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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Green Building".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 4262

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Carlos Rizo-Maestre

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Guest Editor

Department of Architectural Constructions, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain
Interests: energy efficiency; air quality; intelligent buildings
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Mireia Luisa Sempere-Tortosa

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Guest Editor

Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain
Interests: swarm robotics; mobile robotics; intelligent agents; artificial intelligence; intelligent buildings

Dr. María Dolores Andújar-Montoya

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Guest Editor

Building Sciences and Urbanism Department, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain
Interests: automation of construction management; lean construction paradigm; building information modelling technology; smart management; distributed sensors, smart sensor networks and internet-of-things in construction sites
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will focus on buildings that integrate new technologies to improve their sustainability conditions, whether they are new or existing buildings. New information technologies and the use of specialised work equipment (multi-agent systems, Internet of Things (IoT), intelligent sensors, building information modelling (BIM)) allow optimising both the construction processes and the costs associated with the building’s useful life. Monitoring systems make it possible to determine the real energy behaviour of the building, which, after processing and analysing the data, can be used to establish management guidelines for achieving greater energy efficiency.

Site management processes, such as Lean, and the BIM methodology allow proactive site management in addition to facilitating process transparency in the ubiquity of information. Drones are also elements that are increasingly being introduced in construction and control processes to simplify construction tasks and allow accurate control of each unit. The 2.0 tools of this new wave of construction allow not only developing the most efficient buildings or those with almost no energy consumption but also to save costs, since they can compare the different options for materiality, useful life, or labour. These new technologies enable better decisions to be made towards reducing the environmental impacts and energy consumption via the analysis of buildings’ full life cycle.

The use of all these tools turns buildings into multi-agent systems that can be controlled and optimised from their conception and throughout their complete life cycle, improving their energy consumption, impact, and even habitability by controlling temperatures and ventilation (air quality), among others. This Special Issue aims to present a collection of articles that advance sustainability as a fundamental factor for construction.

Dr. Carlos Rizo-Maestre
Prof. Dr. Mireia Luisa Sempere-Tortosa
Dr. María Dolores Andújar-Montoya
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 submissions that pass pre-check are 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 2400 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

BIM
energy efficiency
lean
drone
intelligent buildings
new technologies
life cycle assessment

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 8032 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Coupling and Quantifying Sustainability and Resilience in Intelligent Buildings

by Deena Ahmed Al Qurneh, Lama AbuMoeilak, Salwa Beheiry and Maruf Mortula

Sustainability 2024, 16(8), 3175; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16083175 - 10 Apr 2024

Viewed by 686

Abstract

Over recent years, the sustainability and resilience concept has increased its significance in the construction industry. Sustainability is associated with implementing best practices in the construction industry, while resilience is the adaptability and tolerance of systems in harsh conditions. The concepts are learned in the construction process. Moreover, building automation is growing rapidly, and buildings are becoming increasingly dependent on complex systems and technology and susceptible to unanticipated failure. Though sustainability and resilience concepts are interlinked, limited research quantifies their combination, resulting in a limited comprehension of how both concepts interact during application by developers in a smart building. Therefore, this study has established a financial model that employs Net Present Value (NPV) in studying the inference and clampdown of investment in both concepts. NPV was estimated using indirect and direct costs and benefits derived from the continuous integration of sustainability and resilience in a smart building. To quantify sustainability, its three components had to be quantified. Reduced energy expenditure and government environmental incentives were used to calculate the environmental component. Workers’ cost savings, fire insurance cost savings, and additional system maintenance costs were used to calculate the economic component. The social component of sustainability measured hard-to-quantify attributes like productivity, indoor environment quality, reputation, extra profit, services, and safety. To quantify them, a survey and RII method were used. The two concepts were then coupled by estimating the benefits and costs of installing and keeping resilience tools in design that are sustainable in the smart building and the impact study on the NPV outcome. Application of the design model was also carried out on four smart buildings that were selected in Dubai. The result indicated that coupling sustainable approaches and resilience yields higher NPV by at least 22%. Nevertheless, for NPV to be maintained positively and reduce the cost of failure, faulty detection tools should be assimilated while designing sustainable and smart buildings. The findings of this study will contribute to the benefit of other researchers, developers, investors, managers, engineers, and anyone who is involved in the design or construction process of intelligent buildings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intelligent Sustainable Buildings and Information Technologies)

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20 pages, 10272 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Using ECC Layer on the Flexural Performance of RC Beams Previously Strengthened with EB CFRP Laminates

by Mohamed Emara, Ayman El-Zohairy, Mahmoud Fekry and Mohamed Husain

Sustainability 2022, 14(24), 16990; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142416990 - 18 Dec 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1473

Abstract

This paper studies the efficiency of applying an engineered cementitious composite (ECC) layer to the tensile surface of (RC) beams that were previously strengthened using externally bonded (EB) carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates. One control and ten strengthened RC beams were produced and tested utilizing a four-point loading regime. For strengthened beams, two beams were kept strengthened using only CFRP, and additional ECC layers were added to the rest of the strengthened beams. The CFRP width and overlap length and position were among the test factors. Experimental results revealed that strengthening RC beams with CFRP laminates enhanced both the stiffness and flexural capacity of beams. Additional enhancements were obtained through the application of the additional ECC layers. The existence of the ECC layer alongside the CFRP laminate improved the flexural capacity by 102% and 125% when using CFRP widths of 50 mm and 100 mm, respectively, and the stiffness was improved by an average value of 318%. Three-dimensional (3D) finite element models (FEMs) were developed using ABAQUS software and verified against the experimental results to model the response of the tested beams. The verified model was used to conduct a parametric study to consider the effect of the ECC layer thickness and the reinforcement ratio on the strengthened beam behavior. The numerical results revealed that the effect of the reinforcement ratio was more significant than the ECC layer thickness in enhancing the load-displacement response, especially after the cracking stage. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intelligent Sustainable Buildings and Information Technologies)

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33 pages, 15614 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Study of Natural Ventilation and Solar Control Strategies to Improve Energy Efficiency and Environmental Quality in Glazed Heated Swimming Pools in a Dry Mediterranean Climate

by Carlos Pérez-Carramiñana, Antonio Maciá-Mateu, Germán Sirvent-García and Iván Lledó-Llorca

Sustainability 2022, 14(14), 8243; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14148243 - 6 Jul 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1577

Abstract

This paper studies the energy behavior of several public heated swimming pools with semi-transparent covers located in southeastern Spain with high consumption of their air-conditioning installations. The scientific novelty of the work is to determine the influence of solar radiation on the energy performance of this type of building and to demonstrate that the use of passive systems such as natural ventilation and solar control enhance the energy efficiency in glazed heated swimming pools in a warm semi-arid climate. The methodology used consisted of on-site measurements of current hygrometric behaviour and a study of alternative solutions by simulation of virtual models with improved hygrothermal conditions. In the on-site measurements, thermographic images were used to analyse the thermal envelope and hot-wire probe measurements to determine the temperature distribution and air velocity inside the pool enclosure. For the study of alternative solutions, simulations were carried out, including an analysis of incident solar radiation and different natural ventilation and solar control solutions. The results obtained showed that the current hygrothermal behaviour of the interior spaces does not comply with the regulations on the thermal quality of the indoor environment. The results show that the proposed natural ventilation and solar control solutions substantially improved the hygrothermal properties and energy savings of the pools analysed. This work offers an alternative solution that avoids the implementation of costly air conditioning systems and the energy consumption of installations, promoting more sustainable renovations that contribute to improving the indoor comfort of users with interventions that are compatible with existing buildings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intelligent Sustainable Buildings and Information Technologies)

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