Design Of Resilient Buildings Research Articles

Improving building resilience in the face of future climate uncertainty: A comprehensive framework for enhancing building life cycle performance

This research introduces an innovative resilient design framework, addressing gaps in building performance optimization by considering a holistic life cycle perspective and factoring in climate projection uncertainties from the 2020s to 2090s. The study concludes that in the case study, future climate scenarios in different Shared Socio-Economic Paths significantly impact building life cycle performance, with wall U-value, windows U-value, and wall density identified as major factors affecting building performance under future climate uncertainty. The ensemble learning model achieves high fidelity in predicting life cycle carbon emissions (LCCE), life cycle cost (LCC), and indoor discomfort hours (IDH) through input feature screening and hyperparameter optimization. Comparing optimization algorithms, Two-Archive Evolutionary Algorithm for Constrained multi-objective optimization (C-TAEA) demonstrates better convergence degree and optimization effect. Among the tested multi-criteria decision making methods, the VIKOR method selects the best building resilient design scheme from the Pareto data set, effectively reducing LCCE, LCC, and IDH, and leading to an overall improvement in building life cycle performance. Applying this framework, the finalized scheme for an office building in cold region optimizes 44.0% of LCCE, 8.2% of LCC, and 4.3% of IDH. This framework develops a new approach to improve building life cycle performance under future climate uncertainty and supports informed decision-making for resilient building design. To promote carbon neutrality in construction, it is urged that future studies incorporate additional sources of uncertainty, such as occupant behavior, into the proposed framework.

Review of Methods to Create Meteorological Data Suitable for Moisture Control Design by Hygrothermal Building Envelope Simulation

Hygrothermal simulations have become essential for sustainable and resilient building design because moisture is the major cause of problems in buildings. Appropriate meteorological input data are important to obtain meaningful simulation results. Therefore, this article reviews different methods to create Hygrothermal Reference Years (HRY) as severe or average climate inputs. The current standards define HRYs solely based on outdoor temperature, although moisture problems are caused by a combination of climate parameters, including driving rain and other loads. Therefore, there are also methods considering several impact parameters. The existing methods can be classified into two categories: construction-independent and construction-dependent methods. The former determines HRY based on a weather data analysis and is useful for large-scale parametric studies comprising many climatic parameters acting on buildings. The latter is based in addition to computer simulations to verify the HRY also in the context of specific construction types. It is a more comprehensive approach since the moisture responses of constructions are the decisive outcome for performance predictions. The advantages and disadvantages of the different methods are summarized and compared. Lastly, further research questions and simplifications aimed at practitioners are pointed out to arrive at reliable hygrothermal building performance predictions.

Resilience and sustainability-informed probabilistic multi-criteria decision-making framework for design solutions selection

In this paper, a novel probabilistic multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework for sustainable and resilient building design solutions selection is developed to optimize alternatives or rehabilitation strategies in a life cycle context. The proposed framework holistically takes into account the buildings' resilience metrics, environmental sustainability, and energy consumption. The life cycle economic cost, global warming potential (GWP), primary energy use (PEU), and social impact are used to represent the buildings’ resilience and sustainability. The second-generation Performance-based Earthquake Engineering procedure and FEMA P-58 method for time-based seismic performance analyses are used to evaluate earthquake-induced impact. The whole-building energy modeling (BEM) is adopted to assess energy use during the operational phase. In addition, life cycle analysis (LCA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) are carried out to assess the life cycle performance of different design alternatives regarding environmental impacts and cost, respectively. Aiming to consider the various uncertainties in the decision-making process, a novel MCS-MCDM method is developed by combining the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) with the traditional MCDM method. The proposed framework is applied to analyze hypothetical cases considering different geographic locations, structural systems, and building envelope systems, and recommendations are given according to the analysis results. The case study demonstrates the advantages of the proposed framework over traditional frameworks and its guidance for architectural design decisions.

Microclimate and Mould Growth Potential of Air Cavities in Ventilated Wooden Façade and Roof Systems—Case Studies from Norway

Harsh climatic conditions in the Nordic countries are being worsened by climate change, which increases the moisture load on building façades. New types of defects are being observed in air cavities in well-designed and well-built wooden façades and roofs. More knowledge is required on the microclimatic conditions in air cavities and roofs, and their implications for organic growth and biological deterioration. The present study collects and presents sensor data from three buildings in Norway. Collected air temperature, air humidity, and wood moisture data are compared to mould growth criteria found in scientific literature, building physics software, and national and international standards. The data shows great differences in air cavity microclimates between the case buildings and between different sensor positions within the instrumented air cavities. Air cavity temperatures are found to be lower than exterior temperatures for a substantial portion of the time. For tall buildings, the vertical positioning of a sensor influences the data more than the orientation of the façade. All three buildings feature monitoring positions with both acceptable and critically high levels of moisture to indicate mould risk. There is great variation in the estimated risk of mould growth according to the different criteria. The study indicates that the coastal climate in the south-west of Norway presents a challenge in terms of resilient building design to avoid mould growth in the ventilated air cavity.

Dwelling in times of COVID-19: An analysis on habitability and environmental factors of Spanish housing

In the wake of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO), governments urged people to stay at home. For this reason, practically all human activity took place inside the houses. The research question established if housing quality responded to people’s needs in the context of confinement. Specifically, the purpose was to taxonomize the dwelling stock occupied by confined households during the first COVID-19 wave in Spain, as well as to deepen in features and subjective perceptions on Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ). As an exploratory study, an online questionnaire was disseminated in the Spring of 2020, obtaining 1,673 valid responses. A descriptive statistical analysis included sociodemographic, territorial and housing variables, related to indoor environmental quality, the availability of outdoor spaces, and the prospects for changes in. Also, a logistic regression stablished multivariate relations for the dependent variable “general dwelling satisfaction”. The results associated urban habitat, tenancy regime, higher incomes, and fewer cohabitants, with worse perceived IEQ, and lack of own outdoor space. Same variables showed relations with people’s desire for domestic changes. In conclusion, it is remarkable the determining role of housing design for dwellers’ satisfaction, especially in uncertain times like COVID-19 pandemic. This not only conditioned the different ways of inhabiting and occupying dwellings, but also the people’s capacity to face lockdown. The built environment, the habitat, and households’ circumstances also influenced. The latter did on people's perception of their experience, and how they lived and expressed it. Additionally, resilient building design and renovation opportunities were identified.

Thermal resilient buildings: How to be quantified? A novel benchmarking framework and labelling metric

The resilient building design has become necessary within the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme disruptive events associated with climate change. Since thermal comfort is one of the main requirements of occupants, evaluating building resilience from a thermal perspective during and after disruptive events is necessary. Most of the existing thermal resilience metrics focus on thermal performance only during disruptive events. Building designers are still seeking metrics that can capture thermal resilience in both phases (i.e. during and after the disruptive events). This paper introduces a novel benchmarking framework and a multi-phase metric for thermal resilience quantification. The metric evaluates thermal resilience concerning building characteristics (i.e. building envelope and systems) and occupancy. It penalises for thermal performance deviations from the targets based on the phase, the hazard level , and the exposure time of the event. The introduced methodology is validated by quantifying the thermal resilient performance of six building designs against a four-day power failure as a disruptive event. The six designs represent minimum and passive building requirements with and without batteries or photovoltaics as resilience enhancement strategies. For the considered case study, upgrading the building from the minimum to the passive design has a huge impact (71%) on resilience improvement against power failure in winter. The application of the battery and PVs can improve the thermal resilience of the two designs in the range of 19%–27% and 44%–60%, respectively. Findings can provide a useful reference for building designers to benchmark the building’s thermal resilience and constitute resilience enhancement measures.

Occupant behavior modeling methods for resilient building design, operation and policy at urban scale: A review

Traditional occupant behavior modeling has been studied at the building level, and it has become an important factor in the investigation of building energy consumption. However, studies modeling occupant behaviors at the urban scale are still limited. Recent work has revealed that urban big data can enable occupant behavior modeling at the urban scale – however, utilizing the existing data sources and modeling methods in building science to model urban scale occupant behaviors can be quite challenging. Beyond building science, urban scale human behaviors have been studied in several different domains using more advanced modeling methods, including Stochastic Modeling, Neural Networks, Reinforcement Learning, Network Modeling, etc. This paper aims to bridge the gap between data sources and modeling methodologies in building science by borrowing from other domains. Based on a comprehensive review, we 1) identify the modeling challenges of the current approaches in building science, 2) discuss the modeling requirements and data sources both in building science and other domains, 3) review the current modeling methods in building science and other domains, and 4) summarize available performance evaluation metrics for evaluating the modeling methods. Finally, we present future opportunities in building science with enhanced data sources and modeling methods from other domains.

Issues and perspectives of capacity development in embodied energy indices for building materials sourced in Nigeria: A review

Embodied energy (EE) property of building material is a great determinant of the performance of a building. The dearth of information on EE of locally sourced building materials (LSBMs) constitutes a challenge to affordable housing in Nigeria. In this paper, a review of the previous literature, unfilled gaps in those works, and future directions in embodied energy research for LSBMs is presented to evolve a Nigerian perspective. A constructive non-meta analytic methodology was adopted for the paper. This was followed by classification and comparison of snapshot literature in the embodied energy of building materials. Insightful sources of information for the study were drawn from a vast body of knowledge both documented literature and some interviews with knowledgeable personnel in the area of a built environment. From the survey, energy management opportunities were revealed, which would not have been apparent from a specific building case study alone. There are distinctions in the literature with this currentpaper for a Nigerian case study: none have addressed the embodied energy coefficient of materials. Also, the status of embodied energy studies, for these materials, is at a low profile and the few investigations carried out focused on life cycle operating energy of buildings. These research gaps evidently imply abundant research opportunities that await exploitation in the building industry. This paper adds to an existing body of knowledge on the use of EE index to promote and optimize the selection of LSBMs as alternative to imported building materials. We hope engineers, estate developers and architects would find it useful for making an informed decision in the design of resilient buildings using indigenous materials.
 Keywords: building material, embodied energy, system boundary, capacity, building information modelling, Nigeria.

BIM-based approach to conduct Life Cycle Cost Analysis of resilient buildings at the conceptual stage

All costs within the life cycle of a building are known as its life cycle cost (LCC). In the design process of a building, the use of a lower initial cost index to select an option among others with similar performance may not lead to an economically optimal alternative during the life cycle. Hence, today, building designers and investors require a tool to estimate life cycle cost at the conceptual design stage to select an economically efficient option. Resilient solutions generally lead to a higher level of complexity and upfront costs and carry additional embodied environmental impact as well. This study aims to support the design of resilient buildings using a sound LCC methodology in the preliminary design stage. The research aims to integrate LCC capabilities directly into a Building Information Model (BIM) and increase the economical relevance and scientific robustness of LCC indicators towards better LCC cost optimization. The plugin, which is developed in the BIM tool is represented to use cost and resiliency factors to predict the whole process cost of building projects to assist designers in selecting a cost-efficient and resilient design option. The LCC of a building includes its initial cost, repair and maintenance cost, operating cost and salvage value at the end of the building's useful life, and all of which were considered in the estimation. The earthquake expected failure and human fatality cost are calculated to consider the resiliency index in building design. The application of the proposed framework to design a residential building is developed and validated on two design options. The application of the actual building project illustrates that by increasing the initial cost in the second alternative by 4.6%, its annual expected failure cost is decreased by 35.4%, and its total life-cycle cost is reduced by almost 10.4% within the first 45 years of operation. The reduction in the cost of the building and human fatality due to failure during an earthquake means the building's resilience would be improved. Using the developed plugin, designers could estimate LCC of the buildings at the early design stages and design more resilient buildings with better economic performance in its life cycle according to the proposed indices.

Seismic Microzonation Study of South Asian Cities and Its Implications to Urban Risk Resiliency under Climate Change Scenario

In this study, an attempt has been made to review the existing framework of earthquake risk resiliency for the urban agglomerates of South Asian earthquake-prone countries (Afghanistan; Bangladesh; Bhutan, India, and Pakistan) with aim of suggesting a plausible model for earthquake risk resiliency for urban agglomerates of the region under the influence of uncontrollable climate change scenario. We demonstrated that the existing infrastructures can be retrofitted to mitigate and reduce the nature and extent of damages to structures to the greater extent whilst site response based comprehensive seismic microzonation is very much required for new settlements and for long-term sustainable urban planning by adopting multi-disciplinary investigations using integrated tools consisted of geophysical, geological, and geotechnical methodologies, which in turn help understand how and why underneath sub-surface layers get amplified to cause destruction of buildings and severe damages to critical infrastructures of South Asian Cities. It is inferred that implementation of fourth level comprehensive seismic Micro, Nano, Pico and Femto zonation study for almost all strategic cities of South Asia is a need of an hour in particular, and of the seismically prone regions of the world, in general, which would be helpful for generating a series of new parameters for development of multi-dimensional risk resilient building design codes for the safer and sustainable infrastructures of urban settlement. The methodology has wide-scale applicability to different kinds of structures and typology of the buildings.

Simultaneous Approach to Critical Fault Rupture Slip Distribution and Optimal Damper Placement for Resilient Building Design

The uncertainties in ground motions may result from several factors, e.g. (i) the fault rupture process, (ii) the wave propagation, (iii) the site amplification from the earthquake bedrock to the ground surface. The uncertainty in the fault rupture slip is taken as a main factor of uncertainties in the present paper and the critical fault rupture slip distribution causing the maximum structural response is found by using the stochastic Green’s function method as a generator of ground motions. Then, a multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) building structure is introduced as a model structure and an optimal damper placement problem is discussed for the critical ground motion. The main topic in this paper is the simultaneous determination of the critical fault rupture slip distribution and the optimal damper placement. The sequential quadratic programming method is used in the problem of critical fault rupture slip distribution and a sensitivity-based method is introduced in the optimal damper placement problem. Furthermore, the robustness for the maximum interstory drift in MDOF building structures under the uncertainty in fault rupture slip distributions is presented for resilient building design by using the robustness function. Since the critical case leads to the most unfavorable structural response, the proposed method can provide structural designers with a promising tool for resilient building design.

Critical Ground Motion for Resilient Building Design Considering Uncertainty of Fault Rupture Slip

The process of theoretical ground motion generation consists of (i) the fault rupture process, (ii) the wave propagation from the fault to the earthquake bedrock, (iii) the site amplification. The uncertainty in the site amplification was taken into account in the previous research (Makita et al. 2018). On the other hand, the uncertainty in the fault rupture slip (slip distribution and rupture front) is dealt with in the present paper. The wave propagation from the fault to the earthquake bedrock is expressed here by the stochastic Green’s function method in which the Fourier amplitude of the ground motion at the earthquake bedrock from a fault element is represented by the Boore’s model and the phase angle is modeled by the phase difference method. The validity of the proposed method is investigated through the comparison with the existing simulation result by other methods. By using the proposed method for ground motion generation and for optimization under uncertainty in the fault rupture slip, a methodology is presented for deriving the critical ground motion imposing the maximum response of an elastic SDOF model at the earthquake bedrock or at the free ground surface. It is shown that the critical response exhibits the SDOF response several times larger than that due to the average fault rupture slip model. Furthermore, the robustness evaluation with respect to the uncertain fault rupture slip and the uncertain fault rupture front is presented for resilient building design. Since the critical ground motion produces the most detrimental building response among possible scenarios, the proposed method can be a reliable tool for resilient building design.

Performance-based engineering and multi-criteria decision analysis for sustainable and resilient building design

In this paper, an integrated approach for a holistic (involving notions of resiliency and sustainability) building design is presented to select the optimal design alternative based on multiple conflicting criteria using the multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT). A probabilistic formulation of MAUT is proposed, where the distributions of the uncertain parameters are determined by a performance-based engineering (PBE) approach. Here PBE is used to evaluate the building energy efficiency and sustainability in addition to structural safety. In the proposed framework, different design alternatives of a building are ranked based on the generalized expected utility, which is able to include the most adopted probabilistic decision models, like the expected utility and the cumulative prospect theory. The distributions of the utilities are obtained from the first-order reliability method to provide (i) good tradeoff between accuracy and efficiency, and (ii) rational decision making by evaluating the most critical realizations of the consequences of each alternative through the design point. The application of the proposed approach to a building shows that design for resilience may imply design for sustainability and that green buildings (alone) may be not resilient in the face of extreme events.

Collaborative Learning in Building Sciences Enabled by Augmented Reality

This paper presents a comprehensive literature review, a novel pedagogical approach, and plans for developing and testing a collaborative learning environment built upon the capacity of new simulation technologies and augmented reality (AR) for improving sustainable and resilient building design. The project aims at integrating collaborative learning strategies with new simulation technologies and AR to provide a learning environment for interdisciplinary education of architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC).

Resilience certification for commercial buildings: a study of stakeholder perspectives

Infrastructure resilience has become a primary objective for homeland and national security organizations over the past decade. Recent initiatives have focused on resilient building design, and one approach under consideration is a voluntary resilience certification program for commercial buildings. The intent of this program would be to encourage the adoption of resilient design practices in construction and planning of the buildings. While resilience may be a frequently discussed concept within the security communities, its level of awareness within the construction, design, insurance, and building owner communities is not well known. Given the voluntary nature of the certification program under consideration, program development requires a comprehensive understanding of resilience as defined by the commercial building stakeholders. Toward this end, Sandia National Laboratories conducted a study of stakeholder perspectives on resilience to ascertain factors that would serve as motivation for participation in the resilience certification program. This paper describes how Sandia performed the study and the resulting conclusions. One of the key conclusions that the study found is that the term resilience is unfamiliar to many and inconsistently defined across the industries. Those familiar with the term frequently linked it to sustainability concepts. The study also found that increased participation in the resilience certification program is very likely affected by demonstrable returns on resilience investments and a public–private partnership model for program administration.