English

Where modern buildings are unable to maintain the internal environment to within comfort levels they often rely on mechanical systems to become habitable. This could be due to bad design or putting the building in an environment for which it is not suited. Due to climate change it is likely that all buildings will in effect and time be moved to an environment for which it is not suited. In this work the effects of changes in climate on the internal environment will be explored and an index to define how moveable a construction might be, will be developed. 

Utilizing building performance feedback as part of the preliminary design process can suggest environmentally responsive strategies and inform subsequent architectural development. This paper will outline a workflow that utilizes an integrated set of parametric design tools to simultaneously evaluate an exterior solar screen under multiple performance criteria, such as daylighting, visual comfort, energy, peak cooling, and shading effectiveness.

In this research, we look for a control strategy of the electrochromic windows, depending on the measurement of the vertical outdoor illuminance and the outdoor temperature, for an efficient highly glazed office building in Brussels. We simulate this building in TRNSYS. We implement a Perez model in TRNSYS to assess the vertical diffuse outdoor illuminance. As the building is equipped with a dimmable lighting system, we assess the average indoor illuminance. We simulate the switching dynamics of the electrochromic window and we implement a control strategy.

An HVAC circuit is a collection of interconnected elements that can be modelled by interconnected blocks. Similar to electrical or hydraulic circuits analysis, we define the HVAC network analysis as the process of finding the temperatures and humidity ratios across, and the sensible and latent heat flow rates through every component in the network for a given mass flow rate of dry air. This implies formulating and solving a system of non-linear equations.

In case of an accidental release of indoor airborne pollutants, it is critical to know information of the pollutant sources. Current inverse modeling concentrates on identifying a single pollutant source or multiple pollutant sources in simplified puff or constant release forms. This investigation proposes an inverse model to precisely identify the multiple pollutant source number, locations and their temporal release rate profiles simultaneously.

The building industry nowadays is facing two major challenges – increased concern for energy reduction and growing need for thermal comfort. These challenges have led many researchers to develop Radiant Cooling Systems that show a large potential for energy savings. This study aims to develop a personalized cooling system using the principle of radiant cooling integrated with conventional all-air system to achieve better thermal environment at the workspace. Personalized conditioning aims to create a microclimatic zone around a single workspace.

Providing an adequate quantity of fresh, clean air to occupied areas of residential and public buildings is necessary for diluting indoor CO2, airborne particles and other gas pollutant, especially for overpopulated buildings like school. The window filtration ventilator is a new idea which replacing one part of the window frame by a ventilator with filter, and it is considered suitable to improve on air quality in the classroom. However, the practical use of the new kind of ventilator in an actual room is still needed to be verified.

Double skin façades (DSF), are typically composed by two transparent envelope elements separated by a ventilated airspace. Such a technology can be applied both in new and existing buildings and may combine architectural value with energy efficiency. In the most common mechanically ventilated configurations the DSF air inlet came from the indoor environment and the outlet air returns to the HVAC system. Integrated shading devices are positioned between the skins.