Evaluating energy consumption, indoor air quality, and student productivity

Smart energy conservation research is gaining traction in a variety of industries throughout the world. The current research is projected to cut energy consumption in the construction sector, which has already reached 49% globally and is expected to rise by 2% annually, costing millions of dollars per month. Balancing energy savings with thermal satisfaction is a current difficulty, as most researchers have concentrated on attaining energy savings without reaching the thermal contentment of the occupant, which could pose a health risk to both young and old occupants. To address the problem, we conducted empirical studies with 193 participants in the Northern part of Nigeria, where they were exposed to an indoor temperature of 22°C to determine their thermal environment, choice and comfort votes, viewed and favored control, and overall thermal satisfaction, which will help calculate and define the unused thermal satisfaction thermostat and later.

Outdoor Thermal Environments of Main Types of Urban Areas during Summer: A Field Study in Wuhan, China

Under the influence of the urban heat island effect, the thermal environments of urban built-up areas are poor, leading to the loss of urban vitality and the extreme deterioration of thermal comfort. In this paper, the outdoor thermal environment in Wuhan’s main urban area is studied via the use of field measurements. From June to August in the years 2015 to 2017, 20 measurement points were selected for monitoring from 08:00 to 19:00 h, which were located in spaces such as residential areas, parklands, commercial streets, and college/university campuses. The measurements for the same types of land and different types of land use are analyzed. A comprehensive thermal environment index is used to quantitatively evaluate the overall situations of thermal environments. The results showed that the cooling effect of vegetation shading was stronger than the effect of water evaporation and the maximum temperature difference between the two cooling methods reached 6.1 °C. The cooling effect of the canopy shading of tall trees was stronger than the effect of grassland transpiration and the maximum temperature difference was 2.8 °C. The streets with higher aspect ratios might improve the ventilation, but the wind speeds remained low, which did not provide a strong cooling effect. This study helps urban planners understand the thermal environment of Wuhan or similar cities with hot summer and diversified urban areas, and puts forward suggestions to reduce the heat island effect from the aspect of building layout, green coverage, shading mode, and street aspect ratio, so as to establish sustainable cities that are climate adaptable and environmentally friendly.

Combined Prediction Method for Thermal Conductivity of Asphalt Concrete Based on Meso-Structure and Renormalization Technology

Pavement temperature field affects pavement service life and the thermal environment the near road surface; thus, is important for sustainable pavement design. This paper developed a combined prediction method for the thermal conductivity of asphalt concrete based on meso-structure and renormalization technology, which is critical for determining the pavement temperature field. The accuracy of the combined prediction method was verified by laboratory experiments. Using the tested and proven model, the effect of coarse aggregate type, shape, content, spatial orientation, air void of asphalt concrete, and steel fiber on the effective thermal conductivity was analyzed. The analysis results show that the orientation angle and aspect ratio of the aggregate have a combined effect on thermal conductivity. In general, when the aggregate orientation is parallel with the heat conduction direction, the effective thermal conductivity of asphalt concrete in that direction tends to be greater. The effective thermal conductivity of asphalt concrete decreases with the decrease of coarse aggregate content or steel fiber content or with the increase of porosity, and it increases with the increase of the effective thermal conductivity of coarse aggregate.

Research on the Indoor Thermal Environment of Attached Sunspace Passive Solar Heating System Based on Zero-State Response Control Strategy

The application of attached sunspace passive solar heating systems (ASPSHS) for farmhouses can improve building performance, reduce heating energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. In order to take better use of the attached sunspace to prevent heat transfer or promote natural ventilation, this paper presented a zero-state response control strategy for the opening and closing time of active interior window in the ASPSHS. In order to verify the application of this strategy, an attached sunspace was built in an actual farmhouse. A natural ventilation heat exchange model was built based on the farmhouse with attached sunspace. The proposed zero-state response control strategy was implemented in TRNSYS software. Field measurement in living lab was carried out to inspect the distribution of the thermal environment in the farmhouse with attached sunspace under a zero-state response control strategy in the cold region of northern China. The experimental results show that, even under −5.0–2.5 °C ambient temperature, the application of zero-state response control strategy effectively increases the internal temperature to an average of 25.45 °C higher than the outside, with 23% indoor discernible temperature differential in the sample daytime. The whole-season heating performance was evaluated by simulating the model for the heating season in 2020–2021. The simulation demonstrates that the ASPSHS under zero-state response control strategy can maintain a basic indoor temperature of 14 °C for 1094 h during the heating season, with a daytime heating guarantee rate of 73.33%, thus ensuring higher indoor heating comfort during the day. When compared to a farmhouse with an attached sunspace under the zero-state response control strategy, the energy savings rate can be enhanced by 20.88%, and carbon emissions can be reduced by 51.73%. Overall, the attached sunspace with the zero-state response control strategy can effectively increase the indoor temperature when the solar radiation is intensive and create a suitable thermal environment for the farmhouse in the cold region of northern China.

Numerical studies for the thermal regime of a high-speed railway tunnel considering piston action on seasonally frozen regions

piston action describes the phenomenon that air at the train nose is pushed forward by the increased pressure and air at the train rear is drawn forward by the decreased pressure when a train passes through a tunnel. The changes of pressure can affect the thermal environment inside the tunnel, and further cause frost damage. In this paper, a fluid-thermal-solid coupled numerical model considering piston action is developed. A high-speed railway tunnel in the northeast of China is taken as an example to explore the temperature distribution laws with computational fluid dynamic (CFD). Afterwards, the effects of air temperature and train velocity on temperature distribution are analyzed. The results show that the piston action can enhance the heat transfer between cold air outside the tunnel and tunnel structure, and can cause more serious frost damage especially at the entrance and exit. The temperature distribution is characterized by three zones, including disturbed zones at two sides of tunnel and undisturbed zone at tunnel middle. The freezing length is closely related to air temperature and train velocity. And also, the lengths are different at vault and rail of tunnel portal, which indicates that the anti-freezing measure should be different at these positions considering the cost. This paper can provide some reference for determining the anti-freezing fortified length of tunnels in cold regions.

A Quasi-3D Higher-Order Theory for Bending of FG Nanoplates Embedded in an Elastic Medium in a Thermal Environment

This paper presents the effects of temperature and the nonlocal coefficient on the bending response of functionally graded (FG) nanoplates embedded in an elastic foundation in a thermal environment. The effects of transverse normal strain, as well as transverse shear strains, are considered where the variation of the material properties of the FG nanoplate are considered only in thickness direction. Unlike other shear and deformations theories in which the number of unknown functions is five and more, the present work uses shear and deformations theory with only four unknown functions. The four-unknown normal and shear deformations model, associated with Eringen nonlocal elasticity theory, is used to derive the equations of equilibrium utilizing the principle of virtual displacements. The effects due to nonlocal coefficient, side-to-thickness ratio, aspect ratio, normal and shear deformations, thermal load and elastic foundation parameters, as well as the gradation in FG nanoplate bending, are investigated. In addition, for validation, the results obtained from the present work are compared to ones available in the literature.