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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2022.
Special Issue Editors
Interests: phase change materials (PCM); passive thermal energy storage systems; building physics; thermal behavior and energy efficiency of buildings; dynamic simulation of energy in buildings; heat transfer; LSF construction; sustainable construction; sustainability
Interests: preventive conservation and energy efficiency in buildings; thermal comfort and indoor air quality; indoor microclimate; historic buildings and cultural heritage
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue calls for cutting-edge papers covering aspects of science and technology concerned with the whole life cycle of new and/or existing buildings, which contribute to a transition to a more sustainable built environment. The shortage of some non-renewable energy sources and the noticeable climate changes caused by greenhouse gas emissions are currently a major global concern that calls for the reduction of energy consumption in buildings during the several stages of their lifetime; energy efficiency improvement to guarantee thermal comfort expectations; mitigation of environmental impacts from the early design phase through to construction, operation, maintenance, and end-of-life; search for alternatives to conventional materials, processes, and systems; need for innovation in construction technology; improvement of use of technologies based on renewable energy sources; development of new design approaches; widespread use of validated modeling tools and optimization approaches; and finally, development of transdisciplinary engineering and multidisciplinary studies to evaluate the thermal performance and energy efficiency of buildings during their life span.
Authors are encouraged to publish their original theoretical and/or experimental research on technology development, improvement, and integration along with system analysis, environmental issues, thermal performance, and energy assessment. Interdisciplinary studies and papers that incorporate more than one topic or more than one methodology (e.g., experimental, modeling, analysis, and optimization) are encouraged. Review papers are also welcomed. This Special Issue’s topics include but are not limited to:
- Assessment of the thermal behavior and energy efficiency of buildings;
- Advances in construction technology towards a low carbon built environment;
- Resilience and adaptation of buildings to climate changes;
- Thermal comfort and indoor environmental quality;
- Thermal performance of historical and cultural heritage buildings;
- Building energy audits, rehabilitation, retrofitting, and refurbishment;
- Building certification, energy, and environmental labels and declarations;
- Transition towards a circular economy in the buildings sector;
- Education for sustainable construction;
- Transdisciplinary engineering, multidisciplinary studies, and holistic approaches;
- Advances in building envelope solutions;
- Advances in building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV);
- Advances in ground-coupled heat exchangers;
- Advances in heat, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems;
- Advances in nearly zero energy buildings and passive houses;
- Environmental impacts and life cycle assessment (LCA);
- Potential of building information modeling (BIM) for sustainable construction.
Dr. Luisa Dias Pereira
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- building physics
- thermal behavior
- thermal comfort
- indoor environmental quality
- energy efficiency
- building envelope
- eco-design
- sustainable construction
- sustainable materials and technologies
- thermal energy storage systems
- HVAC systems
- heritage buildings and conservation measures
- dynamic simulation tools and methodologies
- multidimensional optimization
- multi-objective optimization
- life cycle assessment (LCA)
- life cycle costs assessment (LCC)
- building information modeling (BIM)
- retrofitting and refurbishment
- adaptation to climate changes
- low carbon built environment
- circular economy
- sustainability
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Planned Paper 1:
Author: Professor Romeu Da Silva Vicente from University of Aveiro, Portugal
Preliminary title: Holistic approach on social housing neighbourhood: hygrothermal, airtightness and energy consumption assessment
Short Abstract: The energy efficiency improvements in existing building stock have become the priority concerns for the European Union, to encourage the energy efficiency amongst the social building managers and residents. The characterisation of the building stock plays an important role in the definition of energy building renovation strategies, followed by the user’s behaviour analysis. This paper will focus on a social housing neighbourhood as a case study, aiming a reliable perception of the air permeability and consumption consequences’ of users’ actions. The hygrothermal monitoring campaign carried out encloses the use of thermo-hygrometer sensors to record the indoor air temperature and relative humidity of a large number of flats over a 12-month period and the airtightness of these flats was estimated by resourcing to the fan pressurisation testing (Blower Door test). A relationship between users’ modifications in the flats and the air permeability is pursued. The hygrothermal monitoring campaign was carried out in order to assess the indoor thermal comfort according the ASHRAE 55 standard. The first results show a significant discomfort rate for all flats, suggesting that the users are living in unhealthy environmental conditions. In addition, a data survey of energy, gas and water consumption of the flats under study were collected and a statistical analysis of data using clustering techniques is to be performed.