Article
Energy & Fuels
Alejandro Lara Allende, Andre Stephan
Summary: In the long run, the energy efficiency and emissions reduction performance of green building projects throughout their lifecycle is crucial, with each lifecycle stage making a significant contribution that cannot be overlooked.
Article
Energy & Fuels
Hongjun Gao, Zhenyu Liu, Youbo Liu, Lingfeng Wang, Junyong Liu
Summary: In this study, a two-stage data-driven distributionally robust operation model is proposed for optimizing urban integrated energy systems. The model considers the uncertainties of renewable energy resources and mitigates the power differences caused by real-time uncertainties through flexible regulation of energy coupling units. This approach provides an effective strategy in terms of both economic and robustness aspects.
CSEE JOURNAL OF POWER AND ENERGY SYSTEMS
(2022)
Review
Construction & Building Technology
Chao Wang, Martina Ferrando, Francesco Causone, Xing Jin, Xin Zhou, Xing Shi
Summary: Urban Building Energy Modeling (UBEM) is crucial for urban energy-related applications, with the quantity and accuracy of data inputs being key factors for its reliability. Challenges such as lack of available data and difficulty in determining stochastic data hinder the development of UBEM.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Delphine Ramon, Karen Allacker, Damien Trigaux, Hendrik Wouters, Nicole P. M. van Lipzig
Summary: Strict energy performance requirements have reduced buildings' operational energy use and environmental impact in the past decades. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to assess the environmental impact of buildings, but current studies often ignore the potential changes in operational energy use due to climate change. This study improves the assessment by considering the variations in yearly operational energy use caused by climate change and changes in the electricity mix. The results show that climate change scenarios can significantly affect the energy use and environmental impact of buildings.
ENERGY AND BUILDINGS
(2023)
Article
Thermodynamics
Sepehr Foroushani, Jason Owen, Majid Bahrami
Summary: The paper proposes a simple, computationally efficient modeling approach for district energy networks using operational data to construct temporal load profiles, eliminating the need for building energy simulations.The model is validated with data from a natural-gas powered district energy network in British Columbia, Canada. Case studies show that hourly thermal energy storage can reduce daily peak loads on boilers by up to 20% and meet fluctuating demand with a constant-power supply, enabling the use of biomass as an alternative energy source.
THERMAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING PROGRESS
(2021)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
James Allan, Sven Eggimann, Michael Wagner, Yoo Na Ho, Mirjam Zuger, Ute Schneider, Kristina Orehounig
Summary: This study aims to quantify the operational and embodied emissions resulting from urban densification and investigates two types of densification strategies. The research found that extending the existing building stock can save approximately 30% of embodied emissions compared to rebuilding, but these savings diminish further in concentrated densification strategies.
ENERGY AND BUILDINGS
(2022)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Irene Manso Borras, Diana Neves, Ricardo Gomes
Summary: Decentralized solar deployment is crucial in the energy transition, especially in urban areas with high electricity consumption density. Energy communities (EC) emerge as an innovative strategy to share decentralized energy resources by implementing local generation systems such as photovoltaic panels. This study develops a modeling framework to assess the potential of EC creation by combining Urban Buildings Energy Modeling (UBEM) capabilities and building rooftops' solar generation potential. The results of the case studies demonstrate that collective self-consumption in ECs increases building self-sufficiency, with the best results achieved when combining diverse demand profiles. The developed model, incorporating UBEM outputs, provides a valuable assessment of EC performance, contributing to enhancing its implementation.
ENERGY AND BUILDINGS
(2023)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Hussain Kazmi, Chun Fu, Clayton Miller
Summary: Buildings contribute to more than one third of energy demand in many countries globally. Accurate modeling of this demand is crucial for optimizing energy efficiency and maintaining stable grid operation, especially with the increasing electrification of heating and transportation and the rise of renewable energy sources. However, there is a lack of consensus on best practices in the field of energy demand forecasting, with conflicting results from various research papers. This paper addresses this issue by providing answers to important questions and offering a framework for creating and evaluating demand forecast models, along with a tutorial for load forecasting at both building and urban scales.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Maryam Abbasi Kamazani, Manish K. Dixit
Summary: Buildings have a significant impact on global energy consumption and carbon emissions. This paper presents a genetic-based framework that integrates EnergyPlus with embodied energy and carbon databases to optimize both operational and embodied energy and carbon emissions. By adjusting design measures, the framework determines the optimal building configuration, leading to significant reductions in energy consumption and carbon emissions.
JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
(2023)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Abdul Rauf, Daniel Efurosibina Attoye, Robert Crawford
Summary: Extensive focus on operational energy research has brought about positive impacts on academia and policymakers. However, there has been limited attention given to embodied energy in building construction. This study investigates the current scenario in the UAE by examining the embodied energy of a residential villa. The findings reveal the proportion of initial and recurrent embodied energy, as well as the life cycle energy, over a 50-year period. The study also emphasizes the potential benefits of incorporating renewable energy sources and highlights areas for future research in the field of embodied energy.
Article
Thermodynamics
Yang Zhao, Ziyue Jiang, Xinyu Chen, Peng Liu, Tianduo Peng, Zhan Shu
Summary: This paper establishes an integrated data-driven assessment model for investigating the energy use patterns and charging load profiles of urban-scale EV fleets. The results show distinct energy consumption patterns and charging peaks for private light-duty EVs in Beijing, providing insights for transport emissions, urban power supply, infrastructure build-ups, and policymaking.
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Fatemeh Johari, Farshid Shadram, Joakim Widen
Summary: This study aimed to develop, calibrate and validate an Urban Building Energy Model (UBEM) using national databases, including GIS-based property maps and energy performance certificates (EPCs). The developed UBEM offers an automated framework for constructing simple building-level models from open data and conducting energy simulations in EnergyPlus. The study found that the UBEM performed well in supporting accurate urban-scale energy analyses for buildings, with a decrease in mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) from 26% to 21% and 10% when increasing spatial aggregation from building to district and city levels.
SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SOCIETY
(2023)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
X. J. Luo, Lukumon O. Oyedele
Summary: A novel data-driven life-cycle optimisation approach for building retrofitting is proposed, selecting the optimal retrofitting plan to maximize cost-saving, energy reduction, and carbon reduction. The proposed approach was tested on a real-world building, showing that retrofitting could lead to significant cost, energy, and carbon savings over the building's lifetime.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2021)
Review
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
V. Venkatraj, M. K. Dixit
Summary: In the construction sector, the energy consumption has significantly increased over the last few decades. Understanding the dichotomy between embodied energy and operational energy is essential for building life cycle energy assessments. Although data-driven approaches have become popular for building performance assessments, there is still a lack of reviews focusing on data-driven approaches from a building life cycle energy perspective.
RENEWABLE & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY REVIEWS
(2022)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Marko Sostaric, Kresimir Vidovic, Marijan Jakovljevic, Orsat Lale
Summary: The transport system requires rapid adjustments to keep up with fast-changing society and environment, thus a efficient methodology is needed for analyzing and planning urban transport systems for sustainable urban mobility policies.
Review
Construction & Building Technology
Rahman Azari, Narjes Abbasabadi
ENERGY AND BUILDINGS
(2018)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Narjes Abbasabadi, Mehdi Ashayeri, Rahman Azari, Brent Stephens, Mohammad Heidarinejad
Article
Environmental Sciences
Mehdi Ashayeri, Narjes Abbasabadi, Mohammad Heidarinejad, Brent Stephens
Summary: Urban areas significantly contribute to human exposure to air pollution. While traditional urban air quality prediction models have used principal component analysis (PCA) and regression algorithms, recent research suggests that considering local emissions from building infrastructure can enhance model performance.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Mehdi Ashayeri, Narjes Abbasabadi
Summary: This research develops a framework for integrated energy and exposure assessment, addressing energy, health, and equity as interconnected problems. The framework has been found effective in integrating urban energy and human health systems and has the potential to help envision urban building energy reduction goals.
SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SOCIETY
(2022)
Proceedings Paper
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Seth Luitjohan, Mehdi Ashayeri, Narj Es Abbasabadi
Summary: This article proposes a framework and computational tool that integrate cellular automata and solar radiation incident simulation. The framework automates the generation and optimization of urban building forms while considering the surrounding context. The study finds that the framework can automatically produce building forms that increase solar energy gain in urban environments, making it suitable for early-stage design. Additionally, the proposed framework can maximize solar radiation incident on building surfaces for renewable energy generation applications by up to 24% compared to control forms.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2022 ANNUAL MODELING AND SIMULATION CONFERENCE (ANNSIM'22)
(2022)
Proceedings Paper
Architecture
N. Abbasabadi, M. Ashayeri Jahan Khanemloo
ARCHITECTURAL RESEARCH ADDRESSING SOCIETAL CHALLENGES, VOLS 1 AND 2
(2017)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Parth Bansal, Steven Jige Quan
Summary: This study investigates the relationship between urban form and canopy layer urban heat island (CUHI) using a relatively large sample of microclimate sensors in Seoul, Korea. The study compares different statistical models and finds that the spatially explicit gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT) model has the highest accuracy. The study also shows that the effect of urban form on CUHI varies at different time instances during the day. These findings provide valuable insights for planners to understand the complexity of urban climate and reduce CUHI magnitude.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Miaomiao Liu, Salah Almazmumi, Pinlu Cao, Carlos Jimenez-bescos, John Kaiser Calautit
Summary: Windcatchers provide effective low-energy ventilation and summer passive cooling in temperate climates. However, their use in winter is limited due to significant ventilation heat loss and potential discomfort. This study evaluates the applicability of windcatchers in low-temperature conditions, highlighting the need for control strategies to reduce over-ventilation and the integration of heat recovery or thermal storage to enhance winter thermal conditions.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Review
Construction & Building Technology
Behrouz Nourozi, Aneta Wierzbicka, Runming Yao, Sasan Sadrizadeh
Summary: This article presents a systematic review of ventilation solutions in hospital wards, aiming to enhance pathogen removal performance while maintaining patient and healthcare staff comfort using air-cleaning techniques. The study reveals the importance of proper ventilation systems in reducing infection risk and adverse effects of cross-contamination.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Zhen Yang, Weirong Zhang, Hongkai Liu, Weijia Zhang, Mingyuan Qin
Summary: The study examines the influence of personalized local heating on the thermal comfort of occupants in old residential buildings. The findings reveal that personalized local heating can increase the overall thermal sensation of occupants, but only a few methods are effective in enhancing thermal comfort. The chosen heating methods and background temperature affect the participants' selection of heating parts.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Hong Cheng, Dan Norback, Huilin Zhang, Liu Yang, Baizhan Li, Yinping Zhang, Zhuohui Zhao, Qihong Deng, Chen Huang, Xu Yang, Chan Lu, Hua Qian, Tingting Wang, Ling Zhang, Wei Yu, Juan Wang, Xin Zhang
Summary: The home environment and sick building syndrome (SBS) symptoms in five southern Chinese cities have been studied over time. The study found a decrease in asthma prevalence and an increase in allergic rhinitis. Cockroaches, rats, mice, mosquitoes or flies were identified as consistent biological risk factors for SBS symptoms, while redecoration, buying new furniture, and traffic air pollution were identified as other risk factors.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Chaojie Xing, Zhengtao Ai, Zhiwei Liu, Cheuk Ming Mak, Hai Ming Wong
Summary: This study experimentally investigated the emission characteristics of droplets around the mouth during dental treatments. The results showed that the peak mass fraction of droplets occurs within the size range of 20 μm to 100 μm, and droplets with a diameter less than 200 μm account for over 80% of the mass fraction. The dominant emission direction of droplets is towards the dummy's head and chest, forming an approximately cone shape.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Zhijian Liu, Zhe Han, Lina Hu, Chenxing Hu, Rui Rong
Summary: This study compared the effects of different respiratory behaviors on the distribution of aerosols in a ward and the risk of infection for healthcare workers using numerical simulation. It was found that talking in the ward significantly increased aerosol concentrations, particularly short periods of talking. Wards designed with side-supply ventilation had lower overall infection risk. Talking alternately between healthcare workers and patients slightly extended the impact time of aerosols.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Yan Yan, Mengyuan Kang, Haodong Zhang, Zhiwei Lian, Xiaojun Fan, Chandra Sekhar, Pawel Wargocki, Li Lan
Summary: In a high-density city, opening windows for sleep may lead to increased indoor temperature, higher PM2.5 concentration, and noise disturbance, which can negatively impact sleep quality.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Yan Bai, Liang Liu, Kai Liu, Shuai Yu, Yifan Shen, Di Sun
Summary: This study developed a non-intrusive personal thermal comfort model using machine learning techniques combined with infrared facial recognition. The results showed that the ensemble learning models perform better than traditional models, and the broad learning model has a higher prediction precision with lower computational complexity and faster training speed compared to deep neural networks. The findings provide a reference for optimizing building thermal environments.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Yue Lei, Zeynep Duygu Tekler, Sicheng Zhan, Clayton Miller, Adrian Chong
Summary: Mixed-mode ventilation is a promising solution for achieving energy-efficient and comfortable indoor environments. This study found that occupants can thermally adapt when switching between natural ventilation (NV) and air-conditioning (AC) modes within the same day, with the adaptation process stabilizing between 35 to 45 minutes after the mode switch. These findings are important for optimizing thermal comfort in mixed-mode controls, considering the dynamic nature of thermal adaptation.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Nan Mo, Jie Han, Yingde Yin, Yelin Zhang
Summary: This study develops a method based on the LCZ framework for a comprehensive evaluation of urban-scale heat island effects, considering the impact of geographic factors on LST. The results show that Guilin's geomorphological conditions lead to abnormal heat island effects during winter, and the cooling effects of mountains and water bodies vary seasonally in different built areas, with LCZ 2 exhibiting the strongest cooling effect.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Tunga Salthammer
Summary: Monitoring the potential formaldehyde emission of wood-based materials through test chamber investigations has significantly contributed to reducing indoor formaldehyde concentrations. However, the different methodologies used in these procedures prevent direct result comparison. Empirical models for converting formaldehyde steady-state concentrations based on temperature, humidity, air change rate, and loading were developed in the 1970s and have been modified to accommodate the development of lower-emitting materials. Formaldehyde emissions from wood-based materials are complex and require nonlinear regression tools for mathematical analysis.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Katarina Stebelova, Katarina Kovacova, Zuzana Dzirbikova, Peter Hanuliak, Tomas Bacigal, Peter Hartman, Andrea Vargova, Jozef Hraska
Summary: This study investigated the impact of reduced short-wavelength light on the hormone melatonin metabolite 6-sulfatoxymelatonin (u-sMEL) and examined the association between previous day's light exposure and u-sMEL. It was found that reducing short-wavelength light during the day did not change the concentration of u-sMEL. Personal photopic illuminance was positively correlated with u-sMEL in the reference week. The illuminance had a significant impact on u-sMEL, as shown by the evaluation of the mean of all three urine samples. However, this correlation was not found in the experimental week.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Ruoxin Xiong, Ying Shi, Haoming Jing, Wei Liang, Yorie Nakahira, Pingbo Tang
Summary: This study proposes a data-model integration method to identify and calibrate uncertainties in machine learning models, leading to improved thermal perception predictions. The method utilizes the Multidimensional Association Rule Mining algorithm to identify biased human responses and enhances prediction accuracy and reliability. The study also evaluates different calibration techniques and discovers their potential in enhancing prediction reliability.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Beichao Hu, Zeda Yin, Abderrachid Hamrani, Arturo Leon, Dwayne McDaniel
Summary: This paper introduces an innovative super-resolution approach to model the air flow and temperature field in the cold aisle of a data center. The proposed method reconstructs a high-fidelity flow field by using a low-fidelity flow field, significantly reducing the computational time and enabling real-time prediction.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)