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What is really important in multi-storey building design?


What is really important in multi-storey building design?

Model overview. Credit: application energy (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.120585

For the first time, the impact of multi-story building design considerations on emissions, costs and demonstrated operating energy has been revealed. Using a model, the researchers estimate that 28% to 44% of the annual heating and cooling energy, and six gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent accumulated between now and 2050, could be saved in new multi-story building by applying certain recommendations and using technology available Today.

With the construction and operation of buildings accounting for more than a third of global emissions and energy use, the race to reduce emissions is on. Researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Bath, who have explored many of the decisions architects, engineers and urban planners have to negotiate, said although buildings are a big part of the current problem, but they are also an important lever for change. For the purposes of this study, decisions included shape, size, layout, structural systems, windows, insulation, ventilation and usage parameters, for the whole residential area (blocks). apartment) and office buildingin different climates.

The researchers built a model that allowed them to estimate, for the first time, the relative importance of such early-stage design decisions in the context of the entire building. Their findings are reported in the journal application energy.

Research shows that increasing building compactness, using steel or wood instead of concrete frames, having smaller windows with glazing is optimal for a given area climate, and the use of mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, are the most important measures to reduce emissions and operating energy. The most significant trade-off with construction costs meanwhile, was found to choose frame materials and decide whether to install mechanical ventilation.

What determines the expressed carbon?

For both residential and office buildings, the choice of structural frame type was found to have a major influence on both embodiments. carbon—the amount of carbon released from the construction of a building—and the cost. The researchers found that cheaper frames tend to use more carbon, and vice versa, which indicates a significant trade-off. For comparison, the lowest carbon solutions can be achieved by using laminated laminate flooring with laminated beams or steel frames. Meanwhile, as the number of stories increases, so do the carbon values ​​shown.

The choice of cladding is also an important factor, with tile cladding resulting in significantly higher costs and carbon present than lighter cladding or tile options. This has a stimulating effect, with a further increase in the amount of material required for the structural framework to support the higher coating loads. Tiled buildings – still widely available in the UK – were found to use up to 20% more carbon and are 15% more expensive than clad or tiled buildings.

What determines active energy?

For temperate climates, such as in London, UK, the shape of the building and its window configuration are the design decisions that have the most influence on determining heating and cooling energy. cool.

For the tropical climates of Singapore and Lagos, in Nigeria, high humidity and high temperatures mean dependence on cooling energy. The more people in the building, the greater the cooling capacity use of energy to dehumidify the incoming air.

In the hot and arid climate of Cairo, Egypt, decisions about window-to-wall ratio are crucial. The more windows, the hotter the building solar radiation. The researchers found that smaller windows and lower solar heat gain (the fraction of solar radiation received through windows) had a more pronounced effect on the efficiency of office buildings than in office buildings. with residential building. This is because the former has a larger number of both occupants and heat-emitting devices.

By examining the effect of climate on the sensitivity of building design variables, the researchers found that keeping cooling energy low in hot and humid climates is much more difficult than achieve low heating energy in cold and temperate climates.

The use of mechanical ventilation With heat recovery being one of the most important levers for reducing heating and cooling energy, especially for office buildings in hot, humid and humid climates, the researchers say. cold. The choice of ventilation comes with a higher upfront cost, but it’s a trade-off that the researchers feel should be “a central consideration in building design,” especially in light of the changing landscape. climate, which already disproportionately affects developing countries and will inevitably push more of the world’s population into hotter climates.

Lead author, Dr. Hannes Gauch, research associate on building embodied/emissions energy, said: “We were surprised that insulation thickness and thermal mass, commonly used by architects Design and construction studies consider many, in turn, secondary factors in determining the effectiveness of a build. For example, choosing lightweight cladding over tiles has a much more significant impact. Our findings show that to design low-carbon buildings, we need to focus on efficient shapes (boxy) and structural frames (shorter span, more wood), limiting door sizes. windows and use a ventilation system with heat recovery.”

More information:
HL Gauch et al, What really matters in multi-story building design? A study of the simultaneous sensitivity of expressed carbon, construction costs and operating energy, application energy (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.120585

quote: What is really important in multi-storey building design? (2023, March 22) get March 22, 2023 from https://techxplore.com/news/2023-03-multi-story.html

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