Abstract
This study focuses on retrofit interventions that allow a seismic improvement of the Architectural Heritage whose critical aspects are conservation and enhancement of existing buildings. During the last decades, designers and researchers have invested in the technical development of seismic retrofitting interventions with the aim of improving the structural performances in a cost-effective way without sacrificing the aesthetical aspects of valuable buildings. Moreover, recent research on historical masonry provided important references and data on the advantages of these interventions in the Architectural Heritage protection. Despite the technological progress, seismic interventions in terms of environmental performance still represent a critical issue, so it is essential to assess their effects on energetic behaviour. The aim of the research is to evaluate the effects of most used seismic retrofitting interventions on energy performance of a masonry historical buildings. The Authors present and analyse the hypothesis of seismic interventions applied on the masonry of a historical building located in the town of L’Aquila and severely damaged by an earthquake that in 2009 struck Abruzzo County, in Italy. The study includes results of building performance simulations (BPS) of the entire building, carried out with the software “Design Builder”, which allows the assessment of the seismic interventions from the environmental point of view on the basis of the variation of energy consumption and the internal comfort.
Highlights
Architectural Heritage in Europe is mainly made up of old buildings [1] constructed using masonry walls
In order to produce a comparison among the most common retrofit interventions used in the restoration of Architectural Heritage, dynamic simulations of entire buildings [5] offer more comprehensive results compared to the evaluation of specific solutions for thermal transmittance reduction – such as thermal, vegetal based, insulating plaster [6]
In historic buildings with a load-bearing structure of stone masonry, characterized by a large thermal mass, the variation of the thermal transmittance of the envelope, caused by seismic retrofit interventions, is an aspect that must be analyzed to control the alteration of the environmental performance of those buildings
Summary
Architectural Heritage in Europe is mainly made up of old buildings [1] constructed using masonry walls. Recent regulations, such as the EU Directive 2010/31 [2] on energy efficiency of buildings, aim to increase performance standards of the envelopes, considering both the single components and the entire building. In order to produce a comparison among the most common retrofit interventions used in the restoration of Architectural Heritage, dynamic simulations of entire buildings [5] offer more comprehensive results compared to the evaluation of specific solutions for thermal transmittance reduction – such as thermal, vegetal based, insulating plaster [6]. In the refurbishment and retrofit of historical buildings, the state of the art suggests that combined interventions and multidisciplinary studies represent the best approach, an approach that this research intends to follow and develop
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