Search results for "natural ventilation"
showing 10 items of 21 documents
PCM thermal storage design in buildings: Experimental studies and applications to solaria in cold climates
2017
Abstract As energy availability and demand often do not match, thermal energy storage plays a crucial role to take advantage of solar radiation in buildings: in particular, latent heat storage via phase-change material is particularly attractive due to its ability to provide high energy storage density. This paper analyzes the performance of a building-integrated thermal storage system to increase the energy performances of solaria in a cold climate. A wall opposing a highly glazed facade (south oriented) is used as thermal storage with phase change materials embedded in the wall. The study is based on both experimental and simulation studies. The concept considered is particularly suited t…
Potential of Natural Ventilation and Vegetation for Achieving Low-Energy Tall Buildings in Tropical Climate: An Overview
2019
Climate change and rise in urban temperatures have further increased the cooling load demands for tall buildings located in hot climatic regions. Cooling loads in tall buildings can be reduced by integrating them with natural ventilation (NV) and building integrated vegetation (BIV) techniques. This study explores the potential of NV and BIV for obtaining low-energy buildings by analyzing ten tall buildings as case studies. Buildings are analyzed for NV, BIV, architecture design parameters, and energy savings. The results show that mixed-mode ventilation is the most commonly employed, and circular building plans have the highest potential for energy savings. Furthermore, the combination of …
The transformation of a building of the 1970s into a contemporary sustainable building in the Mediterranean Basin
2008
The paper shows the design strategies adopted by a group of graduands of the Faculty of Building Engineering at the University of Palermo involved in a research project aimed to analyse the problems related to the renovation of modern buildings and to solve them by using sustainable approach. In particular, the aim of the research is to investigate these problems in the context of the Mediterranean Basin by adopting, when possible, design criteria inherited by the traditional architecture where sustainable design strategies were used unconsciously. The graduands thesis consists in the transformation of Mazara City Hall into the new "Satiro Danzante Museum" by using natural ventilation syste…
PASSIVE SYSTEMS FOR BUILDINGS INDOOR COMFORT
2016
The paper shows the preliminary studies for the University Campus ZEB Energy realization in Palermo. The particular location in the Mediterranean basin has required careful planning to resolve the problems related to high temperatures and humidity. For this reason has been employed strategies, elements and building materials that meet the requirements of sustainability and energy savings provided by law, in order to build a new building energy self-sufficient. The University of Palermo had the need to create new spaces to be used as classrooms for different types of education and especially of a space for conferences and conventions. This type of spaces is usually very energy eater because …
A Workflow for the Performance Based Design of Naturally Ventilated Tall Buildings Using a Genetic Algorithm (GA)
2019
Optimization of Natural Ventilation process in highrise buildings is one of the most complex and least addressed phenomenon in the field of sustainable architecture. This issue requires urgent consideration to reduce the computation time due to fast growing demand of vertical construction in metropolitan cities. Until recently most highrise buildings have been operated with mechanical systems, causing high energy loads in hot climates and have high carbon footprints. Highrise buildings with natural ventilation and sky gardens can address these problems. This study involves the development of a Genetic Algorithm (GA) addressing the multi objective optimization of natural ventilation in tall …
An Experimental Investigation on the Air Permeability of Passive Ventilation Grilles
2015
Abstract The need of increasing both energy saving and acoustic insulation has leaded to the design of lowest air permeability frames resulting in the worsening of indoor air quality. Moreover, sometime in several civil-use existing buildings (i.e. schools or houses, historical buildings) mechanical ventilation systems cannot be installed due to non-removable constraints. In these cases, passive ventilation grilles are a cheap and effective solution for the ventilation. This work deals with an in-depth experimental analysis about the air permeability values measured over a set of passive ventilation grilles available on the market. Obtained results often showed performances very far to thos…
EVALUATION OF THE COMBINED EFFECT OF VEGETATION AND NATURAL VENTILATION IN NEARLY ZERO ENERGY MULTI-STOREY BUILDINGS – nZE(ms)B
2020
Cooling load is the main cause of high energy consumption for tall buildings in tropical climates while the construction of tall buildings is an unavoidable practice due to land scarcity in metropolitan cities. In this regard, the use of natural ventilation (NV) in tall buildings can help reducing the energy consumption. However, this solution can also bring the problem of polluted air that may enter the space to be ventilated. If the air is passed through a system that can absorb pollutants and add more oxygen to the air, the problem may almost be solved. Building integrated vegetation (BIV) systems can help solving this problem. So, if the air entering buildings passes through dense veget…
Ventilation rates and unsatisfied percentage from indoor CO2 concentration.
2011
This work reports the results of a survey carried out on a hall in a historic building in Palermo (Italy) with the aim of assessing the air quality by means of objective measurement of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration and its subjective evaluation through a questionnaire. The measured values of CO2 concentration were compared with those evaluated using the Meckler equation under steady-state conditions, having verified necessary parameters such as the constancy of the indoor and outdoor CO2 levels and the uniformity of the CO2 generation rate for all the occupants. The positive correspondence between measured and calculated results allowed us to utilise, under differing circum- stances, t…
Computer model and simulation of a traditional passive cooling ventilation system in a Modern building in Mazara del Vallo (Italy)
2008
Traditional and modern natural ventilation techniques have been integrated in a hybrid system for a retrofitting of public building in the city of Mazara del Vallo (Italy). The hybrid ventilation and air cooling system integrates a wind tower, an indirect evaporative heat exchanger, a ground cooling pipe network and ventilated façade. The first idea was to design a passive cooling system inspired to the typical wind towers of the Middle East, being the area very well ventilated. On the other hand, air humidity in summer is quite high and therefore the effectiveness of indirect evaporative cooling is quite low. For this reason, it was adopted a second passive cooling system consisting in a g…
Role of Sky-gardens in Improving Energy Performance of Tall Buildings
2018
Natural ventilation has been used as a passive strategy for many decades but only now its importance in tall buildings for addressing the issues of high energy usage and reducing carbon footprints is emerging. Sky-gardens can play an important role in successful implementation of natural ventilation through amplification of natural wind speeds. This study presents a state-of-the-art review on optimization of tall buildings energy performance through incorporation of sky-gardens. Pros and cons of use of natural ventilation for multi-story buildings are highlighted. Details of involved technical difficulties and barriers in the construction and operation process of sky-gardens are also given.…