Building Energy Simulation and Monitoring of Dynamic Lightweight Facades: Active Solutions for Building-Integrated Renewable Energies
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Green Building".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 5715
Special Issue Editors
Interests: active light building envelopes for energy management in buildings; building information modeling (BIM); zero energy building (ZEB) design; computer-aided energy simulation
Interests: energy efficiency in HVAC systems; energy saving in final users; renewable energy
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The widespread use of lightweight building facades and transparent envelopes significantly impacts energy consumption and comfort in buildings. As a result, codes and regulations propose ambitious building energy performance targets to meet passive house and net zero requirements. Lightweight envelopes lack the advantages of thermal mass when it comes to maintaining comfortable conditions inside buildings year-round, so they must address these requirements by dynamically adapting to environmental changes, reducing heating and cooling loads, and optimizing daylight and glare control. The current state of the art in lightweight and transparent facades focuses on two strategies: The first category is based on improving the static thermal properties of glazing, such as the thermal transmittance (U) and solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC). The second includes dynamic solutions that change their properties depending on external inputs. The former includes coatings (low emissivity and solar coating), inert-gas fillings, or vacuum cavities. The latter includes double-skin facades with a ventilated air stream, electrochromic glazing (EC), suspended-particle-device glazing (SPD), and circulating water chambers between two glass panes.
The development of digital technologies and innovation has paved the way for the fourth industrial revolution in architecture, engineering, and construction, mainly to help overcome new challenges and demands in construction engineering and management. Furthermore, adopting new digital technologies and innovative solutions throughout the construction project’s lifecycle provides additional means, avenues, and opportunities to promote and foster construction sustainability. Building energy simulation (BES) tools and monitoring systems are essential in optimizing building performance over different phases, from pre-design to commissioning and operation.
2) Aim of the Special Issue and how the subject relates to the journal scope.
The Special Issue on “Building energy simulation and monitoring of dynamic lightweight facades: active solutions for building-integrated renewable energies” aims to integrate the recent advancements in digital technologies with sustainable practices in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. The Special Issue's scope spans various aspects of digitization to foster sustainable construction throughout a project’s lifecycle (pre-design, construction, facility management, operation, and commissioning). Sustainability allows researchers to disseminate their work in applied sciences, engineering, and economics through experimental, computational, and theoretical research. In the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations, it is essential to understand and assess the built environment's impact on humanity's sustainable development.
3) Suggest themes.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Water fluid glazing facades.
- Ventilated facades with variable air flow.
- Application of building information modeling (BIM) and building energy simulation (BES) in nearly zero energy buildings (nZEB).
- Lightweight and transparent materials for building facades.
- Simulation-based modeling for energy management in buildings.
- Economic analyses of retrofit solutions.
- Integration of renewable energy sources.
- Adoption of new materials for green building certification.
- Proposal of new technologies to reduce the energy demand and increase comfort.
- Environmental social governance.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Fernando Delama Gonzalo
Dr. Belen Moreno Santamaria
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. Sustainability 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 2400 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
- water fluid glazing
- ventilated facades, energy management in buildings
- building energy simulation (BES)
- building information modelling (BIM)
- digital engineering and construction
