RICERCA ITALIANA     

Thermo-fluidodynamic analysis of adaptative systems for comfort and energy saving

Università degli Studi di Salerno

Abstract

The respect of the Kyoto protocol related to the reduction of both the greenhouse gases emissions and the consumption of fossil fuels, and the awareness that the HVAC plants dramatically contribute to both the atmospheric and the indoor pollution, result in a notable development of the research in the building energy saving in the last decade. Particularly, great efforts have been made concerning the performances improvement of both plants and the building components.
This kind of research has produced valuable important results and other studies may be performed in such direction. However a significant development in the next future should be obtained in studying, proposing and optimising the use of the active building envelope components and their integration with the HVAC systems.
The adaptive components are those building components which, closely connected with the HVAC devices, can contribute in reaching a good compromise between the energy performances and the indoor microclimate comfort conditions, reacting in a dynamic way to the boundary conditions and taking advantage of the climatic resources.
In these way the building components themselves (structures, floors, internal walls, etc.) are logically and rationally integrated with the building services coupled with the HVAC system in order to contribute to heating, cooling and ventilation functions.
The adaptability of the component, depending on the case, can be automatically checked by >>>

Principal Investigator

Francesca Romana D'AMBROSIO Università degli Studi di SALERNO

Research Objectives

The use of adaptive components as well as the integrated systems is not currently wide spread apart of few building and , usually, on demonstrative projects. As far as the three components object of this research concerns, this it is absolutely true for the green roofs and for the window-plant integrated systems. The situation is a little bit it more favourable for the transparent double skin ventilated façades often used for their aesthetical aspect rather than for their performances in the last years, wrongly criticized.
It is certain that some aspect of these components has to be improved: their thermal-fluid dynamic behaviour; their influence on the acoustic, thermal and visual comfort; the difficulties for the designer induced on the ventilation matter. Nevertheless the use of the adaptive components represents a reasonable compromise between opposite need in terms of performances. As a matter of fact, the maximization of the free contribution of energy with a high thermal insulation of the building during the heating season should be simultaneously obtained with the minimisation of the solar contributions and the possibility to dissipate to the outside the endogenous loads during the summer.
According to such situations the aims pursued by this research work will be:
1. developing of both experimental a numerical analysis methods for the behaviour exhibited by adaptive building components as the double skin façades, the window-plant systems and >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

INTRODUCTION
In the last years the demand of a better life quality in terms of built environment microclimate is notably increased. Such request substantially disagrees with the preservation of the external environment in observance of the Kyoto protocol. As a matter of fact, the microclimate improvement involves the use of HVAC systems for long periods of the year, dramatically increasing both the issue of greenhouse gases and the electric consumptions. With regard to such question, we have to keep in mind what happened during the past summer season, when the electrical power peaks, mainly related to a very high number of working HVAC systems, caused the crisis of the national electric network.
Therefore, if we take into account that around a third of the total consumptions of primary energy in the industrialized countries is related to the building HVAC systems, it is easy to conclude that the research of solutions and technologies allowing a high indoor microclimate quality level without any traditional HVAC system, is the only way to follow for improving both working and life conditions in the indoor environment protecting the external one.

ADAPTIVE COMPONENTS
In the last decade an important development of the research in the field of building physics, especially concerning the performances increasing of both building components and HVAC system elements was carried out.
This kind of research has produced valuable important >>>