Thesis supervisor: András Reith
Location of studies (in Hungarian): Budapest University of Technology and Economics Abbreviation of location of studies: BME
Description of the research topic:
Energy efficiency of buildings has been in the focus since the last quarter of the 20th century, while the architectural trend to build highly glazed facades is unceasing.
When looking at the thermal characteristics, there is currently no shortage of high-performance fenestration and curtain wall systems, that meet requirements of the EPBD recast. However, when targeting low building energy use for e.g. office buildings, focusing on the heating energy use only can be misleading, as the cooling, lighting and ventilation can be the major energy uses.
The concept of double skin facades (DSFs) has been known since the beginning of the 20th century and DSFs became popular in the 1990’s in Europe. Beginning from the early 2000’s, several studies, research programmes were set up for the investigation of DSFs, which still concentrate on the heating energy savings. These studies resulted mainly in only qualitative findings due to the limited availability of simulation tools and computational capacity at that time which is necessary for a robust quantitative evaluation.
The research of DSFs in the 2010s is yet still relevant:
- the advancements of the computational and simulation technology now make it possible to evaluate complex building envelopes and optimize them connected to whole building systems. This is particularly important in case of responsive DSFs with integrated movable elements that can be controlled intelligently, where energy savings are more promising than stationary façade systems.
- With growing urbanization, noise pollution is also increasing which in many cases eliminates the possibility of natural ventilation with single skin façades. The potential of DSFs to facilitate natural ventilation with limited noise levels is to be investigated.
- DSFs are also promising in locations where the installation possibilities of external shading systems are limited due to the high wind pressure. Application of DSFs on high rise buildings is to be assessed on hot humid and hot arid climates, where cooling is dominant
- poorly designed DSFs can increase energy use significantly. Guidance is needed for the designers in the selection of the DSF type and details that is based on quantitative evaluations.
The objective of the research is to evaluate the possible constructions of double skin facades and to provide a class of solutions for high performance DSFs on several climates and to quantify possible energy savings.
PhD Candidate should define the parameters that have the greatest effect on the energy balance of an office with DSF and should provide the best range and combinations for those. The research method should include the usage of mathematical models, computer simulations and measurements of full scale physical models or case studies.
Within this research topic there is a possible cooperation with NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) within the REINVENT-windows project.
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