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Energies
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Innovations in Sustainable Architecture, Engineering and Construction
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Innovations in Sustainable Architecture, Engineering and Construction

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "G: Energy and Buildings".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2021) | Viewed by 10762

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Audrius Banaitis

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Department of Construction Management and Real Estate, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Vilnius 10221, Lithuania
Interests: renovation of buildings; green and sustainable construction; sustainable supply chain management; energy behavior change; property management; multiple criteria decision making: applications in construction and real estate
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Chunlu Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Architecture and Built Environment, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia
Interests: construction economics; project lifecycle management; sustainability assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Nerija Banaitiene

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Construction Management and Real Estate, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, 10221 Vilnius, Lithuania
Interests: project and risk management; quality management; energy behavior change; building life cycle analysis; multiple criteria decision making
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

Sustainable architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) is dedicated to the sustainability of the AEC industry and the sustainable development of economy, environment and society that it is associated with. Sustainable AEC is becoming increasingly important in the world as the AEC consumes huge natural resources from the earth to facilitate the needs of growing population and expanding industries. Sustainable AEC is affected by a large number of complex factors, with numerous stakeholders. Design, construction, operations and management at both company and project levels, without one exception, involve various challenges towards sustainability in the past and future. Innovations have been, and will be, the determining factor for growth and development in AEC. Innovations in sustainable AEC can be done in all levels, including the life cycle of a building, the business administration of a company, and the industrial policies and relations. This Special Issue will make known the latest advances in research and practice towards a more sustainable AEC in relation to energies and buildings. Relevant areas to this Special Issue include: building technologies; design and construction innovations; energy consumption and efficiency; sustainable principles and others. 

Prof. Dr. Audrius Banaitis
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chunlu Liu
Prof. Dr. Nerija Banaitiene
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • energy consumption and efficiency
  • sustainable building technologies
  • innovations in AEC
  • circular economics
  • waste minimisation
  • energy efficient supply chains
  • energy efficiency improvement measures
  • green building design

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 14875 KiB  
Article
A Staged Approach for Energy Retrofitting an Old Service Building: A Cost-Optimal Assessment
by Jorge Lopes, Rui A. F. Oliveira, Nerija Banaitiene and Audrius Banaitis
Energies 2021, 14(21), 6929; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14216929 - 21 Oct 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1661
Abstract
Office buildings built before the pre-1960 age constitute a relevant group for analyzing the energy performance of the Portuguese building sector. A dynamic energy simulation was used to assess the energy performance of an existing office building located in the town of Bragança, [...] Read more.
Office buildings built before the pre-1960 age constitute a relevant group for analyzing the energy performance of the Portuguese building sector. A dynamic energy simulation was used to assess the energy performance of an existing office building located in the town of Bragança, Portugal. By using a staged renovation approach, two passive technologies applied to the building envelope and an efficient domestic hot water system were selected and a financial evaluation through the net saving (NS) method was undertaken to choose the best efficiency measures/packages for improving the building’s energy performance. Real discount rates of 3% and 1% were used in the financial evaluation. Considering the real discount rate of 3%, the results showed that only two out seven retrofit options had a positive financial return. By using the real discount rate of 1%, all retrofit options were found to be financially efficient. The results of the study corroborated those of earlier works that found that the financial profitability of energy renovation investments is very sensitive to the discount rate used in the analysis. The results of the study also suggested that the staged renovation approach used in the analysis is economically feasible, and that this approach is an alternative to one-step renovation approach to help to achieve the country´s energy and climate targets by 2030. Suggestions for future research conducted for office buildings in the different climate zones and other age groups in Portugal are proposed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovations in Sustainable Architecture, Engineering and Construction)
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25 pages, 7811 KiB  
Article
Sensitivity Analysis for Carbon Emissions of Prefabricated Residential Buildings with Window Design Elements
by Simeng Li, Yanqiu Cui, Nerija Banaitienė, Chunlu Liu and Mark B. Luther
Energies 2021, 14(19), 6436; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14196436 - 08 Oct 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2733
Abstract
Owing to the advantages of high construction efficiency, prefabricated residential buildings have been of increasing interest in recent years. Against the background of global heating, designing low-carbon facades for prefabricated residential buildings has become a focus. The main challenge for this research is [...] Read more.
Owing to the advantages of high construction efficiency, prefabricated residential buildings have been of increasing interest in recent years. Against the background of global heating, designing low-carbon facades for prefabricated residential buildings has become a focus. The main challenge for this research is in designing windows for prefabricated residential buildings that can lead to the best performance in carbon emissions. The purpose of this paper is to summarize window design advice for prefabricated residential building facades with low-carbon goals. This paper adopts the single control variable research method. Building energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions under different conditions comprise the primary data used in the study. In the process of achieving the research aim, this study firstly extracts the window design elements of prefabricated residential facades. Secondly, objective function formulas are established and a basic model is built for obtaining data. Thirdly, data results are analyzed and window design advice is put forward under the condition of a low-carbon goal. This paper discusses that the optimal window-to-wall ratio (WWR) with a low-carbon orientation is around 0.15, and compares it innovatively with the optimal WWR under an energy-saving orientation at around 0.38. The research results of this paper can deepen the understanding of architectural low-carbon design and play a guiding role for architects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovations in Sustainable Architecture, Engineering and Construction)
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19 pages, 711 KiB  
Article
Overcoming the Project Communications Management Breakdown amongst Foreign Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Biophilia Inveigled Construction Projects in Malaysia
by Chitdrakantan Subramaniam, Syuhaida Ismail, Serdar Durdyev, Wan Nurul Mardiah Wan Mohd Rani, Nur Fatin Syazwani Abu Bakar and Audrius Banaitis
Energies 2021, 14(16), 4790; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14164790 - 06 Aug 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3347
Abstract
The property sector is revitalised to incorporate sustainability, specifically the biophilic design, to encourage human interaction with nature. Thus, there is an urgent need to communicate the biophilic design elements amongst stakeholders, especially the foreign workers, to ensure the project meets the requirement. [...] Read more.
The property sector is revitalised to incorporate sustainability, specifically the biophilic design, to encourage human interaction with nature. Thus, there is an urgent need to communicate the biophilic design elements amongst stakeholders, especially the foreign workers, to ensure the project meets the requirement. However, standard project communications management is no longer practical, as the construction industry worldwide has been severely impacted by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Hence, this paper evaluates the biophilic design elements to be communicated and examines the project communications management breakdown relating to the biophilic design elements in the Malaysian construction industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a systematic literature review (SLR), focus group discussion (FGD) and questionnaire survey on 147 foreign workers, this paper found that from 33 biophilic design element items, only 1 item is categorised as highly critical, whereas another 20 items are categorised as critical. In addition, 43 potential communications management breakdown items from a total of 66 items fall under the critical category. The finding suggests that communication breakdown is caused by the language barrier amongst foreign workers from different ethnicities as well as between foreign workers and the supervisors, since face to face communication is limited during the pandemic. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovations in Sustainable Architecture, Engineering and Construction)
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20 pages, 6910 KiB  
Article
Mathematical Modeling and Optimization of Vanadium-Titanium Black Ceramic Solar Collectors
by Ding Ding, Wenjing He and Chunlu Liu
Energies 2021, 14(3), 618; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14030618 - 26 Jan 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 1624
Abstract
The vanadium-titanium black ceramic (VTBC) coating on all-ceramic solar collectors has both high absorptance (0.94) and high emissivity (90%). However, the thermal conductivity of ceramic is very low (1.256 W/mK). To improve the heat collection efficiency of VTBC solar collectors, this paper establishes [...] Read more.
The vanadium-titanium black ceramic (VTBC) coating on all-ceramic solar collectors has both high absorptance (0.94) and high emissivity (90%). However, the thermal conductivity of ceramic is very low (1.256 W/mK). To improve the heat collection efficiency of VTBC solar collectors, this paper establishes a mathematical model based on the energy-conservation relationships under steady-state conditions and creates a corresponding computer program. Key parameters for VTBC solar collectors include the heat-removal factor, effective transmittance-absorptance product for the absorber, total heat loss coefficient, etc. Then, via experimental testing, this study proposes a reference model for domestic VTBC solar collectors in a cold location (η = 0.89 − 2.20Tm*). Last, this work analyzes the influences of fin design and transparent cover design on VTBC solar collectors individually, using the created computer program. Results show that the most effective optimization method is to increase the transmittance of the transparent cover. By increasing the transmittance from 0.93 to 0.96, this study creates an optimized VTBC solar collector theoretical model (η = 0.92 − 2.20Tm*). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovations in Sustainable Architecture, Engineering and Construction)
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