Environmental Performance Of Buildings Research Articles

Research on Indoor Environmental Performance of Green Office Buildings in Shanghai Based on Field Investigation

In order to understand the indoor environmental performance of green buildings after operation, 12 green buildings in Shanghai were selected to carry out long-term continuous monitoring and field collection study, data was comparative analysed with relevant national standards. Results show that the indoor environmental compliance rate of the building is more than 75%, and the comfort zone of the temperature and humidity are wider than the standard. The compliance rate of the light environment is generally good. At the same time, similar research results of other cities in China were compared, and the causes of the results were analysed. Finally, based on the measured data, the optimized standard limits of some parameters were proposed.

Retrofit Methodology Based on Energy Simulation Modeling Applied for the Enhancement of a Historical Building in L’Aquila

Energy loss has not been addressed effectively by policies introduced to encourage the preservation and enhancement of historical structures. Material and other constraints, together with safety standard improvements, do not always guarantee adequate levels of environmental performance. An optimization of retrofit measures to align with new uses, new standards of comfort, and energy saving are needed, as are studies based on new best practices for the enhancement of architectural heritage. This paper presents a method that uses dynamic models tared on non-destructive surveys, and based on compatible energy and structural interventions derived from preliminary analyses integrated into special design tools. Energy simulations were carried out using Design Builder (6.1.5.002, Designbuilder Software Ltd, Stroud, UK) software. The case study is a former hospital, S. Salvatore, in L’Aquila, an architecturally important building, severely damaged by an earthquake in 2009. The methodology presented in this research includes in-depth investigations coherently systematized into a multi-scenario output using simulation software. The results guarantee a high level of compatibility with restoration and seismic guidelines, and new building environmental performance requirements.

Benchmarking of Water, Energy, and Carbon Flows in Academic Buildings: A Fuzzy Clustering Approach

In Canada, higher educational institutions (HEIs) are responsible for a significant portion of energy consumption and anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Improving the environmental performance of HEIs is an important step to achieve nationwide impact reduction. Academic buildings are among the largest infrastructure units in HEIs. Therefore, it is crucial to improve the environmental performance of academic buildings during their operations. Identifying critical academic buildings posing high impacts calls for methodologies that can holistically assess the environmental performance of buildings with respect to water and energy consumption, and GHG emission. This study proposes a fuzzy clustering approach to classify academic buildings in an HEI and benchmark their environmental performance in terms of water, energy, and carbon flows. To account for the fuzzy uncertainties in partitioning, the fuzzy c-means algorithm is employed to classify the buildings based on water, energy, and carbon flow indicators. The application of the developed methodology is demonstrated by a case study of 71 academic buildings in the University of British Columbia, Canada. The assessed buildings are grouped into three clusters representing different levels of performances with different degrees of membership. The environmental performance of each cluster is then benchmarked. Based on the results, the environmental performances of academic buildings are holistically determined, and the building clusters associated with low environmental performances are identified for potential improvements. The subsequent benchmark will allow HEIs to compare the impacts of academic building operations and set realistic targets for impact reduction.

Sustainable Building Certification in Chile

Members of the Chilean Chamber of Construction CChC, participated in the conferences called “Green Building Challenge, GBC” 1998-2001, and then 2001 in the foundation of the “International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment – iiSBE” to create a common methodology to assess the environmental performance of buildings GBTool/SBTool. CChC representatives participated in the Board of iiSBE and its International Framework Committee IFC with members from many countries that held meetings every 6 months 1999-2008 in several countries including Chile 2001 with the first local seminar on sustainable building. The Chilean GBC Team participated in world and regional iiSBE Conferences in Canada 1998, Netherlands 2000, Norway 2002 and Japan 2005, with buildings in Chile assessed with the GB/SBTool and conferences in Brazil 2004, Finland 2010, Brazil 2016 and Hong Kong 2017. The CChC signed in 2001 an “Agreement of Collaboration” with the Ministries of Public Works MOP and Housing and Urban Development MINVU, with the objective to develop sustainable buildings. In January 2008 the Instituto de la Construcción (Construction Institute) created a Committee of Certification of the Environmental Quality of Buildings, initially formed by 7 and later by 20 institutions; the activities were to review national and international methodologies of certifications and comparing their requirements; review 165 variables possible to assess and its weightings, considering local variables for our climate zones of the country, classification of buildings for public use in Chile, its sizes and characteristics. And finally the segment of buildings to be initially certified. In June 2014, by and agreement between CChC, MOP, Chilean Institute of Architects and Building Institute, it was created the national system Certificación Edificio Sustentable, CES (Sustainable Building Certification) for buildings of public use (everything but housing); the Ministry of Energy and MINVU joined later the board of CES. To date, 30 buildings have been certified, 81 have been pre-certified, and 153 buildings are in process.

Effective implementation of ISO 50001: A case study on energy management for heating load reduction for a social building stock in Northern Italy

Organisations responsible for managing large stocks of residential social buildings spend significant resources on the energy usage for buildings and maintenance activities. The implementation of an energy management system compliant with ISO 50001 can yield more effective energy retrofit actions for buildings by improving the energy consumption and environmental performance of buildings through effective economic investment strategies. This paper describes an organisational methodology that complies with ISO 50001, applied for the first time to an Italian public body that manages a large building stock of social housing. In particular, this study examines the aspects concerning energy analysis of the stock and the definition of energy retrofit interventions towards heating load reduction based on consumption monitoring. The obtained results confirm the effectiveness of ISO 50001 as an organisational tool for energy management within a systematic approach.

Influence of two motion types on solar transmittance and daylight performance of dynamic façades

Recently, architectural designs with dynamic facades have been introduced as a strategy for improving building environmental performance. Currently, such as those capable of rotation and folding motion, are widely used. An investigation of the effect of these two motions on the energy and daylight performance can contribute to enhanced energy efficiency and occupant comfort. Therefore, a parametric simulation approach was implemented for the design optimisation of dynamic façades capable of two motions in a high-rise tropical office building near the Equator. 72 cases representing the two motions and different transmittance values, axes, and dimensions were compared for determining the best compromise between minimum energy consumption and maximum daylight comfort.The results indicate that energy consumption can be decreased by 14–21% through the implementation of dynamic façade compared with base case. The folding motion exhibits better performance in all four orientations than the rotation motion. For daylighting, the area of adequate illuminance increases by 15–32% with the optimal configuration. The value obtained for the rotational motion exceeds that for the folding motion. Based on the overall optimal solutions in terms of energy and illuminance performance, the optimal design for all orientations corresponds to the rotation motion. Furthermore, the results indicated that optimal angles are concentrated within a certain range that typically corresponds to 15° from the fully open position. This study provides a performance-based approach to aid designers in making decisions in the early design stage, from the energy and visual comfort perspectives, and not simply from the aesthetic viewpoint.

Environmental performance of building integrated grey water reuse systems based on Life-Cycle Assessment: A systematic and bibliographic analysis

The increasing demand for fresh water has been a global concern for decades. Desalination and water transportation systems consume an ample amount of energy, which also adds to the environmental pollution. This has led to a constant look-out for more viable options to conserve freshwater resources without compromising the environmental quality. The building sectors are remarkably the largest consumers of fresh water in the world; thus, the reclamation and reuse of greywater for non-potable purposes helps to reduce a significant amount of water consumed within a building. This study critically reviews the environmental performance of building-integrated greywater treatment systems compared to the conventional treatment systems deployed. Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the method used to identify the environmental impacts associated with both the systems during their entire life span. The greywater treatment techniques and the guidelines for its reuse are also investigated. The bibliographic analysis was systematic, and the resources for this study were chosen after three stages of quality assessment. The study found physical and biological treatment techniques to be beneficial as they produce excellent quality of treated greywater for reuse. The environmental assessment by various studies prefers the reuse of greywater over its disposal. Guidelines for the reuse of treated greywater have recently been proposed by various countries and building rating systems. This study aims to address the policymakers, governmental and environmental organizations, mainly situated in the water-stressed areas such as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, to raise awareness and initiate greywater reuse techniques within residential and commercial building sectors.

Reduce, Reuse, Resilient? Life-Cycle Seismic and Environmental Performance of Buildings with Alternative Concretes

AbstractThis paper investigates the impacts of alternative structural concretes on the life-cycle sustainability and resilience of a reinforced concrete building in a high seismic region. To do so,...

Life cycle carbon emissions and comparative evaluation of selected open source UK embodied carbon counting tools

Life cycle carbon emissions (LCO2), made up of operational and embodied carbon, have become a major metric of building environmental performance and energy efficiency. Whilst there are now standard methods for operational carbon assessment due to its significance in LCO2, there is still less emphasis on embodied carbon counting. However, the relative contribution of embodied carbon is on the rise as buildings become increasingly energy efficient. Following the rule that only something which is measurable is manageable, it is essential that we are able to accurately count embodied carbon. This study therefore reviews the concept of LCO2 in buildings and further investigates the open source UK tools for embodied carbon counting. A comparative evaluation case study, which validates an earlier review, showed that there is no logic and consistency in the carbon figures produced by embodied carbon counting tools. This is mainly due to different system boundaries, varying underlying assumptions and methodological differences in calculation. The findings suggest that an industry-agreed data structure and common methodology is needed for embodied carbon counting. Generally, the study provides insights into the use and capabilities of the identified open source UK embodied carbon counting tools, and is relevant to the on-going debate about carbon regulation.

Interactive Eco-Cell Parametric Shading Structure Simulation (Hexagonal Shell of Light) by using Parametric Environmental Tool

Software and methods (such as Parametric modeling) could be effective for architects and engineers to improve the design and reparametrize modeling. These methods will help develop the best solutions for improving the sustainable design. A challenge for designers is to integrate daylight and shade study with optimization into the design process. For achieve accurate results, most of the building environmental performance simulation tools need a large amount of time and repetition. Furthermore, the combination of daylight and energy performances has always been an issue, as different software packages are needed to present detailed calculation. This paper describes the control of codes and calculations that modern designers can use to produce new structures as opposed to specifically design them. The paper reviews paradigm shifts in architecture, and gives a description for parametric design and parametric design types, Also, The Paper introduces Eco-cell simulation study using Rhino and Grasshopper as a new tool of parametric design. An Eco-cell is an interactive hexagonal cell that achieves environmental concepts. The paper explores this environmental study by using Ladybug plug-in to study sunlight analysis and radiation analysis. EPW file is used to draw the sun path and finally the simulation study to control the whole cell structure. The Paper used the evolutionary solver Galapagos to attain the most effective result in daylight quality by controlling interactive hexagonal cell structure.

Environmental benchmarks for buildings: needs, challenges and solutions—71st LCA forum, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich, 18 June 2019

The 71st LCA forum was held on 18 June 2019 in Zurich, Switzerland, to discuss the current status and future plans of environmental benchmarking for buildings in view of the 1.5 °C target stipulated in the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement requires a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, in fact net zero by 2050. One of the priority areas is the building stock, as it is an important source of greenhouse gas emissions. COP23, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and an increasing number of countries are extending their consideration from aspects such as energy consumption and emissions from building operation to the manufacture of construction materials and building construction. The event offered an excellent platform to exchange ideas and thoughts on existing and planned environmental benchmarking schemes for buildings. The one day event dealt at first with life cycle assessment (LCA) approaches applied in European, Asian, Australasian and American countries to assess the environmental performance of buildings. Within a round robin test, organised within the IEA EBC (Energy in Building and Communities) Annex 72 project, 22 organisations from 21 countries assessed the environmental performance of one identical building, the be2226 office building located in Lustenau, Austria. The materials, the building technologies and the energy consumption were kept constant. This allowed to identify the main differences in LCA data used and LCA methodology applied in the national contexts. In the LCA forum, eight organisations presented the current state or future plans of an environmental benchmarking system in their home country. The systems were characterised in terms of scope, in particular (a) which types of buildings are covered; (b) which life cycle stages are included; (c) which building elements and which operational energy uses are considered; and (d) which environmental impacts are addressed. Furthermore, the default reference service life and the main source of LCA data were specified and the current or planned benchmark values for greenhouse gas emissions of residential buildings were reported. The round robin test revealed the LCA background data as one major source of difference in assessment results. Methodological and modelling choices were less important except for the Danish assessment, which applies a comparatively long reference study period (80 years for office buildings, 120 years for residential buildings) and considering future changes in the electricity mix towards 100% renewables to describe the operational electricity demand during the lifetime of the building. Most benchmarking systems presented are applied on new and retrofit residential, office and school buildings. Other use types such as shops, restaurants, universities or hospitals are covered only in few or just one country. The greenhouse gas emission benchmark for residential buildings (construction and operation) revealed a significant gap between the current level of the building benchmarks on one hand and the target of net zero CO2-eq emissions derived from the 1.5 °C scenarios of IPCC on the other. An online inquiry carried out among the audience during the event showed a preference for a per capita overall budget of 500 kg CO2-eq per year to derive greenhouse gas emission benchmarks for buildings and that life cycle-based benchmarks for buildings should be legally binding. The 71st LCA forum on environmental benchmarks for buildings showed that the experts present acknowledge the net zero CO2 emission target derived from the 1.5 °C scenarios. Several countries have expertise and experience in assessing the environmental impacts of buildings. However, the current (mostly voluntary) benchmarking schemes are way too weak to support the building sector in contributing significantly to the required CO2 emission turn off. The outlook given by several speakers showed that the current benchmarks will likely be tightened and oriented on the planetary boundaries and on the scientifically defined CO2 emission budgets rather than on the technical or economic feasibility. Finally, the responsibility of governments for defining environmental requirements and targets was stressed. The event, the exchange of ideas and the discussions helped to nurture and hopefully accelerate the developments in the construction sector of the home countries of the experts and government representatives. These developments will contribute to a society whose environmental impacts remain within the carrying capacity of our planet.

Tracing the environmental impact origin within the existing building portfolio of prevailing building typologies

As circular economy (CE) is becoming a growing focus in the building industry due to the industries large resource consumption, waste production and environmental impacts a better understanding of buildings material composition, resource consumption and resulting environmental performance becomes increasingly important in order to support the transition towards CE. The research presented here is a stepping stone in order to investigating the existing building portfolio and the conducted analysis. It is used to get further information on what is included and where there is lack of information, in order to understand what is missing or what is needed to develop CE design strategies. Although, life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly used by the industry to assess these aspects, the lack of a systematic analytical approach as well as the high building complexity and diversity between buildings limits generalised knowledge from these studies. However, it is assumed that there are certain commonalities between the existing portfolio of prevailing building typologies which can be deducted. The study at hand is a part of a larger research project that aims at developing industry specific tools to support designers and decision makers select CE design strategies that improve the environmental performance and resource consumption of buildings. On the basis of a comprehensive systematic literature review (SLR) of whole building LCAs the paper at hand aims at tracing the environmental impact origin within the existing building portfolio of prevailing building typologies. To identify potentially important building parameters relevant to the resulting environmental impact performance and resource consumption of different building typologies. Based on 39 building LCA case studies that matched the specific inclusion and exclusion criteria of the SLR a focus on global warming and climate change was detected. It was found that even though buildings have different characteristics (size, typology, storeys, reference study period and location), for most of the buildings’ environmental impacts were predominantly related to the production of structurally important concrete components e.g. the structural frame, the external envelope, floor slabs and walls. To point towards which CE design strategies should be used to improve the environmental performance of buildings; the environmental information from the studies was insufficient due to lack of detailed information.

Toward LCA-lite: A Simplified Tool to Easily Apply LCA Logic at the Early Design Stage of Building in Australia

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), developed over 30 years ago, has been helpful in addressing a growing concern about the direct and indirect environmental impact of buildings over their lifetime. However, lack of reliable, available, comparable and consistent information on the life cycle environmental performance of buildings makes it very difficult for architects and engineers to apply this method in the early stages of building design when the most important decisions in relation to a building’s environmental impact are made. The LCA quantification method with need of employing complex tools and an enormous amount of data is unfeasible for small or individual building projects. This study discusses the possibility of the development of a tool that allows building designers to more easily apply the logic of LCA at the early design stage. Minimising data requirements and identifying the most effective parameters that promise to make the most difference, are the key points of simplification method. The conventional LCA framework and knowledge-based system are employed through the simplification process. Results of previous LCA studies in Australia are used as the specific knowledge that enable the system to generate outputs based on the user’s inputs.Keywords: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), early design stage, most effective parameters, life cycle environmental performance

Managing environmental building performance through IT systems

PurposeThis paper aims to disclose the role and features of various IT systems for environmental building performance (EBP) in facilities management.Design/methodology/approachThe study focuses on IT systems used for facilities management in four organisations. The study is based on a maximum variance case study in which the selected organisations have different organisation type and portfolio size. Three organisations are from Denmark and one is from the UK.FindingsSeveral IT systems can be used for managing EBP. EBP in IT systems is primarily reflected through energy management, with specific focus on monitoring and reporting electricity, heating and water consumption. Furthermore, greenhouse gas emissions related to energy consumption can be calculated in some IT systems, while other environmental categories like building materials and recycling potentials are not adequately supported by the systems covered in this study. Some IT systems offer additional features relating to EBP, such as waste management and space management, but the study shows that these features are not demanded at the current point.Practical implicationsThe results can be used to support decision-making in organisations to improve EBP in facilities management by IT systems.Originality/valueThis study contributes with new knowledge on how IT systems are used in different organisations for managing EBP. The paper also shows how various IT systems can add value to real estate organisations and facilities management departments and support their business processes relating to EBP.

Artificial Neural Networks to assess energy and environmental performance of buildings: An Italian case study

Abstract Approximately 40% of the European energy consumption and a large proportion of environmental impacts are related to the building sector. However, the selection of adequate and correct designs can provide considerable energy savings and reduce environmental impacts. To achieve this objective, a simultaneous energy and environmental assessment of a building's life cycle is necessary. To date, the resolution of this complex problem is entrusted to numerous software and calculation algorithms that are often complex to use. They involve long diagnosis phases and are characterised by the lack of a common language. Despite the efforts by the scientific community in the building sector, there is no simple and reliable tool that simultaneously solves the energy and environmental balance of buildings. In this work, the authors address this challenge by proposing the application of an Artificial Neural Network. Due to the high reliability of learning algorithms in the resolution of complex and non-linear problems, it was possible to simultaneously solve two different but strongly dependent aspects after a deep training phase. In previous researches, the authors applied several topologies of neural networks, which were trained on a large and representative database and developed for the Italian building stock. The database, characterised by several building models simulated in different climatic conditions, collects 29 inputs (13 energy data and 16 environmental data) and provides 7 outputs, 1 for heating energy demand and 6 of the most used indicators in life cycle assessment of buildings. A statistical analysis of the results confirmed that the proposed method is appropriate to achieve the goal of the study. The best artificial neural network for each output presented low Root Mean Square Error, Mean Absolute Error lower than 5%, and determination coefficient close to 1. The excellent results confirmed that this methodology can be extended in any context and to any condition (other countries and building stocks). Furthermore, the implementation of this solution algorithm in a software program can enable the development of a suitable decision support tool, which is simple, reliable, and easy to use even for a non-expert user. The possibility to use an instrument to predict a building's performance in its design and planning phase, represent an important result to support decision-making processes toward more sustainable choices.

Using a budget approach for decision-support in the design process

The use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) during the design phase can help to improve the environmental performance of buildings. However, designers and clients find it difficult to set environmental performance targets and interpret the results obtained through LCA in order to improve the building design. Therefore, performance levels or benchmarks are needed that provide design guidance towards reducing the environmental impacts of buildings in the life cycle. This paper uses a dual benchmark approach. The main concept consists in combining building-related top-down targets with building component-related bottom-up benchmarks. The overall top-down targets per capita and year are derived from the capacity of the global eco system. The bottom-up benchmarks for building elements are calculated following a best-in-class (top 5%) approach. A workflow of applying these benchmarks is proposed. It provides guidance on how to optimize the environmental performance of a building and its components efficiently by differentiating between material and design-related options. The approach is exemplified by means of a case study of a multi-family house.

IEA EBC Annex 72 - Assessing life cycle related environmental impacts caused by buildings – targets and tasks

Investment decisions for buildings made today largely determine their environmental impacts over many future decades due to their long lifetimes. Such decisions involve a trade-off between additional investments today and potential savings during use and at end of life - in terms of economic costs, primary energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is suited to identify measures and action to increase the resource efficiency and the environmental performance of buildings and construction. This paper gives an overview of an ongoing international research project within the IEA EBC with the overall aim to harmonise LCA approaches on buildings and foster life cycle thinking in the real estate and construction sectors. The objectives of the project are i) to establish a common methodology guideline to assess the life cycle based environmental impacts caused by buildings, ii) to establish methods for the development of specific environmental benchmarks for different types of buildings, iii) to derive regionally differentiated guidelines and tools for the use of LCA in building design and tools such as BIM, and iv) to improve data availability by developing national or regional databases with regionally differentiated LCA data tailored to the construction sector. To ensure practical solutions a number of case studies will be used to test and illustrate the consensus approaches and research issues.

A cross-platform modular framework for building Life Cycle Assessment

In recent years the application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for assessing and improving the environmental performance of buildings has increased. At the same time, the automated optimization of building designs is gaining attraction for both design and research purposes. In this regard, a number of issues persist when aiming to optimize building’s environmental impacts along the design process. Firstly, as LCA applies a life cycle perspective, many aspects have to be considered (e.g. energy demand in operation as well as consumption of resources and energy for production and end of life treatment) and a variety of specific calculations is needed (e.g. building energy performance simulation, material quantity take-off). Secondly, sophisticated software packages are available and being used for each of these calculations (e.g. software for building modelling, dynamic energy simulation, quantity surveying). Though many of these software packages are currently standalone applications that rely on human interaction, there is an increasing trend to provide an application programming interface (API) that enables customization and automation. Thirdly, the mentioned processes and calculations are influencing each other in various ways and several scenarios have to be assessed. Thus, a comprehensive and modular approach is required that promotes interconnectivity of the different software solutions and automation of the assessment. In this paper we propose a modular cross-platform framework for LCA of buildings aiming to support flexibility and scalability of building LCA. We present a conceptual framework, example data exchange requirements and highlight potential implementation strategies.

Improving energy efficiency in Vietnamese tube houses

PurposeRefurbishing houses is considered a key measure to improve the energy efficiency of the built environment. However, little is known about the implementation and outcome of housing renovation for energy upgrades in the Vietnamese practice. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the energy performance of the current housing stock in Vietnam and the potential to reduce energy use in households.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a survey with 153 respondents in three major climatic regions of Vietnam. The survey focusses on building characteristics, environmental performance, energy performance and refurbishment activities. Data collected from the survey were statistically analysed to give insight into the current performance of the housing stock and its energy saving potential.FindingsThis paper concludes that building design and construction, particularly the building envelope, have a significant influence on the occupants’ comfort. However, the energy consumption in houses is not statistically associated with building design and indoor environment. It is suggested that financial status and occupants’ behaviour currently have a strong influence on the household energy use. The survey also showed that refurbishment improves the housing performance, especially if improving the indoor environment was one of the drivers.Originality/valueThere are very few studies on energy use in households in Vietnam, especially with regards to actual energy consumption. This paper brings insights into the actual energy consumption and reveals the “performance gap” in Vietnamese housing stock.

Thermal behaviour of a green roof containing insulation cork board. An experimental characterization using a bioclimatic chamber

Green roof technology is increasingly being used to improve the energy and environmental performance of buildings. However, the description of the thermal behaviour of green roofs is very complex since it depends on several variables and relies on intricate phenomena.In this work the authors characterize a green roof system that replaces the conventional drainage and water storage polyethylene membranes with insulation cork boards (ICB). To enable the experimental characterization of this system, a double walk-in bioclimatic chamber was designed and built to recreate indoor and outdoor environmental conditions. Winter and summer environments with steady and unsteady conditions in both dry and wet states were simulated. Thermocouples and heat flux sensors were used to collect data over time from the different layers of the green roof prototypes.Measurements were first performed on a concrete slab insulated with ICB to assess the contribution of the latter to the thermal performance of the system. The effect on the heat transfer was further evaluated for systems of increasing complexity, containing first a substrate layer and then vegetation. It was noted that the substrate and vegetation layers improved the thermal insulation, and reduced heat fluxes and the thermal amplitude within the system. The vegetation layer was found to be of key importance to the overall performance of the green roof. It was also found that ICB and the substrate layers lose part of their insulation capacity when the system was wetted, although it was fully restored in the ICB layer within a few hours.