Buildings In Rural Areas Research Articles

Configurational Design of a Hybrid System Based on an Air–Water Heat Pump and Biomass Boiler for a Rural Dwelling

Hybrid energy systems combine multiple energy sources and storage technologies to enhance performance and meet diverse energy needs. Hybrid heat pump systems are particularly suitable for heating and cooling buildings in rural areas. Air-source heat pumps have two well-known disadvantages during the coldest period of the year, when the building’s heating load is at its peak: the heat pump’s capacity is reduced and it needs to perform defrost cycles. A potential solution is to size the heat pump to cover only a portion of the peak load and to use a second heat generator in a hybrid heat pump system. There is a gap in the literature regarding the configurational analysis of hybrid heat pump (HHP) systems, particularly in terms of combining heat pumps and biomass boilers, and evaluating their efficiency, economic aspects, and environmental impact. Thus, in this research, a dynamic model of a HHP system, consisting of an air-to-water heat pump paired with a biomass boiler as a backup, is presented. Various configurations of the HHP system have been developed to evaluate key performance indicators, such as efficiency, emissions, operational costs, and other relevant factors. The findings of this paper indicate that the energy performance of HHP systems is significantly affected by the system layout, heat pump size, cut-off temperature, and the control algorithm used to activate the heat generators. Moreover, series operation of HHP systems is not only more efficient than parallel operation but also results in lower emissions and reduced operation costs. As expected, the energy loss associated with defrost cycles significantly impacts the overall performance of a hybrid system based on an air-source heat pump. Finally, the impact of the cut-off temperature on the key parameters in the configuration analysis was examined, and the optimal performance of the HHP system, in terms of minimizing operational costs and emissions, was depicted using a heat map diagram.

Problems and prospects of thermal modernization of farm buildings in rural areas in Poland

BackgroundThermal upgrading is an important element in the economic transformation of Poland towards a low-emission economy. This paper presents the results of research into the current status and plans of inhabitants of rural areas in Poland with regard to thermal upgrading of residential buildings and other buildings used in the agricultural activity of the study participants. The main purpose of the article is to identify thermal modernization needs and to analyse factors influencing individual thermal modernization plans in terms of replacement or modernization of heating systems. A key element of the analyses was the issue of upgrading priorities and the dependency between declared intentions in terms of thermal upgrading work and the production and economic features of the farms studied.ResultsThe main research material were surveys conducted with a randomly selected sample of 480 farming households in Poland. The analyses used, amongst others, multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) to determine and assess the relationships between the variables studied. Detailed correspondence analysis shows that there are strong dependencies between plans for thermal upgrading of farm buildings and the system of agricultural production (φ2 = 0.1503), the economic size of farms (φ2 = 0.1100), and the location of farms (φ2 = 0.0947).ConclusionsThe research showed that there is a need for thermal upgrading in the examined area of study, especially with regard to the replacement or modernisation of heating systems. The issue of thermal upgrading of residential and farm buildings in rural areas in Poland requires support and engagement at all levels of administration, as well as the modernisation of assistance programmes.

Exploring the Opportunities and Gaps in the Transformation of Modern Rural Housing in Southern China to Net Zero Energy Buildings

This study explores modern residential buildings in rural areas of Wuhan and Guangzhou to assess the feasibility of achieving net zero energy buildings (NZEBs) through the transformation of existing buildings in southern China’s hot-summer–cold-winter and hot-summer–warm-winter regions. Energy simulations under various climatic scenarios identify effective energy-saving measures, such as the use of photovoltaic power generation. The results highlight substantial renovation potential, with energy reductions of approximately 85 kWh/m² (RCP2.6), 90 kWh/m² (RCP4.5), and 115 kWh/m² (RCP8.5). Living patterns significantly influence energy use, especially in buildings with more rooms, where the gaps in the energy demand with net zero standards can reach 560.56 kWh. At the monthly scale, different climate scenarios impact the feasibility of achieving NZEBs, particularly under RCP8.5, where eight rural housing types fail to meet the requirements, with six exceeding 200 kWh energy deficits and the largest energy deficit occurs in June 2090 in Guangzhou, reaching 592.53 kWh, while under RCP2.6, only two buildings with more rooms fail to meet NZE. In summary, in the hot-summer cold-winter region, the energy demand is higher but so is the solar yield. Therefore, under the most adverse RCP8.5 scenario, NZEBs are achievable for 9 months of the year, which is 2 months more compared to Guangzhou under similar conditions. Even after net zero transformation, new rural housing will face greater energy-saving challenges in future climatic conditions, especially under higher concentration pathways.

Solar chimney design in rural areas of Anhui, China: CFD simulation, energy and carbon footprint assessment

China is currently undergoing a large-scale renovation of rural buildings. The solar chimney, a passive solar system, emerges as a cost-effective and easily implementable solution, particularly suitable for rural regions. This study designs a solar chimney in the Hui architectural style for renovating residential buildings in rural areas of Anhui province. A selected pilot building serves as the testbed for the solar chimney implementation, with plans to extend the design to other local renovation projects. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are employed to compare various solar chimney configurations and identify the optimal design for the case study. Results from the CFD simulations highlight the optimal configurations for the pilot building's solar chimney design. Additionally, a comparative analysis of heating and cooling energy consumption is conducted between buildings with and without solar chimneys to assess the energy-saving potential. Furthermore, a life cycle assessment evaluates the environmental impacts of solar chimney construction and the environmental benefits during operation. It is revealed that the solar chimney can reduce building energy consumption. The greenhouse gas emissions associated with solar chimney construction can be offset within one year. The study presents an effect diagram illustrating the renovated building with a solar chimney. This study provides valuable insights into the application of solar chimneys in developing rural areas to enhance indoor comfort and promote energy savings. Additionally, it offers guidance for exploring optimal solar chimney configurations for specific geographical regions areas.

Feasibility of sliding base isolation for rubble stone masonry buildings in the Himalayan Mountain range

This paper studied the feasibility of a sliding base isolation layer to be used in rubble stone masonry buildings in rural areas in the Himalayan Mountain range to provide robust protection to important building like schools against strong earthquakes. In this paper, we carried out on-site investigations, quasi-static tests, and shaking table tests focusing on constructability as well as isolation performance. From the results of the feasibility study, the combination of styrofoam, concrete slab, and grease was found to be the most feasible to be used as the upper element, the lower element, and the lubricant, respectively, in the sliding isolation layer. The key features of the present sliding base isolation layer are: 1) the use of the materials that exist in rural mountain areas or those that can be easily transported from the neighboring towns and cities and 2) ease of construction and minimal change from the current construction practice. From the shaking table tests, we identified the conditions, e.g., grease amount, grease type, normal stress at the interface, and roughness of concrete slab surface, to achieve dynamic friction coefficients ranging from 0.08 to 0.16, suitable for sliding base isolation.

Techno-economic analysis and dynamic power simulation of a hybrid solar-wind-battery system for power supply in rural areas in Pakistan

This study presents the optimal design and operation of a proposed hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) for the electrification of a residential building in rural areas in Pakistan. The main contributions of this study are twofold. Firstly, it develops a size optimization model based on the particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique to determine the optimal configuration for two hybrid renewable energy systems (HRES), including both grid-tied and off-grid modes, integrating wind and photovoltaic (PV) systems with battery storage. The optimal configuration is determined by minimizing the levelized cost of electricity, using local meteorological and electricity load data, along with technical specifications of the main HRES components. Secondly, dynamic simulations of two HRES configurations are conducted, using MATLAB Simulink, ensuring the optimal energy balance between multiple energy sources and the load at each operation hour. To meet an annual electrical demand of 131.035 MWh, the grid-tied HRES yields 146.081 MWh annually, with solar contributing 68.85 MWh and wind 77.272 MWh. Conversely, the off-grid system generates 133.533 MWh annually, with solar and wind output power at 43.932 MWh and 89.601 MWh, respectively. The grid-tied system achieves an LCOE of approximately 0.29 $/kWh, with optimal wind turbine and PV capacities of 11 kW and 29 kW, respectively. While in off-grid configuration, the off-grid scenario exhibits an LCOE of 0.91 $/kWh, with optimal capacities of 10 kW for wind turbine, 20 kW for PV, and 2437.5 AH for batteries. The findings provide insights relevant to diverse locations, emphasizing the importance of local meteorological and geographical data. Multiple case studies ensure the robustness and applicability of the proposed system under varying conditions.

Improvement of solar concentrator structure

Green energy includes solar, wind, geothermal and other types of energy sources generation. The object of this research is solar concentrators. The problem to be solved is related to the development of the structure frame, especially for solar concentrators with flat triangular or square mirrors that approximate a parabolic shape surface. The essence of the investigation is developing and producing several prototypes of solar concentrators that have a low cost of materials but the devices were assembled by hand and therefore the manufacturing cost is sufficiently high. Therefore, it is important to reduce the cost through automation of the solar concentrator production process. To obtain better conditions for future automation, we need to reduce the number of metal structural elements of the solar concentrator. In this case, the automation problem is simpler for its realization. The results obtained are related to the improved solar concentrator structure that can be technologically simpler than the previous one and lighter in weight. The development of improved solar concentrator design and structure can help reduce the cost of assembly and accelerate the solar concentrator assembly process. In the case of mass production, they can be used in practice. The proposed solar concentrators can be used for different applications, for example, green buildings in rural areas, or chemical reactors to accelerate the chemical process of organic waste processing. Another application is to use solar concentrators in combination with agricultural fields. These solar concentrators can be used with small-scale thermal energy storage (TES). Using TES, it is possible to make power plants for green buildings. Small solar power plants can support all the energy demands of residential houses

Optimizing Solar Heating for Thangka Exhibition Halls: A Case Study in Malkang Cultural Village

With the continuous development of rural revitalization and urbanization in China, the sustainable transformation of traditional rural architecture has become increasingly important. This study takes the Thangka exhibition hall in rural Malkang, Sichuan Province, as the research object and proposes a Thangka exhibition hall architectural design centered around solar heating and aiming for near-zero energy consumption. The research method involves establishing a solar energy system model on the roof of the exhibition hall and utilizing solar angle and area calculation formulas along with simulation software to calculate the optimal installation angle and area of solar panels, with the aim of achieving indoor temperatures that meet Thangka protection requirements while achieving zero-energy heating. Preliminary results indicate that this solar-centric near-zero energy architectural design can effectively promote the increase in indoor temperature through solar thermal conversion. Additionally, through calculation and simulation, the optimal installation angle for the solar panels achieving zero-energy heating is determined to be 24.25 with an azimuth angle of −1.2. The optimum installation area for solar panels is 8.2 square meters in the showroom and 2.7 square meters in the storeroom. Among these, the solar panel area for the Thangka exhibition hall constitutes 4.12% of the total area and is required for maintaining Thangka protection temperature requirements throughout the year, while the solar panel area for the storage room constitutes 1.88% and is also needed for the same purpose. Studying the optimal installation angle and area of solar panels can transform the exhibition hall into a near-zero-energy building, meeting the temperature requirements for Thangka preservation and human thermal comfort, while also achieving optimal economic benefits. This provides guidance and a reference for promoting near-zero-energy buildings in rural areas.

An ICT-Enhanced Methodology for the Characterization of Vernacular Built Heritage at a Regional Scale

ABSTRACT The characterization of vernacular buildings is crucial for understanding the historical, social, and cultural significance of a community. These buildings reflect a collective memory and result from a long adaptation process to the local environment. Documenting them facilitates better decision-making regarding the preservation of their intrinsic values and long-term conservation. Unfortunately, depopulation processes in many areas threaten this invaluable heritage. Furthermore, this heritage is often overlooked due to a lack of awareness and appreciation by local authorities and residents. This paper presents a methodology for documenting and inventorying vernacular built heritage, with the main goal of contributing to promoting its valorization. The methodology integrates Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) with GIS tools to create large-scale inventories. Using the Montesinho Natural Park (Portugal) as a case study, the methodology facilitated the collection of data from over 2,000 buildings in 13 villages. The collected data was then used to characterize the vernacular built heritage of selected villages in terms of authenticity, conservation state, materials, construction systems, past interventions, present use, and occupancy. The findings of this study can serve as a valuable resource for developing inventories of vernacular buildings in rural areas, contributing to the protection of this distinctive architectural heritage.

Effects of different heating modes on room temperature and heat consumption of existing residential buildings in rural areas

Affected by economic conditions, living habits and other factors, residents in rural areas have a high sense of self-regulation when heating. Rural residents often choose the corresponding heating mode according to the specific situation. This paper takes an existing building in the countryside of Zhangjiakou as the research object. The room temperature change and heat consumption under different heating modes are simulated and analyzed. The results show that the temperature of each room is higher than that of the natural room temperature under different heating modes. Even if the room is not heated during the day, the room temperature can be maintained at more than 10 °C. When the heating temperature is set to 18°C in the active state and 14°C in the sleeping state, the heat consumption can be reduced by up to 32.05% in each heating mode. The heat consumption of each mode is comparatively low, and the room temperature in each time period is similarly lower, when the heating temperature of all states is set to 14 °C.

Bendruomenių kūrimo naudos Lietuvos kaimo vietovėse: praktinė perspektyva

Building communities in rural areas is an important factor in social and economic development. The purpose of this article is to analyze the benefits of community building in rural areas of Lithuania. The literature review discusses the concept of rural community, examines the content of the benefits of creating rural communities, and the research part analyzes the results of semi-structured interviews collected from communities in rural areas of Lithuania. The study found that building rural communities strengthens social ties and reduces social isolation. The community initiatives such as local markets and craft centers help create new business opportunities and jobs, increasing local income and encouraging entrepreneurship. In addition, communities, in cooperation with local authorities and international organizations, can receive financial support, which allows developing infrastructure and improving the quality of services. From a cultural point of view, organized festivals and other events help to maintain and popularize traditions, strengthen community identity and attract tourists. Keywords: rural community building, economic benefit, cultural benefit, social benefit.

Farming-integrated Waste to Energy Initiative With Youth Capacity Building in Rural Areas of Limpopo Province

Farming-integrated Waste to Energy Initiative With Youth Capacity Building in Rural Areas of Limpopo Province

Seismic performance of confined prestressed hollow core wall panels part II: Numerical simulation and analysis

In Part I of this research, confined prestressed hollow core wall structures were proposed and experimental tests of 19 specimens were conducted to study its mechanical behaviors. In this part, a detailed finite element model was developed in ANSYS to provide a tool for further investigating the seismic behaviors of confined prestressed hollow core wall structures. Contact elements were applied to simulate the interaction between material interfaces. Techniques in ANSYS including coupling of degrees of freedom (CP) of overlapped nodes and deactivation of concrete elements (EKILL) were adopted, along with restart analysis (REST) to simulate nonlinear mechanical behaviors of the structural system. The developed modeling method was verified by the experimental test results and was shown to accurately predict the global and local behaviors such as failure modes and load bearing capacities of precast hollow core walls. Parametric analysis on shear span ratio, axial load ratio, rigidity of floor systems as well as strength of vertical wall-wall joints was conducted, and relevant design recommendations were provided for prestressed hollow core wall structures. Results show that for a ductile prestressed hollow core wall structure, the axial load ratio is recommended to be smaller than 0.06 and the story number less than 5. Influence of rigidity of floor systems requires further study with dynamic tests, but low-strength vertical wall-wall joint is highly recommended for this system. Two analytical mechanisms that are shear-flexural mechanism and truss mechanism were proposed for calculation of load bearing capacities. These two mechanisms provide good predictions for an upper bound and a lower bound for load bearing capacities of prestressed hollow core walls, respectively. From Part I and II of this research, the mechanical behaviors of prestressed hollow core wall structures are verified experimentally, numerically, and theoretically, and it is concluded that they can be used as a potential choice for low-rise buildings in rural areas.

Study of the physicochemical, mineralogical, and geotechnical properties of clayey soils to improve the durability of eco-construction materials in the rural region

This study aims to preserve and improve the durability of earthen buildings in rural areas of Morocco, particularly in the Al Haouz province of the Marrakech-Safi region. In this paper, a survey was conducted to identify defects in earthen building materials and investigate factors that lead villagers to use cement over traditional earth-based construction methods. To propose solutions to these shortcomings, mineralogical, physicochemical, and geotechnical studies were conducted on four soils commonly used as rural building materials. Subsequently, some corrections were implemented in the treatment of raw materials and the production process of compressed earth blocks (CEBs), which were then subjected to mechanical, physical, and morphological characterization. The findings of this study revealed several building pathologies in earthen construction in this region, including ceiling water leaks, formulations made, and cracks. Research shows that the key factors influencing the durability of building materials are particle size distribution, mineralogy composition, moisture content, and construction process.

Thermal storage characteristics of microencapsulated phase change material coatings in low-energy rural prefabricated building walls

ABSTRACT Prefabricated buildings in rural areas of China waste a large amount of energy due to poor thermal insulation. Phase change materials (PCMs) are able to stabilize room temperature by latent heat absorption and release during the phase change process. This study incorporated PCMs in the form of microcapsules into the interior wall coatings of prefabricated buildings, and by taking advantage of PCMs’ energy storage capacity, the thermal storage characteristics of PCM-coated bricks were investigated. The results show that microencapsulated phase change material(MPCM) coatings for prefabricated walls exhibit excellent thermal stability properties and effectively reduce the heat flux of prefabricated walls, with coatings having a MPCM mass fraction of 15% and a thickness of 5 mm providing the highest overall benefits. By fitting the numerical simulation results with experimental data, a novel multifunctional passive solar phase change heat collection and storage wall system was developed. This study innovatively combines energy storage materials with interior wall coatings in prefabricated walls of modular buildings investigating how it enhances the thermal stability of the external insulation walls and effectively reduces the reliance on heating equipment for auxiliary heating in rural residences. This essay aims to provide feasible recommendations for optimizing the dual-stage energy-saving and carbon reduction goals in both the construction and operation of rural areas.

Equivalent Lateral Forces for Design of Multistory Sliding Base Structures

The sliding base (SB) technique is an efficient and economical approach to mitigating seismic damage of low-rise buildings in rural areas. Based on the previous work on single-story SB structures, this study investigates the earthquake forces acting on multistory SB structures. Response history analyses of SB structures subjected to three-component earthquake excitations were performed. The computed results indicate that the increase in the number of stories tends to reduce the mean value of the peak base shear but has little influence on the coefficient of variation of the peak base shear. The peak story shears of a multistory SB structure subjected to an earthquake ground motion are reached at different time instants for different stories. The distributions of the equivalent lateral forces for SB structures with different story numbers follow the same trend, and the equivalent lateral forces tend to concentrate at the upper floors as the normalized peak ground acceleration and mass ratio increase. Simplified equations for computing the distribution of equivalent lateral forces were developed for design purposes.

The Role of Buildings in Rural Areas: Trends, Challenges, and Innovations for Sustainable Development

Rural buildings represent the functional relationship between rural communities and agricultural land. Therefore, research on rural buildings has practical repercussions on environmental and socio-economic sustainability. Comprehensive state-of-the-art research on rural buildings may address research activities. We present a systematic review of the scientific research between 2000 and 2022 based on the PRISMA protocol. Five main topics were identified. The results showed that the primary research focus was production (25.1%) and environmental management issues (23.2%). However, construction and efficiency are rapidly taking centre stage (20.6%). Regarding sustainability (20.8%), life cycle assessment, green buildings, recycling and global warming should be the future research focus. Energy efficiency will benefit from studies on thermal energy. More research on engineering and technologies (10.3%), specifically remote and automatic detection and transport in rural areas, will increase cost efficiency. The results may help improve the global efficiency of rural buildings in a modern farming system.

A macro element of demountable bolted steel-concrete composite connections for a novel prefabricated concrete sandwich wall panel structure

A novel prefabricated concrete sandwich wall panel structure (PCSWPS) system has been proposed for low-rise buildings in rural areas in China. The wall panels are jointed using high-strength bolts and steel plates through bolted steel-concrete composite connections (BSCCs). Despite published experimental results showing promising seismic performance of the structural system, the mechanics governing the interaction between the bolts, steel plates, and concrete at the connections still need to be clarified. To this end, we carried out full-scale connection experiments and finite element (FE) analysis to investigate the uniaxial tensile characteristics of the connections to simulate their working conditions in seismically loaded structures. It is shown that the tensile load-transfer mechanism through a BSCC is closely related to two frictional sliding responses and a compressive contact behavior. Based on the experimental data and FE results, a macro element was proposed to simulate the mechanical behavior of BSCCs. The macro element is able to model the interactions between the bolts, steel plates, and concrete separately using springs, assembled in series and/or in parallel in a composite manner. In particular, the loss of bolt clamping forces and ultimate tensile capacity of the connection are well captured by the macro element. Finally, the macro element was validated against existing experimental data on bolt-connected shear walls using OpenSees. It is believed that the clear load-transfer mechanism can be beneficial for the design of PCSWPS, and the proposed macro element can facilitate seismic analysis of PCSWPS without the need of a detailed connection FE model.

Deep Learning Method for Evaluating Photovoltaic Potential of Rural Land Use Types

Rooftop photovoltaic (PV) power generation uses building roofs to generate electricity by laying PV panels. Rural rooftops are less shaded and have a regular shape, which is favorable for laying PV panels. However, because of the relative lack of information on buildings in rural areas, there are fewer methods to assess the utilization potential of PV on rural buildings, and most studies focus on urban buildings. In addition, in rural areas, concentrated ground-mounted PV plants can be built on wastelands, hillsides, and farmlands. To facilitate the overall planning and synergistic layout of rural PV utilization, we propose a new workflow to identify different types of surfaces (including building roofs, wastelands, water surfaces, etc.) by applying a deep learning approach to count the PV potential of different surfaces in rural areas. This method can be used to estimate the spatial distribution of rural PV development potential from publicly available satellite images. In this paper, 10 km2 of land in Wuhan is used as an example. The results show that the total PV potential in the study area could reach 198.02 GWh/year, including 4.69 GWh/year for BIPV, 159.91 GWh/year for FSPV, and 33.43 GWh/year for LSPV. Considering the development cost of different land types, several timespans (such as short-, medium-, and long-term) of PV development plans for rural areas can be considered. The method and results provide tools and data for the assessment of PV potential in rural areas and can be used as a reference for the development of village master plans and PV development plans.

Obstacle Analysis of Photovoltaic Building Rural Promotion

Photovoltaic buildings are promoted and developed in rural areas in the form of new, efficient and low-carbon clean energy utilization, which is an effective way to achieve the goal of " double carbon. " This chapter first introduces the concept and characteristics of photovoltaic buildings, and then analyzes the obstacles existing in the popularization and application of photovoltaic buildings in rural areas. They are: insufficient government support and tendentiousness, insufficient economic incentive policies, photovoltaic building-related enterprises. There is no upstream and downstream industrial chain, small scale of construction and interest-driven in rural areas, rural residents are bound by traditional concepts and lack of understanding of photovoltaic buildings. Finally, the countermeasures and suggestions for the promotion of photovoltaic buildings in rural areas are put forward from the perspectives of government, enterprises and rural residents.