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Urban Microclimate Analysis on Buildings Energy Performance

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 October 2023) | Viewed by 12103

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
1. Laboratory of Building Construction and Building Physics, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
2. Department of Civil Engineering, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece
Interests: sustainable development; environmental analysis; microclimate; dynamic energy performance simulation; microclimate simulation; building energy efficiency

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Urbanization and industrialization continuously change the land use and land cover of modern cities around the world, leading to modified microclimatic conditions and severe urban warming phenomena. In the future, even higher urban air temperatures are to be expected due to ongoing climate change, contributing to the existing worrying microclimatic issues of cities. In light of this, major challenges arise that involve, on one hand, the accurate prediction of the impact of the urban form on the local microclimate and the building energy performance and, on the other hand, the establishment of suitable mitigation and adaption strategies to improve the indoor thermal comfort conditions and energy demands of urban buildings.

In this context, this Special Issue invites theoretical and experimental studies that evaluate the urban microclimate’s effect on building thermal performance. The selection of papers for this Special Issue will be based not only on their innovation and originality but also on their scientific and applied findings, providing a valuable contribution to the scientific community.

Dr. Stella Tsoka
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Urban microclimate simulation and experimental methods
  • Energy performance simulation
  • Integrated/coupling simulation methods
  • Mitigation strategies
  • Urban scale

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 5001 KiB  
Article
Evaluating the Combined Effect of Climate Change and Urban Microclimate on Buildings’ Heating and Cooling Energy Demand in a Mediterranean City
by Stella Tsoka, Kondylia Velikou, Konstantia Tolika and Aikaterini Tsikaloudaki
Energies 2021, 14(18), 5799; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14185799 - 14 Sep 2021
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 2511
Abstract
Climate change has a major impact on the urban built environment, both with respect to the heating and cooling energy requirements, but also regarding the higher probability of confronting extreme events such as heatwaves. In parallel, the ongoing urbanization, the urban microclimate and [...] Read more.
Climate change has a major impact on the urban built environment, both with respect to the heating and cooling energy requirements, but also regarding the higher probability of confronting extreme events such as heatwaves. In parallel, the ongoing urbanization, the urban microclimate and the formation of the urban heat island effect, compounding the ongoing climate change, is also a considerable determinant of the building’s energy behavior and the outdoor thermal environment. To evaluate the magnitude of the complex phenomenon, the current research investigates the effect of climate change and urban heat island on heating and cooling energy needs of an urban building unit in Thessaloniki, Greece. The study comparatively evaluates different tools for the generation of future weather datasets, considering both statistical and dynamical downscaling methods, with the latter involving the use of a regional climate model. Based on the output of the regional climate model, another future weather dataset is created, considering not only the general climatic conditions, but also the microclimatic parameters of the examined case study area, under the future climate projections. The generated future weather datasets are then used as an input parameter in the dynamic energy performance simulations with EnergyPlus. For all examined weather datasets, the simulation results show a decrease of the heating energy use, an effect that is strongly counterbalanced by the rise of the cooling energy demand. The obtained simulation results also reveal the contribution of the urban warming of the ongoing climate change, demonstrating the need to perform a holistic analysis for the buildings’ energy needs under future climate conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Microclimate Analysis on Buildings Energy Performance)
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22 pages, 8016 KiB  
Article
Urban-Scale Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations with Boundary Conditions from Similarity Theory and a Mesoscale Model
by Demetri Bouris, Athanasios G. Triantafyllou, Athina Krestou, Elena Leivaditou, John Skordas, Efstathios Konstantinidis, Anastasios Kopanidis and Qing Wang
Energies 2021, 14(18), 5624; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14185624 - 7 Sep 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 1928
Abstract
Mesoscale numerical weather prediction models usually provide information regarding environmental parameters near urban areas at a spatial resolution of the order of thousands or hundreds of meters, at best. If detailed information is required at the building scale, an urban-scale model is necessary. [...] Read more.
Mesoscale numerical weather prediction models usually provide information regarding environmental parameters near urban areas at a spatial resolution of the order of thousands or hundreds of meters, at best. If detailed information is required at the building scale, an urban-scale model is necessary. Proper definition of the boundary conditions for the urban-scale simulation is very demanding in terms of its compatibility with environmental conditions and numerical modeling. Here, steady-state computational fluid dynamics (CFD) microscale simulations of the wind and thermal environment are performed over an urban area of Kozani, Greece, using both the k-ε and k-ω SST turbulence models. For the boundary conditions, instead of interpolating vertical profiles from the mesoscale solution, which is obtained with the atmospheric pollution model (TAPM), a novel approach is proposed, relying on previously developed analytic expressions, based on the Monin Obuhkov similarity theory, and one-way coupling with minimal information from mesoscale indices (Vy = 10 m, Ty = 100 m, L*). The extra computational cost is negligible compared to direct interpolation from mesoscale data, and the methodology provides design phase flexibility, allowing for the representation of discrete urban-scale atmospheric conditions, as defined by the mesoscale indices. The results compared favorably with the common interpolation practice and with the following measurements obtained for the current study: SODAR for vertical profiles of wind speed and a meteorological temperature profiler for temperature. The significance of including the effects of diverse atmospheric conditions is manifested in the microscale simulations, through significant variations (~30%) in the critical building-related design parameters, such as the surface pressure distributions and local wind patterns. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Microclimate Analysis on Buildings Energy Performance)
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23 pages, 2916 KiB  
Article
Bin Weather Data for HVAC Systems Energy Calculations
by Konstantinos T. Papakostas, Dimitrios Kyrou, Kyrillos Kourous, Dimitra Founda and Georgios Martinopoulos
Energies 2021, 14(12), 3501; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14123501 - 12 Jun 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 6803
Abstract
The increase in global air temperature is well documented, as during the last several years each decade has been consecutively warmer than the preceding. As climatic conditions affect the energy performance of buildings, the changes in outdoor air temperature and humidity will inevitably [...] Read more.
The increase in global air temperature is well documented, as during the last several years each decade has been consecutively warmer than the preceding. As climatic conditions affect the energy performance of buildings, the changes in outdoor air temperature and humidity will inevitably lead to significant alterations in energy consumption and costs for the heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) of buildings. The availability and quality of climatic data play an important role in the accuracy of energy analysis results. In this study, the hourly temperature and relative humidity of outdoor air measurements, for a period of three decades (1983–2012), recorded at the climatic station of the National Observatory of Athens were processed, and an up-to-date set of specific data for the application of bin methods was produced and presented. The data were then used to calculate changes in the energy demands in a typical office building throughout the specified period. Results showed a progressive reduction in the low and increase in the high temperature intervals, leading to an increase in the building’s annual energy requirements for air conditioning of up to 14.5% from the first to the third decade, with decrease in the energy demands for heating and increase in the energy demands for cooling. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Microclimate Analysis on Buildings Energy Performance)
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