The paper is the second in a series of four which describe a three-year research project into advanced fabric-energy-storage (FES) systems. It presents the construction and validation of a computational-fluid-dynamics ( CFD) model of the 'FES-slab' which is subsequently used to investigate the slab's behaviour under a variety of boundary conditions and with modified air paths. Similar models are used to compare the FES-slab with the competing 'generic slab' and 'hollow-core screed' advanced FES systems.
In the discussion on practice-oriented measures to reduce the CO2 emission, one measure most demanded is the development of zero heating energy houses. The technology applied and investigated in the first pilot projects seems to indicate a possible future without any CO2 emission with respect to residential building. What is really hidden behind this technology and whether it is feasible to introduce it into construction practice, is to be discussed in this contribution with regard to practical experiences.
The utilization of Hybrid Solar Systems in buildings allowed a rational use of energy required to obtain proper comfort conditions inside the building itself. During some research programmes carried out at !CITE, prototypes of test cells capable of supplying significant information on the energetic behaviour of technologically innovative building envelopes for passive and hybrid solar control, have been designed and built.
Most modern office blocks in Southern Africa are air conditioned, for obvious reasons, but some developers are eager to find ways of reducing the capital cost of these projects. Fred Smith of Ove Arup Partnership reports on one· particularly innovative project in Zimbabwe where passive cooling ·met the brief.
Air conditioning may have economic and health disadvantages, but it does provide protection against future change in functional requirements of buildings, says Professor Patrick O'Sullivan. It will continue to be essential in high density urban areas, but there will be many cases where there is no clear distinction as to the which mode of environmental control, natural or mechanical, should be adopted
The influence of wind is an important part of the bioclimatic town planning criteria. Ventilating and mechanical action of the wind towards reduction of air pollution in urban areas is becoming increasingly important and must be analyzed along with other factors such as · thermal losses, comfort etc.
The OM solar system is one of various passive systems. As is in the general passive system, the technique in the OM solar system works with the designing and architectural space as a unity. In other words, the technique is a part of the designing. Nowadays a lot of new technique have been developed and all kinds of related technology are born. During the past nine years, the system has been already employed in about eight thousand homes and sixty public buildings all over Japan.
This paper deals with the relationship between the characteristics of ventilation and the architectural features on three types of Japanese houses representative of the recent historical evolution in the building of dwellings: a traditional well ventilated house in a rural area, a typical postwar house with a central corridor and a multi-family house of high air-tightness in an urban area. The investigations were carried out based on 3-D numerical air flow simulations with realistic wind conditions.
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