Numerical analysis of passive strategies for energy retrofit of existing buildings in Mediterranean climate: thermal mass and natural ventilation combination

Abstract

Abstract. The study investigates the potential of coupling natural ventilation and thermal storage systems to improve hygrothermal comfort and reduce energy consumption during summer season in an existing building in the Mediterranean. It aims at bridging the knowledge gap between designers, researchers and building scientists, fostering a multidisciplinary approach and promoting numerical simulation of the energy performance of buildings within architectural professional practice. The study analyses the interaction between six natural ventilation systems (single sided ventilation through facade openings; cross ventilation through facade openings, inlet wind tower, thermal chimney, evaporative cool tower, earth pipes) and with two thermal storage typology (heavy and medium-light) within four strategic Italian location (Rome, Naples, Messina and Catania). For each interaction we perform a numerical dynamic simulation of indoor comfort, indoor air quality and energy consumption during the summer period, on a reference building model corresponding to the most common Italian typology. Results show that the use of the chosen systems ensures significant reductions of discomfort hours and energy consumption in all configurations. The study also highlights the high efficiency of non invasive systems (single-sided and cross ventilation with automatic control present discomfort hours reduction and energy consumption reduction above 68% for all combinations) and the significant influence of the daily thermal range value on the performance of systems without air pre-treatment.

CFD optimisation of a stadium roof geometry: a qualitative study to improve the wind microenvironment

“…The interactions between the urban environment and the stadium structures as well as the wind comfort conditions on pedestrian level have also attracted great interest [10][11][12]. Finally, thermal comfort studies, employing dynamic thermal modelling and CFD techniques, were also conducted to assess thermal discomfort and temperature distribution on stadia [2,[13][14][15]41] and energy consumption requirements [16,17,42].…”

Natural ventilation for office building retrofit in dense urban context under hot and humid climate

“…The study underlines the importance of the original celosías for the energy and thermal comfort upgrading during summer, and defend an in-depth investigation of passive strategies to reduce the installation of invasive plant solutions. Calcerano, Cecchini, and Martinelli (2017) emphasize automatic control can increase natural ventilation efficiency if this system takes into consideration users' needs, enabling to reduce over 68% of discomfort hours and energy consumption for different climatic conditions in Italy.…”