Building Automation and Digital Technologies (Woodhead Publishing Series in Civil and Structural Engineering)

172 Pages·2022·16.307 MB·English

by  Shahryar Habibi

Building Automation and
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

WOODHEAD PUBLISHING SERIES IN CIVIL AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
Building Automation and
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
SHAHRYAR HABIBI
Postdoctoral Fellow at Penn State University in the United States
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ISBN: 978-0-12-822129-7
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Contents
1. Developing strategies for improving sustainable and smart
buildings 1
1.1 Sustainable design and construction principles 1
1.2 Smart building systems and sustainable infrastructures 20
1.3 The role of digital and enabling technologies 25
References 33
2. The disciplines of architectural design and construction
technology 39
2.1 Design principles for energy-efficient and climate-responsive 40
2.2 Building simulation tools and assumptions 53
2.3 The correlations between assumptions in design and final
architectural product 64
References 80
3. Creativity and innovation in building automation systems 89
3.1 The relationship of materiality to building and construction systems 90
3.2 The hidden potential of building innovative automation systems 96
3.3 The inherent value of open-source tools and software in the field of
architecture 105
References 115
4. The role of environmental studies in driving automation
and digital transformation 121
4.1 Concepts and empirical research methods relevant to environmental
assessment studies 122
4.2 Development processes in the internet of things (IoT) and artificial
intelligence (AI) 129
4.3 The relationships between environmental design studies and building
engineering solutions 136
Conclusion 152
References 153
Index 161
v

CHAPTER 1
Developing strategies for
improving sustainable and
smart buildings
Contents
1.1 Sustainable design and construction principles 1
1.2 Smart building systems and sustainable infrastructures 20
1.3 The role of digital and enabling technologies 25
References 33
Within the past decade, digital technologies have created potential oppor-
tunities to facilitate the development of smart sustainable buildings (Albino,
Berardi and Dangelico, 2015). However, a consistent interpretation of the
terms such as sustainability, smartness, and dynamics in the fields of spatial
planning, urban development, and building should be taken into consid-
eration. For this purpose, it is important to highlight the most important
factors that influence sustainable and smart buildings.
Future buildings are envisioned to achieve both smart growth and sus-
tainable development and to deliver sustainability-related goals, economic
growth, social and cultural facilities. For example, a sustainable energy sys-
tem is an appropriate vision for smart and sustainable infrastructures and
can lead to a significant impact on energy efficiency in future cities and
buildings.
1.1 Sustainable design and construction principles
In recent years, smart cities and buildings have contributed enormously to
the development of energy savings and environmental management meth-
ods. The growing energy problems and environmental concerns have led
researchers to speculate on the development of innovative solutions for the
urban environment. Although innovation systems and technologies have
solved several environmental problems, they have not been fully imple-
mented in the control system strategies and smart management systems.
It is important to note that the key implications of the design path to
sustainable and smart cities are associated with strategies to reduce energy
Building Automation and Digital Technologies © 2022 Elsevier Inc. 1
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-822129-7.00001-2 All rights reserved.
2 Building automation and digital technologies
consumption and increase urban green spaces and water cycle management.
In this context, energy efficiency is a major concern and an important cri-
terion for the evaluation of sustainability. A study by (Song et al., 2017)
highlights that the dependence of cities on intensive energy consumption
is a major cause of climate disruption. The studies (Kennedy et al., 2012;
Rutherford and Jaglin, 2015; Song, Yang and Chahine, 2016; Webb, Hawkey
and Tingey, 2016; Vogiatzi et al., 2018) make several key proposals such as
promoting energy-saving awareness, improving the energy efficiency of
buildings and transportation methods, and developing more renewable
energy for improving urban energy efficiency.
There is increasing interest within cities in the role of transition towards sus-
tainable and renewable energy utilization. Buildings are believed to be impor-
tant for energy efficiency improvements and targets. In summary, increasing
energy-saving strategies during the design process and construction is a basis
for smart growth and sustainable development. (Calvillo, Sánchez-Miralles and
Villar, 2016) reviewed energy-related work on planning and operation models
within the smart city by classifying their scope into five main areas: generation,
storage, infrastructure, facilities, and transport (mobility).
According to (Schwartz, 2012), energy in a smart city relies on a smart,
sustainable, and resilient energy system built in an integrated planning
approach for energy planning, active buildings, smart grids, smart supply
technologies with the inclusion of regional renewable sources, and sus-
tainable mobility. A study by (Mosannenzadeh et al., 2017) discusses smart
energy city (SEC), which is an emerging urban development strategy in
Europe. It is aimed at assisting cities to exploit recent opportunities in tech-
nology and the economy in order to provide citizens with a better quality
of life. In fact, it is a research program, and has a more efficient grid, utilizes
renewable energy sources.
In order to achieve sustainable design strategies, it is so important to
develop principles based on local environmental and climate conditions.
Climate-responsive design principles can be considered primarily as effi-
cient strategies to ensure environmental sustainability. Moreover, in cli-
mate-responsive building design theories and approaches, there is a strong
emphasis on the exploitation of climate and environmental conditions.
Appropriate design features based on topographic factors such as eleva-
tion, slope angle, and slope direction have an important influence on devel-
oping more energy-efficient and climate-responsive buildings. For example,
in a cold climate, due to the falling air temperature during the night,
an increase in the intensity and accumulation of cold air occurs within
Developing strategies for improving sustainable and smart buildings 3
topographic features like pits. Therefore, the settlement of buildings located
in cold climate zones should be far away from these features, due to both
harnessing more energy from the sun and minimizing energy consumption
for heating processes.
In hot-dry climate zones, to moderate the effects of undesired winds,
green areas of plants around and within urban settlements should be taken
into consideration and it is furthermore important to add an appropriate
amount of moisture to the air and permit easy to adequate air movement
across space. For these reasons, in hot-dry climate zones, low-altitude areas
are considered as appropriate settlement locations to meet these planning
objectives. While in hot-humid climate zones, it is important to eliminate
any source of excess moisture and to maximum benefit from wind. In this
respect, high-altitude areas with evaporative possibilities are believed to be
more suitable for the settlement of buildings in hot-humid climatic zones.
In moderate-dry climate zones, it is important to maximize natural ven-
tilation by winds and consider the topographical location with maximum
air velocity and shade. It is worth noting that there is a continuous move-
ment of air above high altitudes and a thermal belt (belt of warmer air) is
created with colder air above it and colder air below it. In this belt area,
wind speeds are often lower. Therefore, the lower levels of the thermal belts
are suitable for the settlement of buildings in hot-humid climatic zones.
While in moderate-humid climate zones, in order to get sufficient wind
to distribute heat and moisture in the atmosphere, the high levels of the
thermal belts are suitable for the settlement of buildings (Fig. 1.1).
Fig. 1.1 Suitable building settlements according to different climate zones.