| Summary: |
This research project aims at contributing to the practical application of bioclimatic architecture principles, through the collaboration between several researchers with different academic and professional backgrounds.
Four essential themes have been chosen, each one considered in the energy efficiency perspective: urban planning, passive solar systems, natural ventilation and thermal insulation.
The urban planning is approached as a tool for a rational use of energy in buildings. An analysis of every factors involved will be accomplished and a methodology for the elaboration of bioclimatic urban models for Portuguese climatic conditions will be proposed.
In what concerns passive solar systems, a complete survey of the available systems will be carried out, the most suitable to be adopted by Portuguese construction practice will be selected and a work of simplification and adaptation will be done on these solutions in order to achieve a better adjustment to the most frequent building typologies. After that, the proposed solutions will be evaluated, using numerical simulation and experimental measurements, adopting them in different residential buildings design, for each Portuguese climatic region.
The study of natural ventilation will include, for winter conditions, the evaluation of the impact, in terms of thermal comfort and energy consumption, of the adoption of the air change rates recommended for residential buildings. As a result we will present some recommendations to minimize the negative impact. For summer conditions, ventilation strategies will be defined for the passive cooling of residential buildings, identifying the requirements of these strategies for the design of the building and the site layout. In complement, a decision model will be developed to allow for the planning and management of those strategies.
Finally, we will study the internal thermal insulation system. The impact, in terms of thermal comfort and energy consumption, of its  |
Summary
This research project aims at contributing to the practical application of bioclimatic architecture principles, through the collaboration between several researchers with different academic and professional backgrounds.
Four essential themes have been chosen, each one considered in the energy efficiency perspective: urban planning, passive solar systems, natural ventilation and thermal insulation.
The urban planning is approached as a tool for a rational use of energy in buildings. An analysis of every factors involved will be accomplished and a methodology for the elaboration of bioclimatic urban models for Portuguese climatic conditions will be proposed.
In what concerns passive solar systems, a complete survey of the available systems will be carried out, the most suitable to be adopted by Portuguese construction practice will be selected and a work of simplification and adaptation will be done on these solutions in order to achieve a better adjustment to the most frequent building typologies. After that, the proposed solutions will be evaluated, using numerical simulation and experimental measurements, adopting them in different residential buildings design, for each Portuguese climatic region.
The study of natural ventilation will include, for winter conditions, the evaluation of the impact, in terms of thermal comfort and energy consumption, of the adoption of the air change rates recommended for residential buildings. As a result we will present some recommendations to minimize the negative impact. For summer conditions, ventilation strategies will be defined for the passive cooling of residential buildings, identifying the requirements of these strategies for the design of the building and the site layout. In complement, a decision model will be developed to allow for the planning and management of those strategies.
Finally, we will study the internal thermal insulation system. The impact, in terms of thermal comfort and energy consumption, of its adoption will be quantified, for the in-use conditions of Portuguese residential buildings. The advantages and disadvantages of the system will be identified and solutions will be proposed in order to profit the most of the first one and to minimize the second one, evaluating all the aspects involved, namely, the architectural design, the thermal behavior, the aspects related with the construction itself, the behavior towards humidity, etc.
The global results of this project will answer to the need of bringing the bioclimatic principles to the daily design practice, providing the designers with simple but rigorous tools for their application. A guide will be prepared giving demo solutions and design recommendations, for each of the chosen themes. |