Thermal Resilience Research Articles

Reef building corals show resilience to the hottest marine heatwave on record in the Gulf of Aqaba

Coral reefs are facing rapid deterioration, primarily due to a global rise in seawater temperature. In conjunction, the frequency and intensity of extreme high temperature events, known as marine heatwaves (MHWs), are increasing. The Gulf of Aqaba (GoA) in the northern Red Sea is home to corals known for their thermal resilience, yet concerns have been raised regarding the potential for MHWs to put this coral refuge at risk. In summer of 2021, the hottest MHW so far occurred in the GoA, with sea surface temperatures peaking at 31°C and persisting above the local summer maximum for 34 days. To assess the physiological response of the corals Stylophora pistillata and Pocillopora damicornis to this event, we analyzed the monthly content across a year of host and symbiont proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids, pre-, during, and post the MHW, as a proxy for metabolic stress. We found that the MHW was not fatal to either species and did not induce bleaching, based on algal densities and chlorophyll content. Species-specific responses were detected. In S. pistillata, host protein content decreased (33%) at the onset of the MHW (August) compared to pre-MHW levels (July). Algal symbionts of S. pistillata were unaffected by the MHW in their maximal photosynthetic efficiency (Fv/Fm) and exhibited higher carbohydrate levels (+34%) at the end of the MHW (September) compared to its onset. In contrast, no significant catabolic response was detected in P. damicornis host or symbionts, and the maximal relative electron transport rate (rETRmax) of symbionts was 37% higher during the MHW than the annual average. These results highlight the remarkable ability of common GoA corals to withstand extreme thermal anomalies, underscoring the global significance of this coral refuge.

Optimization of the alkali treatment on the tempo‐modified cellulosic nanoreinforcement in autoclaved epoxy matrix

AbstractInvestigators increased interest in composites with novel natural fibers beholds significant progress globally over the past decade. Moringa oleifera seed filler is among the few newly known novel fiber‐rich in cellulose and meagrely used in commercial industries. This research article used a broad characterization of 2,2,6,6‐tetramethylpiperidine 1‐oxyl (TEMPO)‐modified Moringa oleifera cellulosic nanoreinforcement/epoxy composites to verify its potential as a feasible substitute for synthetic fibers in polymer composites. Composites were fabricated at a fixed filler size of 300–500 nm with a loading of 15 wt% untreated and alkali‐treated composites through the two processes: hand lay‐up followed by autoclave curing. The properties, such as, static and dynamic mechanical properties and thermal stability, have been studied for untreated and treated composites. Composites with 5 wt% alkali treatment TEMPO‐modified nano‐cellulosic filler (TMCF) loading possesses superior water resistance, interfacial surface chemistry, and mechanical property compared to autoclaved epoxy and the untreated composite. Four isoconversional methods, Friedman, Coats‐Redfern, Broido, and Kissinger, were utilized to investigate the degradation behavior and kinetic parameters like activation energy of composites. Composites that have been 5 wt% mercerized exhibit greater thermal resilience and activation energy of 250 kJ/mol, which is 20% greater than the untreated sample. This study validates the 5 wt% alkali treated TMCF as a novel sustainable and bio‐reinforcement in polymer composite for semi‐structural applications.

A New Method of Building Envelope Thermal Performance Evaluation Considering Window–Wall Correlation

This study proposes a new method to accurately evaluate the overall building envelope thermal performance considering the window–wall correlation, providing a new tool for building thermal design. Firstly, a non-stationary room heat transfer model is established based on the Resistance-Capacity Network method. The influence of solar heat gain through the windows on the heat transfer process of the walls in the actual environment is considered, and the room’s integrated thermal resistance and integrated heat capacity indexes describing the overall room thermal resilience performance are proposed. Then, a field research test is conducted around Lhasa to obtain the local dwelling information, climate conditions, and indoor thermal environment. Numerical simulations using EnergyPlus are made to verify the effectiveness of the indexes in describing the overall building (maximum difference within 3.67% MBE and 2.92% CVRMSE) based on the field test results. Finally, the proposed envelope thermal performance index is used to analyze the local residential buildings around Lhasa. The results show that the lack of consideration of window–wall correlation has led to the failure of a local newly built building’s actual envelope performance to meet the design requirements. These findings could help to develop the thermal design method of the building envelope.

A simulation framework for assessing thermally resilient buildings and communities

The increasing frequency and severity of weather extremes caused by climate change evidence the need to assess buildings beyond their typical thermal and energy performance under normal operation. It is also essential to evaluate thermal resilience to safeguard occupants' health during extreme events and power outages. This study proposes a simulation framework to evaluate and enhance the thermal resilience of buildings against indoor overheating using an integrated set of performance metrics. This work also addresses how to aggregate resilience profiles of single buildings into the urban scale, supporting the evaluation of thermally resilient communities. This is the first step to connecting building and urban scales in a resilience analysis, seeking to further address other stakeholders' needs in the future. The application of the framework is exemplified through a case study considering three different climates in Brazil. This analysis allowed identifying cases with poor thermal resilience and essential dependence on air conditioning to guarantee the survivability of occupants during extreme hot weather. Nonetheless, by only changing the envelope's thermal transmittance and thermal mass, buildings' thermal autonomy increased up to 65% points and cooling loads were reduced by up to 61% in the hottest climate, São Luís. However, additional strategies are necessary to mitigate remaining indoor extreme thermal conditions, such as solar shading and increased air movement.

Establishing resilience in times of climate change—a perspective on humans and buildings

With a contribution of 40% to the annual global CO2-emissions, the built environment needs to drastically reduce its impact, while also providing pleasant and healthy indoor spaces and protecting people from weather extremes. Over time, particularly in western and industrialized countries, buildings have evolved to shield occupants almost completely from outdoor conditions. As a consequence, humans have become so used to a constant, comfortable indoor environment that we struggle to cope with thermal fluctuations. The time has come to shift perspective, as the very protective character of buildings and provision of omnipresent comfort are neither feasible nor desirable any longer. An enormous amount of energy and resources are spent to provide tightly controlled thermal environments, often with the same target temperature all year round. However, being mostly exposed to constant, comfortable indoor temperatures can have negative impacts on health and deteriorate our human capability to deal with thermal challenges. Importantly, spending time outside the thermal comfort zone is known to enhance human thermoregulatory capacities and thermal resilience, while also improving metabolic and cardiovascular health. This perspective essay aims to draw attention to novel and yet underrepresented avenues of coping with climate challenges, both with respect to the built environment and humans. Allowing more thermal variation indoors will save precious resources, decrease the negative impact of building CO2-footprints, and stimulate physiological and psychological adaptation in humans, which can lead to improved resilience and health.

Ten questions concerning thermal resilience of buildings and occupants for climate adaptation

With climate change leading to more frequent, more intense, and longer durations of extreme weather events such as heat waves and cold snaps, it is essential to maintain safe indoor environmental conditions for occupants during such events, which may coincide with, or even cause, power outages that expose residents to health risks. Analyzing the impacts of extreme weather events on the thermal resilience of buildings can help stakeholders (including occupants) understand the risk and inform them about mitigation and adaptation actions. Moreover, analyzing the technological, social and policy dimensions of thermal resilience is critical for climate-proofing buildings. This paper presents 10 questions that highlight the most important issues regarding the thermal resilience of buildings for occupants in the face of climate change. The proposed questions and answers aim to provide insights into current and future building thermal resilience research and applications, and more importantly to inspire new significant questions in the field.

Thermal resilience in a renovated nearly zero-energy dwelling during intense heat waves

Overheating risk is expected to rise in dwellings as heat waves continue increasing in intensity and duration. This paper presents a simulation-based study on thermal resilience in a benchmark renovated nearly zero-energy dwelling during intense heat waves in Belgium. Data analysis using thermal simulations of the reference dwelling with and without active cooling was used to assess overheating risk. The analysis indicated that the reference dwelling with active cooling was resilient to heat waves for over 91% of the occupied hours. Furthermore, the existing building-level renovation strategies alone will not be sufficient to mitigate overheating in renovated dwellings and require active cooling. However, active cooling came with an energy penalty of 37.69 kWh/day during the monitored period, and any potential benefits of active cooling should factor in the excess energy use. The presented findings lead to recommendations for future building renovation practices and identified needs for further research.

Preparation and Characterization of Biomass Tannin-Based Flexible Foam Insoles for Athletes.

The exploitation of bio-based foams implies an increase in the use of renewable biological resources to reduce the rapid consumption of petroleum-derived resources. Both tannins and furfuryl alcohol are derived from forestry resources and are, therefore, considered attractive precursors for the preparation of tannin-furanic foams. In addition, toughening modification of tannin-furanic foams using polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) results in a more flexible network-like structure, which imparts excellent flexibility to the foams, whose relative properties are even close to those of polyurethane foams, which are the most used for fabrication of insoles for athletes. In addition, the addition of PVOH does not affect the thermal insulation properties of the foams by testing the thermal conductivity, resilience, and elongation at break, while reducing the brittleness of the samples and improving the mechanical properties. Also, the observation of the morphology of the foam shows that the compatibility between PVOH and tannin-furanic resin is good, and the cured foam does not show fragmentation and collapse, while the bubble pore structure is uniform. The developed flexible foam derived from biomass resources endows the foam with good thermal insulation properties and high mechanical properties, and the samples exhibit suitable physical parameters to be used as flexible insoles for athletes.

Genomic exploration of coral-associated bacteria: identifying probiotic candidates to increase coral bleaching resilience in Galaxea fascicularis

BackgroundReef-building corals are acutely threatened by ocean warming, calling for active interventions to reduce coral bleaching and mortality. Corals associate with a wide diversity of bacteria which can influence coral health, but knowledge of specific functions that may be beneficial for corals under thermal stress is scant. Under the oxidative stress theory of coral bleaching, bacteria that scavenge reactive oxygen (ROS) or nitrogen species (RNS) are expected to enhance coral thermal resilience. Further, bacterial carbon export might substitute the carbon supply from algal photosymbionts, enhance thermal resilience and facilitate bleaching recovery. To identify probiotic bacterial candidates, we sequenced the genomes of 82 pure-cultured bacteria that were isolated from the emerging coral model Galaxea fascicularis.ResultsGenomic analyses showed bacterial isolates were affiliated with 37 genera. Isolates such as Ruegeria, Muricauda and Roseovarius were found to encode genes for the synthesis of the antioxidants mannitol, glutathione, dimethylsulfide, dimethylsulfoniopropionate, zeaxanthin and/or β-carotene. Genes involved in RNS-scavenging were found in many G. fascicularis-associated bacteria, which represents a novel finding for several genera (including Pseudophaeobacter). Transporters that are suggested to export carbon (semiSWEET) were detected in seven isolates, including Pseudovibrio and Roseibium. Further, a range of bacterial strains, including strains of Roseibium and Roseovarius, revealed genomic features that may enhance colonisation and association of bacteria with the coral host, such as secretion systems and eukaryote-like repeat proteins.ConclusionsOur work provides an in-depth genomic analysis of the functional potential of G. fascicularis-associated bacteria and identifies novel combinations of traits that may enhance the coral’s ability to withstand coral bleaching. Identifying and characterising bacteria that are beneficial for corals is critical for the development of effective probiotics that boost coral climate resilience.8m4XBCTnDteu3pGMRN1qkzVideo

Building Thermal and Energy Performance of Subtropical Terraced Houses under Future Climate Uncertainty

Due to global temperature increases, terraced house (TH) residents face a threat to their health due to poor indoor thermal environments. As buildings are constructed by low-income residents without professional guidance, this study aims to investigate the indoor thermal comfort and energy resilience of THs under the future climate and determine the optimal passive design strategies for construction and retrofitting. By exploring the effects of building envelope structures, adjusting the window-to-wall ratio (WWR) and designing shading devices, EnergyPlus version 22.0 was used to optimize the thermal environment and cooling load of THs throughout their life cycle under future climate uncertainties. Unimproved THs will experience overheating for nearly 90% of the hours in a year and the cooling load will exceed 60,000 kWh by 2100 under the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 8.5 scenario. In contrast, optimization and improvements resulted in a 17.3% reduction in indoor cooling load by increasing shading devices and the WWR, and using building envelope structures with moderate thermal insulation. This study can guide TH design and renovation, significantly reducing indoor cooling load and enabling residents to better use active cooling to combat future overheating environments.

Engineering buffer layers to improve temperature resilience of magnetic tunnel junction sensors

Improving the thermal resilience of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) broadens their applicability as sensing devices and is necessary to ensure their operation under harsh environments. In this work, we are address the impact of temperature on the degradation of the magnetic reference in field sensor stacks based on MgO-MTJs. Our study starts by simple MnIr/CoFe bilayers to gather enough insights into the role of critical morphological and magnetic parameters and their impact in the temperature dependent behavior. The exchange bias coupling field (H ex), coercive field (H c), and blocking temperature (T b) distribution are tuned, combining tailored growth conditions of the antiferromagnet and different buffer layer materials and stackings. This is achieved by a unique combination of ion beam deposition and magnetron sputtering, without vaccum break. Then, the work then extends beyond bilayers into more complex state-of-the-art MgO MTJ stacks as those employed in commercial sensing applications. We systematically address their characteristic fields, such as the width of the antiferromagnetic coupling plateau ΔH, and study their dependence on temperature. Although, [Ta/CuN] buffers showed higher key performance indications (e.g. H ex) at room temperature in both bilayers and MTJs, [Ta/Ru] buffers showed an overall wider ΔH up to 200 °C, more suitable to push high temperature operations. This result highlights the importance of properly design a suitable buffer layer system and addressing the complete MTJ behavior as function of temperature, to deliver the best stacking design with highest resilience to high temperature environments.

Quantifying thermal resilience of office buildings during power outages: Development of a simplified model metric and validation through experimentation

Quantifying thermal resilience of office buildings during power outages: Development of a simplified model metric and validation through experimentation

The polymer-based thermal interface materials with improved thermal conductivity, compression resilience, and electromagnetic interference shielding performance by introducing uniformly melamine foam

The polymer-based thermal interface materials with improved thermal conductivity, compression resilience, and electromagnetic interference shielding performance by introducing uniformly melamine foam

The impact of heatwaves on human perceived thermal comfort and thermal resilience potential in urban public open spaces

Climate change increases the likelihood of heatwave events, causing human thermal discomfort and even mortality. However, it is not clear to what extent humans with long-term and short-term experience of hot-summer exposure can adapt to thermal comfort in urban public open spaces when both experience their heatwave periods. Therefore, this study aims to investigate outdoor perceived thermal comfort in urban public open spaces during heatwave periods between two groups of people who have long-term and short-term experience of hot-summer exposure. Field surveys were conducted in public squares and parks during the heatwaves in Chongqing, China and Reading, the UK. Chongqing is known as a ‘furnace city’ and people have been living in a hot summer for a long time, while in Reading the summer is warm and people unusually experience the heatwave. The main results show that Chongqing respondents living in a hot climate for a longer period can endure more heat than Reading respondents during the heatwaves, indicating that Chongqing respondents have more thermal resilience. Besides, different behavioural adaptation measures show that people are active participants to choose their thermal preferences, rather than passive recipients of the thermal environments. The research implication contributes that protective measures against heatwaves need to be taken for pedestrians, including more shaded places with efficient ventilation design for sheltering and handy facilities such as drinking fountains and water spray. The research has novelty in deepening the dynamic theory of human thermal comfort and providing empirical evidence of thermal adaptation in extreme-high temperature events.

Novel Insights to Assess Climate Resilience in Goats Using a Holistic Approach of Skin-Based Advanced NGS Technologies.

A novel study was conducted to elucidate heat-stress responses on a number of hair- and skin-based traits in two indigenous goat breeds using a holistic approach that considered a number of phenotypic and genomic variables. The two goat breeds, Kanni Aadu and Kodi Aadu, were subjected to a simulated heat-stress study using the climate chambers. Four groups consisting of six goats each (KAC, Kaani Aadu control; KAH, Kanni Aadu heat stress; KOC, Kodi Aadu control; and KOH, Kodi Aadu heat stress) were considered for the study. The impact of heat stress on caprine skin tissue along with a comparative assessment of the thermal resilience of the two goat breeds was assessed. The variables considered were hair characteristics, hair cortisol, hair follicle quantitative PCR (qPCR), sweating (sweating rate and active sweat gland measurement), skin histometry, skin-surface infrared thermography (IRT), skin 16S rRNA V3-V4 metagenomics, skin transcriptomics, and skin bisulfite sequencing. Heat stress significantly influenced the hair fiber characteristics (fiber length) and hair follicle qPCR profile (Heat-shock protein 70 (HSP70), HSP90, and HSP110). Significantly higher sweating rate, activated sweat gland number, skin epithelium, and sweat gland number (histometry) were observed in heat stressed goats. The skin microbiota was also observed to be significantly altered due to heat stress, with a relatively higher alteration being noticed in Kanni Aadu goats than in Kodi Aadi goats. Furthermore, the transcriptomics and epigenetics analysis also pointed towards the significant impact of heat stress at the cellular and molecular levels in caprine skin tissue. The higher proportion of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) along with higher differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in Kanni Aadu goats due to heat stress when compared to Kodi Aadu goats pointed towards the better resilience of the latter breed. A number of established skin, adaptation, and immune-response genes were also observed to be significantly expressed/methylated. Additionally, the influence of heat stress at the genomic level was also predicted to result in significant functional alterations. This novel study thereby highlights the impact of heat stress on the caprine skin tissue and also the difference in thermal resilience exhibited by the two indigenous goat breeds, with Kodi Aadu goats being more resilient.

A single-domain green fluorescent protein catenane

Natural proteins exhibit rich structural diversity based on the folds of an invariably linear chain. Macromolecular catenanes that cooperatively fold into a single domain do not belong to the current protein universe, and their design and synthesis open new territories in chemistry. Here, we report the design, synthesis, and properties of a single-domain green fluorescent protein catenane via rewiring the connectivity of GFP’s secondary motifs. The synthesis could be achieved in two steps via a pseudorotaxane intermediate or directly via expression in cellulo. Various proteins-of-interest may be inserted at the loop regions to give fusion protein catenanes where the two subunits exhibit enhanced thermal resilience, thermal stability, and mechanical stability due to strong conformational coupling. The strategy can be applied to other proteins with similar fold, giving rise to a family of single-domain fluorescent proteins. The results imply that there may be multiple protein topological variants with desirable functional traits beyond their corresponding linear protein counterparts, which are now made accessible and fully open for exploration.

The role of body mass in limiting post heat-coma recovery ability in terrestrial ectotherms.

Under global warming, animal species show shrinking body size responses, cascading deep changes in community structure and ecosystem functions. Although the exact physiological mechanisms behind this phenomenon remain unsolved, smaller individuals may benefit from warming climate more than larger ones. Heat-coma, a physiological state with severe consequences on locomotion ability, is often considered as an "ecological death" scenario under which individuals are unable to escape and exposed to predation, further heat injury, and other hazards. Species are expected to increasingly encounter heat-coma temperature thresholds under warming climate, and body size may be an important trait for thermoregulation in particular for ectotherms. The relationship between heat-coma and shrinking body size remains, however, unclear. Yet, recovery after short-term heat-coma is possible, but little is known about its importance in thermal adaptation and how organismal size correlates with post heat-coma recovery. Here, using ants as a model system, we firstly examined the fate of heat-comatose individuals under field conditions to quantify the ecological benefits of post heat-coma recovery. Then, we quantified ants' recovery ability after heat-coma using a dynamic thermal assay in the laboratory and asked if thermal resilience varies between species with different body mass. Our results confirm that heat-coma represents an inherent ecological death where individuals failed to recover from coma suffer strong predation pressure. Additionally, following phylogenetic signals inclusion, organisms with small mass were more likely to recover, supporting the temperature-size rule in thermal adaptation and recent studies showing a decrease in body size composition of ectotherm community under warmer climatic conditions. Body size as a fundamental trait in ecology thus affects ectotherm survival under thermal stress, which may drive species body size adaptations and community composition under future warming scenarios.

Vacuum annealing effects on the microstructure and properties of HfO2-based bilayer antireflective coatings by magnetron sputtering

Hafnia (HfO2) retains thermal stability, mechanical resilience, and chemical resistivity, which makes it feasible in various high-tech applications in optics and integrated circuit technology. This work presents the effects of thermal annealing on the microstructure, optical performance, and wettability of HfO2/Al2O3 and HfO2/ZrO2 bilayer thin films prepared by magnetron sputtering. The films were deposited on silicon (Si) and glass substrates and then annealed at a certain temperature (300–500 °C) in the ambient vacuum condition for 5hrs. XRD results of as-deposited and annealed films revealed the polycrystalline nature of the monoclinic phase. The core level orbitals of Hf 4f, Zr 3d, and Al 2p spectra showed the formation of stoichiometric compositions of HfO2, ZrO2, and Al2O3 films and exhibited a slight shift in binding energy after annealing. The AFM and SEM analysis were utilized to inspect the roughness and surface morphology and correlated with the change in hydrophobicity to the self-cleaning nature of the prepared bilayer coatings. The observed upsurge in refractive indexes of the coatings is allied to the packing density that causes lattice contraction and enhances the attraction between dipoles. The negligible effect of negative temperature on the antireflection efficiency makes it suitable for future applications in optoelectronic, photovoltaic devices operated in a cold or humid environment.

The Coral Bleaching Automated Stress System (CBASS): A low‐cost, portable system for standardized empirical assessments of coral thermal limits

AbstractOcean warming is increasingly affecting marine ecosystems across the globe. Reef‐building corals are particularly affected by warming, with mass bleaching events increasing in frequency and leading to widespread coral mortality. Yet, some corals can resist or recover from bleaching better than others. Such variability in thermal resilience could be critical to reef persistence; however, the scientific community lacks standardized diagnostic approaches to rapidly and comparatively assess coral thermal vulnerability prior to bleaching events. We present the Coral Bleaching Automated Stress System (CBASS) as a low‐cost, open‐source, field‐portable experimental system for rapid empirical assessment of coral thermal thresholds using standardized temperature stress profiles and diagnostics. The CBASS consists of four or eight flow‐through experimental aquaria with independent water masses, lighting, and individual automated temperature controls capable of delivering custom modulating thermal profiles. The CBASS is used to conduct daily thermal stress exposures that typically include 3‐h temperature ramps to multiple target temperatures, a 3‐h hold period at the target temperatures, and a 1‐h ramp back down to ambient temperature, followed by an overnight recovery period. This mimics shallow water temperature profiles observed in coral reefs and prompts a rapid acute heat stress response that can serve as a diagnostic tool to identify putative thermotolerant corals for in‐depth assessments of adaptation mechanisms, targeted conservation, and possible use in restoration efforts. The CBASS is deployable within hours and can assay up to 40 coral fragments/aquaria/day, enabling high‐throughput, rapid determination of thermal thresholds for individual genotypes, populations, species, and sites using a standardized experimental framework.

Evaluation of thermal resilience to overheating for an educational building in future heatwave scenarios

Airtight and highly insulated buildings are subjected to overheating risks, even in moderate climates, due to unforeseeable events like frequent heatwaves and power outages. Educational buildings share a major portion of building stocks and a large percentage of the energy is expended in maintaining thermal comfort in these buildings. Overheating risks in educational buildings can lead to heat-stress and negatively impact the health conditions and also cognitive performance of the occupants. In the light of increasing severity and longevity of heat waves in future climate scenarios, and associated power outages occurring during the heatwaves, measures to reduce overheating risk while limiting the cooling energy is gaining importance. Since the performance of existing buildings are not guaranteed during events like heatwaves, power outages, it is crucial for these buildings to be resilient to overheating. (Building) resilience is a method to deal with these uncertainties and is stated as ‘an ability of the building to withstand disruptions; and to maintain the capacity to adapt, learn and transform’. The focus of this paper is to evaluate thermal resilience for two test lecture equipped with low-energy cooling strategies like natural night ventilation (NNV) and indirect evaporative cooling (IEC) rooms, by dynamic Building Energy Simulations (BES). To assess the thermal resilience to overheating three different heatwaves (HW) files (intense, severe, and longest) for 3 future scenarios (1) Historical (2010–2020), (2) mid-term (2041–2060) and (3) long-term (2081–2100) and a 24h power outage (PO)scenario was simulated. Benchmarking was done with a base case – Typical Meteorological year(TMY) with no power outage. The heatwave files were developed adopting the methodology proposed by the 'Weather Data Task Force’ of International Energy Agency Energy in Buildings and Communities Programme (IEA EBC) Annex 80 ‘Resilient Cooling of Buildings’. This study shows, IEC has high to moderate recovery capacity in TMY period and low recovery capacity in HW period, for a power outage of 24 h. Recovery capacity is low during HW period, especially during an intense and longer HW period when outdoor temperature influences the cooling capacity of the IEC. The results also demonstrates the impact of the thermal mass on the resilience to overheating. Passive survivability assessment indicates, the lecture room with lighter thermal mass does not violate 30 °C threshold during a power outage in TMY period and additionally,. recovers faster (11% times faster) from peak temperature compared to lecture room with heavy thermal mass. There is a steep increase in unmet degree hours (occupied hours above24 °C threshold) during HW compared to TMY period. This paper gives a directive towards assessment of resilience to overheating and also points out the gap in the existing indicators to assess the resilience.