According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) ’s 2021 report, the recent sea level rate has nearly tripled in the last few decades compared with 1901-1971. It estimates that the sea levels may rise by 20 cm in the next thirty years or up to 80 cm by the end of 2100. The increase in sea levels poses serious questions and challenges to the housing infrastructure in flood-prone areas. Two locations that have been severely affected by the tidal and fluvial floods and typhoons are the provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga in the Philippines region. There is a ground level subsidence of up to 5cm per year because of the uncontrolled ground-water level conditions prevalent worsening the floods. The high levels of stagnant waters causes unsanitary conditions in these areas. In 2017, Pieter Ham, co-founder of Finch Floating Homes, developed a floating house model suitable for the Philippines’ climatic conditions. After the prototype construction was proven successful, they are now venturing into creating a floating neighborhood in Hagonany, located on the island of Luzon. This research topic aims to study the urban physics context of the floating homes neighborhood. Alazne Enchaniz Jurado, as part of her master thesis in 2021 at Delft University of Technology, designed resilient coastal neighborhoods for the city of Hagonoy, Philippines. After extensive research on the geographical, social, and cultural context, she designed floating neighborhood models suiting the needs and requirements of the people. However, the urban physics parameters of these concepts are to be further studied to determine the thermal and wind comfort of the occupants in the outdoor areas. This is because of the high-temperature tropical climate present in that region. Therefore, the primary focus of the present project, this MSc thesis, is to understand the role of urban physics in floating community development. It focuses on the influence of vegetation and urban form configurations on the outdoor thermal comfort and outdoor wind comfort of the open spaces, as they serve as the primary gathering locations for the residents. After analyzing the results, it concludes that increasing vegetation decreases the daytime temperatures, thereby improving the comfortability index. Additionally, the urban form also significantly plays a role in influencing the micro-climate of the region.

This thesis investigates the potential for natural ventilative cooling strategies to improve the cooling and comfort of residential midrise buildings in the Netherlands. Ventilative Cooling is “the application of the cooling capacity of the outdoor air flow by ventilation to reduce or even eliminate the cooling loads and/or the energy use by mechanical cooling in buildings, while guaranteeing a comfortable thermal environment”. The effect of Day and Night ventilation strategies on the indoor environment of two common typologies of midrise apartments seen in the Netherlands was evaluated. The project investigated window and stack ventilation using dynamic energy simulations coupled with airflow network (AFN) modelling. EnergyPlus airflow network model was used for simulations with Grasshopper and Rhino as the user interface. Honeybee and Ladybug plug-in for Grasshopper translated the model into the EnergyPlus-readable input format. Various performance indicators were used to evaluate the apartments' comfort and cooling. These included temperature limit exceedance hours, GTO hours, Cooling requirements reduction ratio, Climate Potential for Natural Ventilation (CPNV), Natural Ventilative Cooling Effectiveness (NVCE) and Climate Potential Utilization Ratio (CPUR). Ventilative cooling simulations yielded favorable results. There was a significant reduction in the peak temperatures and GTO hours within the rooms when the windows were opened, compared to when they were closed. Out of the tested two typologies of apartments, the number of hours when the temperature exceeds 28°C reduced by 50-70% when the windows were fully opened in typology 1 apartments and was reduced by 36-70% in typology 2. GTO hours reduced by 70-80% when the windows were opened for ventilative cooling in typology 1 apartments and reduced by 55-60% for typology 2 apartments in comparison to when they were closed. Apartments with the capability of cross ventilation performed better than those with only single-sided ventilation. The cooling effectiveness of the existing building designs was also evaluated. The results showed that there is room for improvement of design to utilize the site’s potential for natural ventilation. When passive stack is used along with the opening of windows in an apartment, there was a slight reduction in temperature when compared to using only open windows for the same apartment. However, the reduction was not very significant. The findings are presented in a comparative and quantitative manner, providing valuable insight into the relevant field.

Cold-bent insulating glass units (IGU) have the potential to be one of the answers to current needs and wishes of modern and sustainable architecture. Curved glass is stiffer against out-of-plane loads and therefore the structural behaviour of cold-bent IGU’s is different compared to flat IGU’s. Structural behaviour of flat glass in buildings is assessed using standards such as EN 16612 and NEN 2608. Within these norms, isochoric and load sharing cavity pressures are assessed using simplified analytical equations. In case of cold-bent IGU’s, the additional assessment of increased stiffness, permanent cold-bending stresses and optical distortions are of importance. Currently, no standards are available for building envelopes containing curved glass elements. Methods from current standards have proved to be sufficient to quantify the complex role of cavity pressure in flat IGU’s. The goal of this research is to develop an analytical method to determine the effect of cavity pressure on the structural behaviour of cold-bent insulating glass units.

For the structural assessment of cold-bent IGU’s three stages are defined: ’Bending phase’, ‘Fixation moment’ and ‘Use phase’. Numerical models are developed to gain insights into the structural behaviour of cold-bent glass plates. Insights are then used to derive and validate simplified analytical methods.

The bending phase is numerically modelled with a geometrically nonlinear analysis in which curvatures are realized by prescribed displacements along two opposite edges of the plate. Results show that maximum cold-bending stresses are independent of plate size. By defining a tensile bending strength, insights are gained into the maximum radius of curvature of a plate with a specified thickness. A closed form equation is derived, which is used to calculate cold-bending stresses considering plate thickness and radius of curvature as input parameters. Resulting principal stresses have an average accuracy of 99.1% compared to numerical outcomes. Validity of the cold-bending stresses is limited to linearly fixed plates, up to a size of 6x3m, with equivalent plate thicknesses ranging from 4-20mm and design radii ranging from 3m to 25m.

Numerical results from the fixation moment show an anticlastic double or triple (w-shape) curvature in single curved plates, that cause optical distortions. The extent and shape of anticlastic bending depend on the Poisson’s ratio, plate thickness, radius of curvature and plate size. Based on regression between the parameters of influence, a result-based approach is developed to determine anticlastic bending displacements at the centre of curved plates. The approach is simplified to a curved plate with a sinusoidal anticlastic bending curvature. The displacements are expressed in a parameter for the radius at midspan and are calculated using tabulated coefficients with an average accuracy of 99.3%. Validity of the radius at midspan is limited to the previously mentioned boundary conditions.

For the use phase, the calculation of cavity pressures depends on the volume of deformation per pane of a linearly supported cold-bent IGU. Interaction between the panes is modelled using pressure loads derived from Boyle’s law. Using numerical models, volumes of deformation (v) from curved plates subjected to pressure loads (p) are presented in P-V diagrams. These diagrams are used calculate cavity pressures ranging from -1 to 1 kN/m2, considering plate sizes up to 6x3m, plate thickness of 8, 10 and 12mm and design radii up to 8m. Due to the increased stiffness of curved IGU’s, a higher load is shared by the pane onto which an external pressure is applied. Furthermore, as a result of anticlastic bending, a permanent isochoric pressure is present inside cavities of asymmetric IGU’s, which increases as curvatures increase.

A simplified analytical method to calculate effective cavity pressures is derived from shell theory. Load sharing pressures of symmetric IGU’s are calculated with an average accuracy of 95%, compared to results from the numerical P-V diagrams. Load sharing pressures of asymmetric IGU’s (91% accuracy) are summed with isochoric pressures due to cold-bending (92% accuracy) to calculate combined effective pressures with an average accuracy of 87%.

The equations are summarized in a guideline, which is complemented by an interactive calculation tool. The developed analytical method is effective in calculating effective cavity pressures and can be used to quickly explore various design options in a wide range of cold-bent IGU’s.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus has increased the interest in respiratory droplet dispersion in the built environment. The dispersion of these droplets is inseparable from transmission risk. Sneezing, coughing and breathing can be modelled in many ways. In this study several models of increasing complexity are proposed and compared.
Three different models are distinguished. The first is a simple ballistic model, where the trajectories of particles of different sizes are simulated, given an initial velocity and particle diameter. This simulation gives a first insight in the movement of particles from Newton’s second law.
Model 2 works by releasing particles in a turbulent jet. Mean properties of turbulent jets have been derived from experiments and computer modelling. By means of particle tracking, the dispersion of three different sizes of particles are monitored. The turbulent behaviour of the jet is captured by applying a stochastic discontinuous random walk model (DRW) in Model 2. The smallest particles (10 μm) are airborne, while the large (100 μm) particles fall out of the turbulent jet and settle on the ground. Medium size particles (50 μm) have the widest range of dispersion. The effect of evaporation has been studied in this research as well. Both relative humidity and relative velocity (the velocity between the surrounding air and the particle) influence the evaporation speed. The medium size particles are affected the most by evaporation. Depending on the ambient conditions, the medium size particles either behave more like the large particles or as the small particles.
The third model contains the effect of an ambient crossflow, representing ventilation flows. Trajectories of bent jets have been calculated. Eulerian solutions for dilution have been found for such bent jets. No mean properties in literature have been found for bent jets and hence the Langrangian particle tracking model could not be used.
Based on the results of model 2 we conclude that ventilation flows will have a tremendous impact on the dispersion of respiratory droplets, in particular the particles with initial diameter 75 - 100 μm. These droplets become airborne and will follow the ventilation flow. In dryer air droplets evaporate faster and will become airborne more quickly.
Future research could be done to create a CFD model to generate analytical formulas for jets in ambient crossflows. More detailed room conditions like the stratification of air temperature can be taken into account.

Designing energy-efficient facades can have a significant impact on reducing the building's energy consumption while providing comfort for the occupants. While highly-insulated buildings have good thermal insulation and high airtightness, they deal with the risk of overheating issues. Dynamic insulation, a technology consisting of porous materials, is a responsive building element that has been introduced to the built environment to tackle these problems. Due to the current lack of information and available resources on dynamic insulation, and its possible contribution to the built environment, the presented research focuses on the effect of complex geometries as the air channels in dynamic insulation, and as part of the overall building wall. This thesis aims to discover whether and how a designed microstructure (now possible by Additive Manufacturing) in dynamic insulation can offer a solution for controlling the airflow passing through the wall and therefore, improving the performance of the dynamic insulation. The methodology of the thesis started with the literature review and studying different articles and books. Then in a design-through-research approach, various parameters were identified that could affect the airflow rate and pattern. These parameters were categorized in two groups with relation to geometry and texture. The dominant factors were then selected to be further analyzed. Next, different geometries were generated using the 3D sampling method, based on different textures with different properties. The engineered geometries are texture-based metamaterials with cavities. To investigate the behavior of airflow in these geometries, CFD simulations were performed in Ansys Fluent. The results were evaluated based on their correspondence to the research objectives and conclusions were drawn to answer the research questions. Keywords: Texture-based metamaterials with cavities, complex geometries, dynamic insulation, porous materials, airflow behavior, responsive building elements.

The objective of the thesis is to reduce the cooling load of the offices in Delhi, India by integrating passive strategies and low-ex cooling (evaporative) technology through facades as a decentralized ventilation system. The cooling demand in India is going to increase up to 8 folds by 2030. Almost 50% of the energy is spent on space cooling for offices in Indian climatic conditions. In order to reduce the cooling demand alternative low ex cooling technologies are being researched and implemented. In this thesis, various types of evaporative cooling and their various properties and its application on Delhi’s climatic scenario and its limitations were studied as one of the low-ex techs. The study concludes by choosing Dew-point indirect evaporative cooler because of its high wet bulb effectiveness with no addition of humidity. For continuous operation, the humidity in the air needs to removed before supplying it to the cooler. So, the design involves a combination of Dew-point Indirect evaporative cooler (D-IEC) coupled with Desiccant coated heat exchanger (DCHE). The system also requires a source for heating and cooling down the water for Regeneration cycle and Dehumidification cycle, evaporative cooler respectively. The cooling demand of the building needs to be addressed by multiple devices in a decentralized ventilation system. The total number of devices required determines the cost of installation and ease of maintenance over the years and it depends on the cooling load. So, it is necessary to reduce the cooling demand of the building using passive strategies before integrating the evaporative cooler. The building’s cooling load has been reduced to 50W/m2 by adapting suitable passive strategies like shading systems, reducing U values of walls, glazing and roof, reducing infiltration and the internal heat gain. The above-mentioned strategies result in 146.41kWh/m2/yr with a water-based chiller (CENTRALIZED), and it is efficient when compared to the recommended national figure of 180 kWh/m2/yr. But using the De-VAP systems (DECENTRALIZED) cuts down the energy by even much further to up to 40% (92.26kWh/m2) in which almost 1/3rd of the energy can be generated by installing PV on the roof. This design takes us further one step closer to the NET ZERO building.

The sustainability of high-rise buildings is always a point of debate and doubt in current research and literature. Several studies have been performed about the zero-energy potential for skyscrapers, however taking into consideration single functions, particularly office and housing buildings. Realistic and modern tall building design however always involves a combination of uses (offices, accommodation, commercial and retail) for the project to be economically viable. On the basis of the Trias Energetica, the primary goal of the early design for sustainable buildings must be to minimize the demand for energy (heating, cooling, hot water, electricity) by means of active or passive techniques. This translates into design guidelines for the shape, orientation, building envelope and climate properties, parameters that have been already widely investigated by researchers and designers in practice. However, an important feature in order to improve the sustainable profile of a building is to employ circular techniques that aim to avoid wasting energy and re-use / re-purpose it. The main objective of this graduation research is to determine the zero-energy potential for high-rise buildings by taking advantage of a mixed-use scheme and examining the possibilities for energy exchange and cooperation between different functions by means of storing energy in the form of warm and cold-water tanks. This research aims to determine which synergetic combinations between functions can be performed, what type of building systems and technology can be used and, by establishing a complete energy simulation, conclude on what are the energy benefits for the building on a yearly basis . The results will be an important addition to the sustainable design for “MEGA” scale projects, according to the forthcoming Dutch regulation that after 2020 all newly built buildings must comply with the nearly zero energy guidelines.

To reach the European Union climate targets of 2020 the rate of refurbishment must increase. The problem is that there are many barriers to refurbishment, which causes a low rate and low quality. The objective is to overcome these barriers and stimulate facade refurbishment. This thesis looks at the improvement, that can be made when replacing an existing skin by a new facade focusing on improving the structural efficiency and touch upon building physics.
The main driving forces of this thesis are parametric design and optimisation. A parametric design is crucial for this thesis to perform a variation study. Different shapes of the facade are simulated with a custom made genetic algorithm to optimise the shape of the facade. First of all, the cost can be influenced by minimising the amount of material by altering: cross-sections, beam distances, etc. Secondly, by changing the shape of the facade a more aerodynamic building can be created. When the curvature increases, the wind load can be reduced which can make the structure more efficient. The wind load on the facade is determined with the computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The part about building physics focusses on ventilation. A ventilation system is designed which emphasises the importance of integrating the ventilation system with the second skin. The design builds upon the results of the CFD simulation and the structural model. The performance of the system is quantified by determining the usage of natural resources.

This report includes all the research conducted during the last phase of the Master of Science Building Engineering within the faculty of Civil Engineering. The main aim is to form a strategy for designing demountable unitized curtain walls; one that could actually be used in practice by future engineers and architects. This is why this graduation project includes an application on 4 chosen adaptive concepts. Having already been applied in a comparison study of these quite complicated and costly designs, this framework can provide one extra consideration that will be critical in the near future at the very early stages of designing a building: the Design for Disassembly.

A traditional Trombe wall is known as a high thermal-mass wall, situated behind a window of a room and separated by an air cavity. The idea behind using a Trombe wall is that heat, ventilation and comfort can be passively generated by using the ‘free’ energy of the sun. The surface of the wall absorbs solar radiation when the sun shines, stores the energy and releases the heat at night to the room, when the occupants need it (Saadatian, Lim, Sopian, & Salleh, 2013). In addition, a Trombe wall can be used as natural ventilation system, of which its power is generated by the buoyancy effect in the cavity. Because a traditional Trombe wall is heavy, blocks daylight and cannot be adjusted to changing environmental conditions and seasonal differences, a new and innovative version was devised by the Double Face research team (4TU). The innovative version is called a lightweight translucent adaptable Trombe wall (LTATW) and is about five times lighter than a traditional Trombe wall. In addition, the wall is translucent and can rotate around its axes. The lower weight and translucent character are achieved by applying a phase change material in combination with aerogel, instead of stone or bricks. Phase change materials can store a large amount of (latent) heat during the change from solid to liquid state and thus, increase the thermal inertia of the system. The translucent elements are located in front of a glass façade and act as a thermal buffer in both winter and summer by rotating the elements towards the source of incoming heat or towards the sink for heat release (4TU.Bouw, 2014). In the winter, the layer of PCM is oriented towards the outdoor environment at daytime and is thermally charged by the low winter sun. At night, the system rotates and releases the accumulated heat to the interior. In the summer, the LTATW is oriented towards the interior at daytime to store the interior heat loads and during the night, it rotates again and releases the heat to the outside environment by means of (passive) night ventilation (4TU.Bouw, 2014).In this thesis, the results of a numerical spin-off study of the Double Face research project are shown, in which the influence of eight parameters (climate, building function, orientation, age, building method, room size, window size and type of glazing) on the energy and comfort performance of the innovative Trombe wall has been studied. First, an initial simulation model was developed in Matlab/Simulink, which was subsequently validated using a cross-comparison with results from DesignBuilder. After validation, the initial model has been extended to a suitable and reliable final version, with which more than 6000 different situations were simulated. The results of the simulations are values for the reduction or increase in energy demand for heating and cooling, expressed in percentages or in kWh. All results are processed in multiple designer tables, which interested designers can consult to assess whether installing the Trombe wall is useful for his or her situation, or not. In addition to the development of designer tables, the influence of each individual parameter on the performance of the Trombe wall was investigated using modeFRONTIER. It was found that in case of heating only a cold and temperate climate support a proper operation of the Trombe wall, since no heating is required in the other climate types. From the analysis, it was concluded that in relative sense (%), the Trombe wall performs best in a temperate climate, and that in absolute sense (kWh), the Trombe wall performs best in a cold climate. In case of cooling, the system performs best in a temperate climate and in a dry climate. Because the LTATW is designed to be both a passive cooling system in the summer and passive heating system in the winter, it has clearly been proven that only the temperate climate is the most logical choice. The average reduction of the heating energy demand in a temperate climate equals 36.1% (or 181.3 kWh per year) and the average reduction of the cooling energy demand equals 49.9% (or 115.0 kWh per year). Analysis of the second parameter, building function, has shown that in case of heating the function is not of great influence. The system performs well in both an office and a residence. In case of cooling, higher reductions of the energy demand are achieved in residences. Thirdly, the influence of the orientation of the Trombe wall was investigated and it was found that the best performance in case of heating occurs on a southern orientation. In case of cooling, the orientation is of less importance. The study shows that the age of a building does not have a major influence on the performance of the Trombe wall. Only in case of cooling, a slight preference can be expressed for new buildings. Studying the influence of the construction method on the performance of the wall has shown that this parameter has the least influence of all studied parameters. In both light-weight, medium-weight and heavy-weight buildings, a good performance can be achieved. For the size of the room, it was found that both room sizes perform equally well. It could be concluded that a Trombe wall can be installed in both small rooms and big rooms, but that when a room is too big, the capacity of the Trombe wall will no longer be useful to reduce a large amount of the initial energy demand. The same applies to cooling. Research has shown that for heating purposes, a room with a smaller window is more often preferred and for cooling purposes, a large window. Because the innovative Trombe wall will have to serve as both a passive heating and cooling device, an average size window will therefore probably be the most suitable. Finally, the influence of type of glazing was studied. It became clear that in relative terms the largest reductions of the heating energy demand are achieved with clear glazing. In case of cooling, the type of glazing is of less influence. Multiple sensitivity analyses were carried out to study the influence on the results of conditions that are easily affected by building occupants, and finally, a side-study was carried out into the influence of the Trombe wall on the energy demand for artificial lighting. It was found that even under slightly different circumstances the same conclusions can be drawn with regard to the influence of the parameters. The influence of the Trombe wall on the energy demand for artificial lighting is not negligible and should be carefully considered too.

This projects addresses the social aspect of daily life, how different people in a community get to meet each other and how the community as a whole, and in a larger context the city, can benefit of these festive social qualities.