Papers by Fabrizio Ascione
The Sustainable City VII, 2012
ABSTRACT The paper describes an analytical procedure which allows the characterization of the ene... more ABSTRACT The paper describes an analytical procedure which allows the characterization of the energy performance of new and existing buildings, in a large urban context, through Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The methodology tries to codify a new process of integrated urban planning, aimed at identifying and designing energy efficient new buildings and the refurbishment of existing ones, for sustainable urban development and growth. The multidisciplinary of various boundary conditions, within an incomplete/unapplied legislative framework about building energy efficiency, makes a very interesting scientific study regarding the sustainability of town planning and urban retrofit, guaranteeing: environmental stewardship and economic development targets; global goals of an environmental sustainability; introduction of procedures for a global view of the construction process that has to be declined in each local context for focused territorial planning. Therefore, the paper suggests a geo-referenced model, through which it will be possible to determine the energy consumption of each building and then to support the management of territorial transformations. The new methodological approach has been applied to the historical center of Benevento. With reference to each building, the energy demand was determined by crossing census data, (ISTAT/ENEA) and the results of predictive physical correlations, with thermo-physical properties, cooling/heating needs and energy requests. The achieved results and their reliability allowed us to obtain \“urbanenergy maps” (MEU), which represent an important tool for advanced energy planning, in terms of both territorial control and evaluation of the energy retrofit potential. Keywords: inner city, energy audit, energy retrofit, GIS, sustainable urban development.
Energy and Buildings, 2015
ABSTRACT The recast version of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (2010/31/EU) propose... more ABSTRACT The recast version of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (2010/31/EU) proposes a comparative methodology aimed at defining the energy performance of buildings “with a view to achieving cost-optimal levels”. Really, how can the cost-optimal technologies be detected? Moreover, how can the most proper packages of energy efficiency measures be chosen in order to obtain the cost-optimality? This paper would provide answers to these questions, by proposing a new methodology for the evaluation of the cost-optimality, by means of the multi-objective optimization of energy performance of buildings and indoor thermal comfort. The optimization procedure is developed by means of the coupling between MatLab and EnergyPlus, by implementing a genetic algorithm, and it allows the evaluation of profitable and feasible packages of energy efficiency measures applied to buildings. Then, following the adoption of these packages, the global cost over the lifecycle of the building is calculated, in order to identify the cost-optimal solution. After the presentation of the methodology, the developed method is proposed for the optimization of the energy retrofit of an existing building. Furthermore, the method can be applied also for new architectures, by considering reference buildings.
Energy and Buildings, 2014
ABSTRACT The paper proposes a method for reliable energy diagnoses, aimed at integrated design of... more ABSTRACT The paper proposes a method for reliable energy diagnoses, aimed at integrated design of energy refurbishment of existing buildings, with reference to historical architectures. The approach is structured according to three main phases: (a) the building performance assessment, by combining in situ monitoring and documental information; (b) the numerical studies by hourly energy simulations with a deepening about the calibration methodology; (c) the investigation of potential energy savings, environmental benefits and economical profitability of selected energy efficiency measures.
Proceedings Title: Proceedings of the 2012 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), 2012
ABSTRACT The current advanced numerical codes for the energy audits carry out 0-dimensional simul... more ABSTRACT The current advanced numerical codes for the energy audits carry out 0-dimensional simulation (i.e., one computational node representing the thermal zone), underestimating the effects of thermal bridges on the seasonal heating demand of buildings. The paper suggests a numerical resolution model, implemented in Matlab, aimed to be transferred in numerical engines for the hourly energy simulation. The proposed methodology solves common thermal bridges in buildings, evaluating their effects on the energy demand. Typical thermal bridges have been studied and implemented, analyzing the reliability of the methodology, in terms of accuracy, computational time, required sources, comparing the solutions with those derived by computational fluid dynamic codes. The method reveals very satisfactory results, both as regards the computational time and CPU sources required, as well as with reference to the reliability. Moreover, the solution stability is commonly very high, regardless the chosen computational time-step.
Renewable Energy, 2011
The European Energy Efficiency Building Directive 2002/91/CE, as well as other acts and funding p... more The European Energy Efficiency Building Directive 2002/91/CE, as well as other acts and funding programs, strongly promotes the adoption of passive strategies for buildings, in order to achieve indoor thermal comfort conditions above all in summer, so reducing or avoiding the use of air conditioning systems.
International Journal of Refrigeration, 2010
Museum Simulation Computational fluid dynamics Comparison Air diffuser Regulation-temperature a b... more Museum Simulation Computational fluid dynamics Comparison Air diffuser Regulation-temperature a b s t r a c t For the conservation of cultural heritage, museums need appropriate HVAC systems. Besides the time stability of the microclimatic parameters in the exhibition rooms, a high spatial uniformity is necessary and, thus, an optimal performance of the air diffusion systems. Using numerical codes based on Building Energy Performance Simulation (BEPS) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques, in this paper an analysis has been carried out to compare different suitable air diffusion equipments, as regards uniformity of thermal-hygrometric and kinetic fields in a modelled typical exhibition room. For various part load conditions, the values of thermal-hygrometric parameters in different volumes of the room have been evaluated, as well as an innovative spatial thermal-hygrometric performance index. Globally estimating indoor temperature, relative humidity and their uniformity, for high exhibition rooms (5 m) the swirling diffusers have shown the best average performances, followed by the perimetrical stripes of slot diffusers, while for very high rooms (9 m) nozzles have resulted preferable. ª (F. Minichiello). w w w. i i fi ir . o r g a v a i l a b l e a t w w w . s c i e n c e d i r e c t . c o m j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / i j r e f r i g i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 3 ( 2 0 1 0 ) 8 0 6 -8 1 4 0140-7007/$ -see front matter ª
Energy and Buildings, 2013
ABSTRACT The study investigates a critical application in the field of energy demand for air-cond... more ABSTRACT The study investigates a critical application in the field of energy demand for air-conditioning: the health care facilities. These buildings are quite energy-intensive, because of necessity of high microclimatic control, need of numerous air changes and, contemporarily, strict set points required for temperature and relative humidity. The achievable energy savings by improving the thermal–physical characteristics of the building envelope are examined, with reference to a medium-size hospital, located in Mediterranean climate. The indoor comfort conditions have been analyzed as well as the reduction of energy demands, depending on the HVAC system. Indeed, the active plants are characterized by quite different energy demands, due to different achievable quality of microclimatic control and indoor air. The refurbishment of the building envelope, as demonstrated, is always convenient, by considering all possible point of views, and thus energy savings, better indoor microclimate, reduction of polluting emissions, technical and economical feasibility. Finally, even if ventilation loads induce the highest heating and cooling demands, however the envelope refurbishment is an effective retrofit action.
Energy and Buildings, 2011
ABSTRACT The paper suggests a multi-criteria approach for the energy refurbishment of historical ... more ABSTRACT The paper suggests a multi-criteria approach for the energy refurbishment of historical buildings, proposing methodologies for the performance analysis, coupling several experimental and numerical studies. The target consisted in a rigorous evaluation procedure, in order to guarantee the necessary reliability of a numerical model of the system “building envelope/technical plants”, on which testing the technical and economical convenience of energy retrofit solutions.The paper collects the long work carried out by several Institutions during the last years, on Building “Palazzo dell’Aquila Bosco-Lucarelli”, a historical building located in Benevento (Southern Italy), currently analyzed in order to define the technical adoption of possible improving actions.The carried out studies, beyond the proposition of an operational methodology, are aimed to evidence a best-practice specified for the Italian territorial context, which has several historical buildings needing restoration.Carefully applied investigations, based on various methodologies and through several instrumentations, allowed the definition of a numerical model correspondent to the real building, defined also comparing the results with the historical requests of gas and electricity. Moreover, dynamic energy simulations tested the effectiveness, singularly and coupled, of several solutions for the building energy optimization. A significant potentiality of energy and economic optimization has been demonstrated.
Cities, 2013
ABSTRACT A new analytical methodology aimed at characterizing the energy performance of new and e... more ABSTRACT A new analytical methodology aimed at characterizing the energy performance of new and existing buildings is proposed for both winter and summer and with reference to entire urban context, and the methodology is transferred into Geographic Information Systems (GISs). The main target is the evaluation of criticalities of the building stock, promoting effective design for new buildings and proper refurbishment of existing buildings. In this regard, the application of standardized procedures is too onerous if the goal is the qualitative distribution of the energy performances with reference to entire urban areas. The energy demands for space heating are evaluated by simplifying the methodology of the European Standard EN ISO 13790, while with reference to summer cooling, a new hybrid method has been specifically developed. The whole method was applied to the entire historical center of the Italian city of Benevento and, thus, to more than 500 buildings. Moreover, comparisons with measured/evaluated energy requests have been performed to identify the reliability of the methodology. Information on energy performances in the whole city center, moreover, allowed for the setting of “Urban Energy Maps,” a tool dedicated to local government, usable for advanced energy planning and territorial control in energy supply.
Building Research & Information, 2010
Harnessing the appropriate radiative characteristics of buildings&amp... more Harnessing the appropriate radiative characteristics of buildings' external surfaces is a highly effective way to reduce internal space heating and cooling demand. Building energy-dynamic simulations are created in order to compare various external coatings with reference to a social housing case study in a typical Mediterranean climate (Naples, Italy). An innovative index, the surface factor (SF), is proposed to inform
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Papers by Fabrizio Ascione