A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Building Adaptation to Extreme Heatwaves
Climate change is aggravating the summer heatwaves, making them more severe, frequent and prolonged. During the heatwave period, buildings are overheated due to heat gain from surroundings which poses significant risks to the occupants. Therefore, adapting our buildings to extreme heatwaves is of paramount importance. This chapter aims to identify the factors contributing to overheating buildings and the associated mitigation measures. The identified overheating factors are low energy building design, lightweight construction materials, internal heat gain, occupant behaviour and urban heat island effect. The overheating mitigation measures are divided into four categories (1) Modification of local microclimate, (2) resistance to heat transfer from outdoor to indoor (3) Absorption of transferred heat through thermal mass, and (4) Release of trapped heat from indoor to outdoor. The effectiveness of each mitigation measure category depends on indoor and outdoor environmental conditions. Numerical analysis showed that the risk of experiencing heat stress during extreme heatwave decreases with increasing energy star rating of the houses in Melbourne, Australia. If the entire existing lower energy star rated houses can be upgraded to 5.4 star, the percentage of Melbourne population experiencing six severe heat stress hours will decrease from 50% to only 4% at 36 °C mean outdoor temperature. The heat-related mortality and morbidity also decreases with increasing house energy rating. Net-benefit analysis showed that upgrading the lower energy rated houses to 5.4 star is highly beneficial with net-benefit becoming positive within 2–5 years. Emerging technology like dynamic insulation material (DIM) which changes the resistance of the external walls and ceilings depending on the indoor and outdoor temperature can help to minimise overheating in a highly insualted and air-tight building. Numerical simulation showed that DIM reduces the indoor air temperature in bedroom and living room by up to 1.1 °C and 1.2 °C, respectively, in the case study building in Melbourne, Australia.
Building Adaptation to Extreme Heatwaves
Climate change is aggravating the summer heatwaves, making them more severe, frequent and prolonged. During the heatwave period, buildings are overheated due to heat gain from surroundings which poses significant risks to the occupants. Therefore, adapting our buildings to extreme heatwaves is of paramount importance. This chapter aims to identify the factors contributing to overheating buildings and the associated mitigation measures. The identified overheating factors are low energy building design, lightweight construction materials, internal heat gain, occupant behaviour and urban heat island effect. The overheating mitigation measures are divided into four categories (1) Modification of local microclimate, (2) resistance to heat transfer from outdoor to indoor (3) Absorption of transferred heat through thermal mass, and (4) Release of trapped heat from indoor to outdoor. The effectiveness of each mitigation measure category depends on indoor and outdoor environmental conditions. Numerical analysis showed that the risk of experiencing heat stress during extreme heatwave decreases with increasing energy star rating of the houses in Melbourne, Australia. If the entire existing lower energy star rated houses can be upgraded to 5.4 star, the percentage of Melbourne population experiencing six severe heat stress hours will decrease from 50% to only 4% at 36 °C mean outdoor temperature. The heat-related mortality and morbidity also decreases with increasing house energy rating. Net-benefit analysis showed that upgrading the lower energy rated houses to 5.4 star is highly beneficial with net-benefit becoming positive within 2–5 years. Emerging technology like dynamic insulation material (DIM) which changes the resistance of the external walls and ceilings depending on the indoor and outdoor temperature can help to minimise overheating in a highly insualted and air-tight building. Numerical simulation showed that DIM reduces the indoor air temperature in bedroom and living room by up to 1.1 °C and 1.2 °C, respectively, in the case study building in Melbourne, Australia.
Building Adaptation to Extreme Heatwaves
Springer Tracts in Civil Engineering
Stewart, Mark G. (editor) / Rosowsky, David V. (editor) / Kumar, Dileep (author) / Alam, Morshed (author) / Sanjayan, Jay (author)
2021-12-17
28 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English