Energy Adaptive Glass Matter

Alston Me

doi:10.4172/2168-9717.1000115

Abstract

The critical aims of glass envelope design and development must be to enable measures upon glass buildings to prevent uncontrolled heating of the building surfaces, increase emissivity and the impacts of this heat conduction into the building interior spaces. Current glass envelopes depend upon hybrid facades, double skin glass facades; solar shading; passive solar energy systems (transparent insulation materials, solar glazing balconies) to reduce solar temperature gains upon this surface. The envelope performance is based upon measures in the reduction of heat conduction via the material that form its surface, to resolve the conflicts between services and fabric provisions (such as heating systems fighting cooling systems). New materials have been developed of increased performance to resolve this issue by product and component development. For example the integration of solar active elements within the glass panels. However glass building envelopes constructed in hot locations (where temperature are over 40 degrees) have the poorest lighting levels, as the needs to control thermal conduction and high energy consumption needs, to cool the building. These buildings are dependent upon artificial lighting and the reliance of HVAC systems. The current technological development strategies for the building envelope is a static one, by this understanding materials are used without the ability to react to differing climatic zones or recognition of its global positioning. This is in contrast to the nature’s adaptive functions, an adaptive bio-system in constant change to the influence of ambient temperature, solar radiation gain, exposure to wind and changing micro climatic variations. This reactive system is not transposed or reflected into the building envelope systems currently deployed. This non-reactive envelope gives little recognition of the response to climatic change or strategy variation to meet changing environmental situation. This approach is not reflected in nature, as these biosystems have the ability to adapt and control material composition. Could the innovation and direction of a nature-inspired intelligent control of glass matter enable a new paradigm that will lead us in a direction to discover more adaptive systems in a dynamic response to our climate. To use the frontiers of science, in materials, in chemistry and physics, at a nanotechnology and biotechnology scale for greater control of thermal conduction. Could the essence of nature forge evolution, in the creation of climatic responsive skins, by the principles of: material thermal facade behavior and thermal material temperature management. The employment of these objectives is to create material matter that is reactive in real-time to climatic change to enable thermal material management and regulation of its own material temperature. A dynamic skin that is responsive to the influence of ambient temperature, solar regulation gain as a adaptive biosystem.

Highlights

The emphasis on renewable energy and the increasingly reliance upon capturing and using energy from natural sources to meet primary energy demands of heating and cooling has gained significant momentum in the last decade
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) [4] reports that currently energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions account for about 70% of total GHG emissions
The creation of microvascular volume filled fluidic networks enables thermal heat exchange influence in materials that surround the vascular capillary system. This influence enables regulation of thermal conductivity by fluids acting as absorbers of thermal energy by manipulation of the circulatory flows rates through the network, as a vascularization system has been demonstrated

Summary

Introduction

The emphasis on renewable energy and the increasingly reliance upon capturing and using energy from natural sources to meet primary energy demands of heating and cooling has gained significant momentum in the last decade. Teske and Schafer [1] have indicated renewable energy only accounts for meeting 13% of the primary energy demand, 18% of electricity generation and 26% of heat supply. Today about 80% of the world’s primary energy comes from polluting high-carbon fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, IEA [2]. The construction and life-cycle habitation of buildings in the EU ‘would influence 42% of our final energy consumption, about 35% of our greenhouse gas emissions’ [3]. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) [4] reports that currently energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions account for about 70% of total GHG emissions. Energy-related activities are currently the major contributors to climate change, Urban [5]. Since 1995 the energy consumption of the EU countries has risen by 11%, to the value of 1637 Mt of oil equivalent, from 1995 to

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