Search results for "Building"
showing 10 items of 1985 documents
Composite Building Materials: Thermal and Mechanical Performances of Samples Realized with Hay and Natural Resins
2017
Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552 Recent years have seen an increasing public interest in issues related to energy saving and environmental pollution reduction in the building sector. As a result, many directives have been issued, the most important being the Directive 2010/31/EU (EPBD Recast) on the energy performance of buildings, which requires that "Member States shall ensure that by 31 December 2020 all new buildings are nearly zero-energy buildings". This goal can be obtained not only by reducing energy demand for heating and cooling, but also, for example, by improving building envelope performances. In this work, a first analysis of the thermal and structural behavi…
A novel hybrid polygeneration system supplying energy and desalinated water by renewable sources in Pantelleria Island
2017
Abstract In this paper a thermoeconomic analysis of a novel hybrid Renewable Polygeneration System connected to a district heating and cooling network is presented. The plant is powered simultaneously by solar and geothermal sources, producing electricity, desalinated water, heat and cooling energy. System layout includes Parabolic Through Collector (PTC) field, geothermal wells, Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) unit and a Multi-Effect Desalination (MED) system. Cooling and thermal demands are calculated by suitable building dynamic simulation models, calibrated for Pantelleria Island. Electrical demand is obtained by measured data. A detailed control strategy has been implemented in order to pr…
Factors affecting the choice of construction project delivery in developing oil and gas economies
2016
ABSTRACTConstruction academics and practitioners often disagree on which set of factors should take precedence over another and the basis for their inclusion in selecting a project delivery method. This disagreement exacerbates the probability of project failure, which could be detrimental to developing economies. Despite significant cost overruns and these economies being the largest contributors towards global energy sector growth, there is limited knowledge on appropriate factors to be used for selecting project delivery methods in developing oil and gas nations. An evaluation undertaken in Trinidad reveals there are no significant differences in the mean expressed by 133 professionals i…
Analysis of Thermal Comfort Conditions and Actual Energy Efficiency for Different Heating Systems in Test Buildings
2015
The aim of this study is detailed analysis of long-term monitoring data on thermal comfort conditions and energy efficiency in small test buildings equipped with different heating systems. Calculations of PPD index and local thermal discomfort factors, as well as actual energy efficiency ratios for different heat pump systems are provided for the test buildings during three weeks of the heating season. It is shown that the type of heating system has an influence not only on heating energy needs, but also on thermal comfort conditions in the room.
Modelling relationship among energy demand, climate and office building features: A cluster analysis at European level
2016
Abstract More than one-third of the energy demand of industrialised countries is due to achieving acceptable conditions of thermal comfort and lighting in buildings. Energy demand in buildings depends on a combination of several parameters, such as climate, envelope typologies, occupant behaviour, and intended use. Indeed, assessing a building’s energy performance requires substantial input data describing constructions, environmental conditions, envelope thermo-physical properties, geometry, control strategies, and several other parameters. This has been a very active area of research in recent years, and several numerical approaches have been developed for building simulation; furthermore…
Fundamental period of infilled reinforced concrete frame structures
2016
AbstractThe fundamental period of vibration appears to be one of the most critical parameters for the seismic design and assessment of structures. In the present paper, the results of a large-scale analytical investigation on the parameters that affect the fundamental period of reinforced concrete structures are presented. The influence of the number of storeys, the number of spans, the span length, the infill wall panel stiffness and the percentage of openings within the infill panel on the fundamental period of infilled RC frames was investigated. Based on these results, a regression analysis is applied in order to propose a new empirical equation for the estimation of the fundamental per…
Prediction of the additional shear action on frame members due to infills
2014
Infill masonry walls in framed structures make a significant contribution to the response under seismic actions. With special regard to reinforced concrete (RC) structures, it is known that internal forces modifications caused by the frame–infill interaction may be not supported by the surrounding frame because of the additional shear forces arising at the ends of beams and columns. Such additional forces may lead to the activation of brittle collapse mechanisms and hence their prediction is basic in capacity assessment, especially for structures that disregard the details for seismic zones. In this paper a parametric study is carried out addressed to the prediction of the shear forces ment…
Effective digital collaboration in the construction industry – A case study of BIM deployment in a hospital construction project
2015
We examine a case of successful integrated BIM-based design in a construction project.We present a set of key factors influential to enable digital collaboration in this project.Key factors identified include: change agents, new roles, cloud computing, contracts, etc.We found integrated design to depend upon changing traditional work practices.The case is an example of BIM implementation and collaborative work in the AEC industry. Building information modeling (BIM) and related digital innovations can serve as a catalyst for more transparency, tighter integration, and increased productivity in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. Yet, many project teams struggle with ho…
Wideband modeling of cascaded H-plane waveguide junctions using the generalised impedance matrix representation
2009
A strong interest in H-plane waveguide components composed of a large number of cascaded planar junctions is recently renewed. Therefore, the more efficient development of full-wave analysis tools of such devices is again receiving consideration, specially for its potential use within modern design tools. A novel technique for providing the wideband generalised impedance matrix representation of the inductive devices in the form of pole expansions, thus extracting the most expensive computations from the frequency loop is proposed. For such purpose, the whole device is first decomposed into simpler building blocks, i.e. planar junctions and uniform waveguides, which are modelled in terms of…
How is Building Information Modeling Influenced by Project Complexity?
2014
Virtual design and construction of buildings and architectural spaces require extensive collaboration among a diverse set of design professionals. The authors analyze e-collaboration performance in two construction projects of differing complexity, to gain an understanding of how collaborative design based on building information modeling (BIM) is influenced by the complexity of the building project. The findings suggest that the perceived business value of BIM depends on project complexity and that BIM-based collaboration does not yield unconditional positive implications for all types of construction projects. The authors argue that current practice would benefit from a more structured ap…