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The aim of this research is to provide bioclimatic design suggestions to improve the thermal comfort of people in hot and humid climates according to the BWh (hot desert climate) Köppen climate classification. The city of Minia is considered one of Egypt’s hot desert regions. This study considered two main variables to achieve thermal comfort according to air velocity and temperature. To select the best bioclimatic design tactic, the findings are reviewed and plotted on the Climate Consultant (CC) Bioclimatic Chart and the Mahoney Table (MT). The proposed procedures are presented as figures relating to the approaches and are examined independently. We conclude that specific bioclimatic design strategies have been applied through the extensive study presented in this paper for Minia City, which can be exported to other regions with comparable climates. These strategies are practically and effectively considered functional architectural approaches that can improve thermal comfort for people. The two tools CC and MT are compared based on 27 recommended strategies that can be achieved according to the bioclimatic parameters that were studied. They agreed with 30% as good natural ventilation, passive solar heating with a high percentage that reached 10% for each. Where there is a difference of 20 recommendations to 70%, this represents other factors or recommendations such as shading with which it is proposed in MT as well as other parameters.
This paper studies the Egyptian building design strategies for different building envelope shapes based on the green building design using the DesignBuilder program by simulating the outdoor climate conditions depending on the Egyptian meteorological data. The simulated results are applied to Minia City as one of the hot-desert climate regions in Egypt. The research is performed on the hottest day in summer according to the analysis of climatic data overall months using the climate consultant tool. This research studies two main variables to characterize the quantitative relationships between the building form and the Natural Ventilation (NV) of thermal comfort to be achieved, which are mixed-mode maximum wind speed, and natural ventilation setpoint temperature. The research focuses on two output parameters, which are air velocity and pressure, relating to natural outdoor ventilation. The simulation findings revealed that the circle form offers the best case, which has a significant role in achieving thermal comfort that optimized the value between the two major parameters in building design, while the worst case is the U-shaped building based on the same two optimized values. Finally, the usage of natural ventilation, simultaneously with choosing the suitable building geometry, is principal for adapting the current outdoor air velocity and pressure, thus reducing the energy consumption of buildings.Practical application: This paper studies the relationship between building form and natural ventilation to achieve outdoor thermal comfort and its effects on buildings. The study assesses the wind speed and temperature parameters using the DesignBuilder tool. The study suggests a combination between natural ventilation and choosing the suitable building form to adapt the air velocity and pressure to reduce the energy consumption of the buildings.
The adoption of green building technology has become significant for ensuring sustainable development; it has become the main step to a sustainable future. The designs for green buildings include finding a balance between comfortable home construction and a sustainable environment. Moreover, the application of emerging technology is also used to supplement existing methods in the development of greener buildings to preserve a sustainable built environment. The main problem of this research is how to tackle the environmental parameters balance based on new techniques that are being used for green building optimization. To mitigate the cumulative effect of the constructed climate on human wellbeing and the regular ecosystem, the most popular goals for green buildings should be planned. This can be achieved by efficient use of natural resources such as energy, water, and other resources and minimizing waste. This will contribute to the security of occupant health, enhancement of work performance, emissions control, and improvement of the environment. In the construction of green buildings, several criteria that may contradict, interrelated indistinct and of qualitative and/or quantitative environment are broadened to utilize. This paper provides a detailed state of the art analysis on improving existing practices in green architecture/building using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) techniques to tackle the environmental balancing values based on optimal strategies and designs by green solutions to help make the best possible option from numerous options.
This paper discusses the effect of various climatic conditions that pertain to passive design measurements and their relationships with building configurations to improve indoor thermal comfort based on the different climate zones in Egypt to support Egypt’s sustainability agenda 2030. We find the most appropriate design settings that can increase the indoor thermal comfort, such as building orientation and shape. These settings can be modeled using DesignBuilder software combined with Egyptian meteorological data. This software is used accompanied by computational fluid dynamics to numerically assess the outcomes of different changes, by simulating indoor climate condition factors such as wind speed and temperature. Natural ventilation simulations were performed for four different shapes to create comprehensive dataset scenarios covering a general range of shapes and orientations. Seven scenarios were optimized to put forward a series of building bioclimatic design approaches for the different characteristic regions. The results indicated that the temperature decreased by about 3.2%, and the air velocity increased within the study domain by 200% in the best and the worst cases, respectively, of the four different shapes. The results of the study gave evidence that the configuration of buildings, direction, and wind speed are very important factors for defining the natural ventilation within these domains to support the green building concept and the sustainable design for a better lifestyle.
Thermal comfort is the result of a balanced of building frameworks adjusted to both the area of the structure just as the kind of air move performed inside the structure or the room of the structure. The aim of this research is to represent the Minia city as a case study based on the Mahoney tables method to validate the best design strategy in the hot desert bioclimatic region. Mahoney tables are a collection of referenced tables utilized in construction as a climate-appropriate design manager coupled with the meteorological data to include the right design recommendations. So, the Mahoney tables can assess the climate to be more accurately reflect the environmental conditions in the summer. Also, it can beware of the passive heating technique as natural ventilation used in the construction of energy-efficient buildings. The research proceeds with a set of conclusions and recommendations that be gotten from Mahoney tables climatic characteristics, then the design strategies were recommended. These recommendations can help architects bring forward a set of bioclimatic design strategies for buildings in Minia's environment to conduct thermal comfort with the help of the climate consultant tool.
Recently, green structures turned into a huge path to an economic future. Green building outlines include finding the harmony between agreeable home living and a maintainable environment. Furthermore, the usage of modern technologies is seen as part of greener construction changes to make the urban environment more viable. This paper introduces an exhaustive state-of-art review and current practices to look for the ideal green arrangement’s models, procedures, and parameters utilizing the genetic algorithms innovations to help for settling on the most ideal choice from various options. The integrated Genetic Algorithm (GA) along with the Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm strategy GA-NSGA-II is considered to be more accurate for predicting a viable future. The above methodology is widely relevant for its humility, ease of execution, and enormous durability. Besides other approaches, the GA was incorporated as well as the Neural Network (NN), Simulated Annealing (SA), Fuzzy Set theory, decision-making multicriteria, and multi-objective programming. The most fashionable methods are moderately the embedded GA-NSGA-II approaches. This paper gives an outline of the capability of GA-based MOO in supporting the advancement of methodologies of the techniques and parameters to find the best solution for the building decision-making cycle. The GA combined schemes can fulfill all the requirements for finding the optimality in the case of multi-objective problem-solving.
This paper proposes a method and a tool based on cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) for assessing energy efficiency improvements in buildings using a case example from Egypt. Commonly used methods for economic appraisal of energy efficiency improvements have shortcomings that warrant the study of alternative methods. To offer avenues for improving the current economic assessment of energy efficiency, methods used in other fields are studied. A chain of argumentation for choosing a suitable method is developed. As a result, CEA appears to be best suited to the problem at hand. It can be used to, first, define the cost of the primary aim of saving energy and, second, allow the comparison of alternative investments in sustainable energy, not limited to energy conservation alone. A case building is studied with a calculation using a CEA method adapted for energy efficiency improvements in buildings to demonstrate the use of the method. In the case studied the CEA calculation produced costs of 0.26-0.60 USD/kWh for energy saved by the energy efficiency investments made. A systematic appraisal of cost-effectiveness of alternative energy efficiency projects would allow pointing out the most effective ones in terms of energy saved per money spent.
Natural ventilation represents one of the challenges in green buildings design since the most important parameter that reflects the quality of building design is the thermal comfort within the indoor environment. This paper introduces experimental and numerical investigations for evaluating the impacts of natural ventilation on the thermal comfort inside residential buildings. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were carried out to assess the wind environment within the study domain. Then, the solved flow field was used to calculate the temperature field. Validation of the simulation results was performed using experimental measurements. The parameters considered in the study were the air velocity, relative humidity, and the dry bulb air temperature. The study results show that there are significant thermal discomfort conditions inside the study domain, due to the lack of air circulation within the domain as a result of the building geometry. Accordingly, the obtained results reflect the need for design modifications in window parameters (window size, window placement, and shades) to improve the thermal comfort within the domain. Applying the design modifications led to a decrease in the air temperature by 2.5% and an increase in the air velocity within the study domain by six times. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
The techniques, theories and implementations of the green building issue are the standout amongst the most difficult in architectural design, where these techniques are a piece of the design process in architecture, landscape, and urban planning. There are various parameters which might be interrelated, negating, dubious and of subjective nature are widen to utilize. This paper presents a comprehensive critical state of art survey of current practices taking into account Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques (such as Fuzzy, (AHP) Analytical Hierarchy Process, (GA) Genetic Algorithms) and their blends. Also, a comparative analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of existing knowledge engineering AI tools based on different techniques applied to the architecture problems are statistically discussed. In addition, the paper exhibits how green architecture can be improved using the technologies that been used for analysis to look for ideal green solutions strategies to assist in making the best possible decision.
Recently, the green architecture become a significant way to a sustainable future. Green building designs involve finding the balance between comfortable homebuilding and sustainable environment. Moreover, the utilization of the new technologies such as artificial intelligence techniques are used to complement current practices in creating greener structures to keep the built environment more sustainable. The most common objectives in green buildings should be designed to minimize the overall impact of the built environment that effect on ecosystems in general and in particularly human health and natural environment. This will lead to protecting occupant health, improving employee productivity, reducing pollution and sustaining the environmental. In green building design, multiple parameters which may be interrelated, contradicting, vague and of qualitative/quantitative nature are broaden to use. This paper presents a comprehensive critical stateofartreview of current practices based on fuzzy and its combination techniques. Also, presented how green architecture/building can be improved using the technologies that been used for analysis to seek optimal green solutions strategies and models to assist in making the best possible decision out of different alternatives. Keywords—Green architecture/building, technologies, optimization, strategies, fuzzy techniques and models.
The aim of this paper is to present a method and a tool based on cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) for assessing energy efficiency improvements in buildings. The method is based on comparing costs of an energy efficiency improvement with its effects in terms of reduced energy use.Ashort review of the current practices in evaluating the economic efficiency and feasibility of energy efficiency measures is presented.A case example is presented with a calculationby using a CEA calculation method adapted for energy efficiency improvements in buildings.It is here concluded that the systematic appraisal of cost-effectiveness of energy efficiency investments would allow most economical projects to be implemented first, leading to greater overall economic efficiency.
— Life cycle assessment is a technique to assess the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product, process, or service, by compiling an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases; evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with identified inputs and releases; and interpreting the results to help you make a more informed decision. In this paper, the life cycle assessment of aluminum and beech wood as two commonly used materials in Egypt for window frames are heading, highlighting their benefits and weaknesses. Window frames of the two materials have been assessed on the basis of their production, energy consumption and environmental impacts. It has been found that the climate change of the windows made of aluminum and beech wood window, for a reference window (1.2m×1.2m), are 81.7 mPt and -52.5 mPt impacts respectively. Among the most important results are: fossil fuel consumption, potential contributions to the green building effect and quantities of solid waste tend to be minor for wood products compared to aluminum products; incineration of wood products can cause higher impacts of acidification and eutrophication than aluminum, whereas thermal energy can be recovered.