Search results for "Architectural engineering"
showing 10 items of 158 documents
Elia Ovazza, Professor of TMM in Palermo Around the End of the 19th Century
2015
In this paper, the figure of Elia Ovazza, professor of TMM in Palermo around the end of the 19th century, is presented, along with his valuable legacy in regard to his activities in teaching, research, design and technology transfer. Short biographical notes outline his foremost life events and an illustrated survey explains his contributions.
Role of Green Coverings in Mitigating Heat Island Effects: An Analysis of Physical Models
2012
Worldwide, governments are introducing several rules and standards in the aim of limiting the quantity of primary energy for air conditioning of buildings and supporting the use of renewable source of energy for generating thermal and electric energy to be utilized in buildings such as the European Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings [1]. Along with these interventions, another important action takes currently place in the building sector, that is the introduction of passive structural components of the envelope, able to reduce the requirements of energy for air conditioning purposes. Among these building components, the so-called green roofs are becoming more and more interest…
Smart Materials in Architecture
2016
The project activity presides over the choice of materials and technical capacity within two dimensions of action: the previous knowledge and the tension about the future. That allowed us to identify the succession of the “technological and material” paradigms that have come and gone, featuring the project with the arrival of new materials and production processes. The advent of composite smart materials has challenged all the materials overturning the features.
BIM and Low-Cost Survey Techniques for Building Heritage Conservation
2017
The aim of this contribution is to illustrate a methodology for the protection and management of the building heritage, adding to the historical documentary investigations, a careful phase of survey and a conscious geometric and informational modelling of the pre-existence. The focus of this work was the Tower of Vietri sul Mare: a significant example of the architectural defense strategies adopted in Salerno in the 16th century. In fact, through the creation of digital models, it would be facilitated the management of the volumetric evolution that this tower has undergone over time, ensuring a greater accessibility and an easier understanding of the transformations it has suffered.
Control of structural problems in cultural heritage monuments using close-range photogrammetry and computer methods
2005
This paper deals with the conservation of monumental buildings. Several methods used for the architectonic documentation are analysed in this study. Computers methods and close-range photogrammetry are proposed as a preventive method which allows to detect, measure and track the temporal evolution of some structural problems detected, and also to assess the degree of conservation of the materials employed. A group of monuments belonging to the Spanish historical heritage is analysed. In order to carry out the analysis a wire-frame model and a photo-realistic textured model were made. Work focused later on the area where structural problems were more acute.
DSSC-integrated Glassblocks for the construction of Sustainable Building Envelopes
2014
The paper shows the first results of the optical performance analysis carried out on the DSSC integrated glassblock, an innovative building product developed at the Department of Architecture of the University of Palermo. In the field of a research that is being conducted in order to define innovative solutions for the construction of photovoltaic and energy efficient translucent building envelopes, different hypotheses of integration of DSSC into the glassblock have been foreseen. The integration of glassblock with third generation PV systems allows to define a novel building-PV product that meets the current requirements of the BIPV (Building Integrated Photovoltaics) market. By means of …
Sizing analysis of interior lighting using tubular daylighting devices
2017
Abstract Daylight access and indoor thermal comfort are key issues for high design level of sustainable buildings. In fact, daylight provides energy savings and visual comfort condition that can foster higher productivity and performance. This paper proposes a case study of sizing of daylight devices for zenith light. It enables the decision-making process of the designer to reach high levels of daylight factor. The proposed method is shown with an example of application. For the case study, a room in south of Italy, 24 different solar tunnels configurations and 12 cases with different number of skylights have been evaluated.
On the architectural and energy classification of existing buildings: a case study of a district in the city of Palermo
2016
Town Administrations are increasingly facing the challenge to identify smart planning actions to reduce the cities' energy demand by improving the efficiency of the urban energy systems. Buildings play an important role in this regarding both the demand and supply energy. In this scenario, the neighborhood or district scale seems to be the most appropriate to implement a multi-disciplinary approach on which smart planning relies. This paper shows the application, to a district of the city of Palermo (Sicily, Italy), of a methodology for architectural-energy classification of existing buildings. Such methodology provides, regarding the building sector, an easy tool that can support smart pla…
Regional policies for sustainability in the Mediterranean countries: the role of a proper HVAC system maintenance in museums
2013
Italy, like several Mediterranean countries, holds a very large number of cultural artifacts that are often exhibited and saved inside museums. Museums are usually part of historical buildings that, not rarely, originally had a different intended use and that have been currently transformed in place for conservation and for exhibition of works of art. The use of historical buildings as museums leads to limitations in the management and distribution of exhibition space, in design and managing HVAC systems and in the achievement of targets relating to the continuous monitoring of the microclimate for people comfort and for preservation of works of art. Moreover, the costs of the operation and…
An MAS-based subjective model for indoor adaptive thermal comfort
2015
The achievement of high level personalized sets of comfort parameters is contemplated within the more general context of the so-called smart buildings, where people, by means of the new communication technologies, become active actors to the process of the singling out and control of the best indoor conditions. This Dynamic Intelligence approach would usefully contribute to a better energy efficient and environmental friendly management of buildings. Multi-Agent schemes are suitable tools in this aim, since they are able to manage the user-building-plant system where the adaptivity of people to the indoor conditions is suitably achieved. In this paper a contribution to a development of the …