energy retrofit measure by night ventilation strategies. For this scope, phase change materials (PCMs) are integrated into wall and ceiling surfaces of high-rise residential buildings with highly glazed facades that experience high indoor diurnal temperatures. In particular, this article investigates the effect of night ventilation on the performance of the PCMs, namely, the daily discharge of the thermal energy stored by PCMs. Following previous experimental tests that have shown the efficacy of LHTES in temperate climates, a system comprising two PCM layers with melting temperatures selected for a year-around LHTES was considered. To quantify the effectiveness of different night ventilation strategies to enhance the potential of this composite PCM system, simulations in EnergyPlusTM were performed. The ventilation flow rate, set point temperature, and operation period were the main tested parameters. The performance of the PCMs in relation to the variables was evaluated based on indoor operative temperature and cooling energy use variations in Toronto and New York in the summer. The solidification of the PCMs was analyzed based on the amount of night ventilation needed in each climate condition. The results quantify the positive impact of combining PCMs with night ventilation on cooling energy reductions and operative temperature regulation of the following days. In particular, the results indicate higher benefits obtainable with PCMs coupled with night ventilation in the context of Toronto, since this city experiences higher daily temperature fluctuations. The impact of night ventilation design variables on the solidification rate of the PCMs varied based on each parameter leading to different compromises based on the PCM and climate characteristics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 2590
Author(s):  
Samson Tan ◽  
Darryl Weinert ◽  
Paul Joseph ◽  
Khalid Moinuddin

Given that existing fire risk models often ignore human and organizational errors (HOEs) ultimately leading to underestimation of risks by as much as 80%, this study employs a technical-human-organizational risk (T-H-O-Risk) methodology to address knowledge gaps in current state-of-the-art probabilistic risk analysis (PRA) for high-rise residential buildings with the following goals: (1) Develop an improved PRA methodology to address concerns that deterministic, fire engineering approaches significantly underestimate safety levels that lead to inaccurate fire safety levels. (2) Enhance existing fire safety verification methods by incorporating probabilistic risk approach and HOEs for (i) a more inclusive view of risk, and (ii) to overcome the deterministic nature of current verification methods. (3) Perform comprehensive sensitivity and uncertainty analyses to address uncertainties in numerical estimates used in fault tree/event trees, Bayesian network and system dynamics and their propagation in a probabilistic model. (4) Quantification of human and organizational risks for high-rise residential buildings which contributes towards a policy agenda in the direction of a sustainable, risk-based regulatory regime. This research contributes to the development of the next-generation building codes and risk assessment methodologies.


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