A Multi-Step Approach to Assess the Lifecycle Economic Impact of Seismic Risk on Optimal Energy Retrofit

Gerardo Mauro,Costantino Menna,Andrea Prota,Fabrizio Ascione,Nicola Bianco,Umberto Vitiello,Domenico Asprone,Giuseppe Vanoli

doi:10.3390/su9060989

Gerardo Mauro, Costantino Menna + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su9060989

Copy DOI

Abstract

Most European buildings built before 1980s were constructed without any design concern for energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. In addition to this issue, over the last decades, the essential need of safer buildings has progressively attracted the interest of scientific community and government institutions. However, the strong interaction between energy and structural aspects in building retrofit design has never been handled via robust and reliable approaches. The present study explores this knowledge gap by introducing a novel multi-step approach that addresses the retrofit of existing buildings by integrating energy, structural and economic aspects. To this end, a multi-stage energy optimization is carried out by implementing a genetic algorithm and a smart research strategy. Thus, the cost-optimal energy retrofit solution is identified and the impact of the expected economic losses due to seismic damage is assessed throughout the building lifecycle. The methodology is applied to a multi-story residential building, considering the effects of two different building locations, namely Milan and Norcia. These latter are characterized by similar climatic conditions but by a different level of seismic risk, which is higher for Norcia. The outcomes show that the estimated seismic economic losses associated with the energy retrofit solutions are strongly affected by the building location. Thus, the selection of the optimal energy retrofit measures should be related to the building structural behavior in order to achieve reliable economic and sustainability benefits.

Highlights

A large share of the European building stock does not comply with current structural codes and, at the same time, suffers from physical/environmental degradation or even structural damage induced by hazardous events occurred over building lifetime
The presentation and discussion of the results is organized in two subsections, which refer to the baseline and to the retrofitted building, respectively
The present study has proposed an original multi-step approach aiming to reliably design building energy retrofit by considering expected economic losses due to the seismic risk

Summary

Introduction

A large share of the European building stock does not comply with current structural codes and, at the same time, suffers from physical/environmental degradation or even structural damage induced by hazardous events occurred over building lifetime. In this background, over the last decades, building retrofit has gained increasing interest among national institutions and governments, enabling prospects of upgrading external building envelope and energy systems to achieve energy efficiency goals. At the retrofit design stage, the combination of energy, structural and environmental information cannot be effectively used in a general decision-making process, making the single aspect of the structural or energy performance insufficient to provide comparable and valuable retrofit solutions. The integration of these three aspects (i.e., energy, environment, and structure) at the design stage is a fundamental prerequisite to reliably incorporate sustainability principles in a decision-making process applied to existing buildings

Methods

Results

Conclusion