Search Results (1,231)

The artificial lighting demand of buildings is a controllable sustainability lever, whereas metalized food-packaging waste (i.e., multilayer polymer-aluminum films used for barrier protection) is difficult to recycle and routinely landfilled or incinerated, representing an underexplored circular-economy opportunity. This simulation-based feasibility study connected both objectives by investigating whether metalized snack-packaging waste can function as a daylight-redirecting surface on a faceted interior light shelf. Five configurations were simulated in VELUX Daylight Visualizer 3 using Ankara’s EnergyPlus Weather climate file (39.93° N): a no-shelf baseline (S1), white (ρ = 0.80) and metalized (ρ = 0.80–0.88) flat shelves (S2, S3), and faceted equivalents (S4, S5). None of the five scenarios met the EN 17037:2018 sufficiency threshold (DA300 ≥ 50%); the best configuration, S5 (faceted, metalized), reached DA300 = 40.23%. Within this limitation, S5 outperformed all comparators, averaging 3116 lux (9.6× baseline) and achieving a uniformity ratio of 0.823. Faceted geometry increased illuminance by 1.74–1.78× over an equivalent flat metalized shelf; metalized flat shelves outperformed the white ones by 1.44–1.54×, except in September, when high solar altitude caused a 0.83–0.89× reversal, eliminated by faceting. S5 reduced artificial lighting dependency from 78.42% to 59.77% of occupied hours (~101 kWh/yr, first-year estimate) and nearly halved critical daylighting-deficit hours (49%). However, it exceeded the 2000 lux useful-daylight ceiling in ~55% of occupied hours, indicating that glare mitigation is necessary for deployment. These preliminary results warrant further experimental and life-cycle work before the sustainability benefits of the circular economy pathway can be established. A sensitivity analysis confirms that S5’s daylighting advantage persists, though at reduced magnitude, under both a conservative reflectance assumption (ρ = 0.80) and a more energy-representative window-to-wall ratio (47.5%). Full article

Electrochromic devices (ECDs) in smart buildings have been advanced as a potential solution for improving energy savings and visual and thermal comfort. The current paper is a review of advanced control strategies for ECDs with respect to predictive, environmental, and adaptive strategies for improving building performance. One of the most frequently employed methods is rule-based control (RBC). RBC is being complemented by more sophisticated model predictive control (MPC) and machine learning (ML) procedures. By adjusting ECD behaviour in dynamic response to changing external circumstances, like daylight, glare, temperature, and solar radiation, these improved techniques ensure a major improvement in real-time adaptivity, energy savings, and occupant comfort. The paper systematically examines ECD control techniques available in the literature, detailing performance indicators, energy conservation, and comfort enhancement for various climatic conditions. It also examines hybrid techniques based on MPC and ML models that tackle the obstacles faced by conventional control systems. Furthermore, their compatibility with renewable energy sources such as PV and thermochromic systems is outlined in relation to net-zero energy buildings. The paper ends with a review of future directions that could lead towards standardization in the form of models, sensor networks and AI-based adaptive frameworks to increase the scale as well as the real-world relevance of ECDs in varying building contexts. Full article

Amid the low-carbon transition, university teaching buildings feature high occupancy and energy use, making the synergistic enhancement of their daylighting and thermal environments crucial for “dual carbon” goals. However, traditional “north–south homogenization” designs in cold regions fail to address the spatial heterogeneity of solar radiation and climate resources, intensifying the trade-off between natural daylighting and Heating Energy Use Intensity (E_h) while restricting space performance optimization. Focusing on a typical cold-region teaching building, this study proposes a “parametric modeling–multi-objective optimization–machine learning” integrated framework. Targeting spatial daylight autonomy (sDA), useful daylight illuminance (UDI), and E_h, we compared the homogeneous baseline model with the Pareto-optimal solution set, demarcated key design parameter boundaries, and developed an ensemble-based rapid prediction model. Based on the parametric simulation analysis of this representative case building in a cold region, results indicate that: (1) Compared to the baseline, the overall optimal scheme reduced E_h by 17.43% while increasing UDI and sDA by 12.0% and 10.5%, respectively. (2) The Pareto set strictly converges toward a due-south orientation and a “deep-south, shallow-north” layout (depth ratio: 0.66–0.77); thermal configurations exhibit “enhanced northern insulation and southern heat gain,” confirming heterogeneous design matches cold climates better. (3) The four constructed machine learning models (MLP, LightGBM, XGBoost, and Random Forest) uniformly achieved test recall rates exceeding 99%, enabling highly precise, rapid classification of top-performing design scenarios during early-stage design. This study overcomes climate-matching blindness in traditional design, providing a multi-objective synergistic optimization path balancing low energy and high-quality daylighting with substantial engineering and theoretical value. Full article

Improving the thermal, daylighting, and energy performance of rural dwellings in cold regions is important for low-carbon rural construction. This study evaluated a composite on-top sunspace roof window (OSRW) for narrow-deep Guanzhong rural dwellings in Shaanxi Province, China. A field-informed benchmark model, supported by field surveys and short-term hygrothermal measurements, was simulated using an EnergyPlus–Radiance framework within Rhino–Grasshopper. Performance was assessed using useful daylight illuminance (UDI_100–2000), PMV-based annual comfort hours, and annual total load. Single-variable parametric simulations, feasibility-band screening, and a combined-variable consistency check were used to identify practical design ranges. The recommended configuration included a side roof WRR of 0.7–0.8, central roof WRR of 0.5–0.7, OSRW cavity height of 0.4–0.8 m, story height of 3.2–3.6 m, south facade WWR of 0.3, and R-type inner-window configuration. In the combined-variable check, annual load reductions remained positive across all retained cases (10.97–65.37%), UDI generally improved (mean 4.46%), and thermal comfort showed clearer trade-offs (−9.58–6.70%), mainly controlled by side roof WRR. These findings provide construction-oriented OSRW parameter guidance for similar narrow-deep Guanzhong rural dwellings under comparable benchmark, weather, and operational-control assumptions. Full article

Biophilic design connects people to nature through direct, indirect, and spatial experiences, yet how systematically LEED v5 and WELL v2 represent these dimensions remains insufficiently understood. This study examines how and to what extent LEED v5 BD+C and WELL v2 optional scoring components represent biophilic design, using 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design as a common analytical framework. Optional LEED v5 credits and WELL v2 optimization features were screened for biophilic relevance, mapped to a primary pattern, and scored for alignment strength on a 0–3 scale. Representation was limited on every measure. Only 9 of 34 LEED v5 optional credits (26.5%) and 11 of 84 WELL v2 optimization features (13.1%) qualified as biophilically relevant, and only 3 credits (8.8%) and 4 features (4.8%) showed strong and direct alignment. LEED v5 addressed 7 of the 14 patterns and WELL v2 only 5; the remaining 7, including Mystery, Risk/Peril, Biomorphic Forms and Patterns, and Complexity and Order, received no primary representation in either system. Nature in the Space accounted for 17 of the 20 qualifying items (85%). LEED v5 showed a more site- and ecology-oriented profile, particularly through Connection with Natural Systems, while WELL v2 concentrated more on occupant-centered indoor environmental conditions, especially lighting, daylight, airflow, and thermal comfort. These findings suggest that, within the optional components analyzed, biophilic design is more readily represented where it overlaps with measurable and documentable criteria. Experiential, symbolic, and psychological–spatial dimensions are largely absent from the primary pattern assignments. The study contributes a transparent procedure for screening, mapping, and scoring biophilic content across rating systems. Given the small number of qualifying items and the interpretive nature of pattern scoring, the findings are presented as a documentation-based, pattern-level critique rather than a statistical ranking of the two systems. Full article

Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is a strategic clean-energy technology for India, combining high-efficiency electricity generation with thermal storage to enable power supply beyond daylight hours. This review maps CSP potential across India by analysing solar resource distribution, the suitability of different CSP technologies (e.g., parabolic troughs and solar towers), and economic feasibility under current cost and policy conditions. It evaluates recent developments in deployment, technology maturity and financing mechanisms, while identifying key barriers such as land availability, grid integration and investment risk. In addition, the study identifies research gaps related to large-scale deployment, cost-reduction strategies, and long-term performance under Indian climatic conditions, and outlines future research directions and policy pathways to accelerate CSP adoption in India. By drawing on recent data and trends, the paper offers insight into how CSP can complement the ongoing expansion of renewable electricity and contribute to India’s goal of achieving 500 GW of non-fossil installed capacity by 2030 and net-zero by 2070. The analysis aims to support researchers, policymakers and industry stakeholders in making informed decisions to scale CSP deployment. Full article

The twentieth (20th) century represents a radical transformation in architectural history. Unlike previous centuries, characterized by gradual stylistic continuity, it witnessed a succession of theoretical ruptures, technological innovations, material discoveries, and experimental design paradigms. Each movement emerged by questioning the assumptions of its predecessors, generating an experimentation laboratory that transformed the relationship between buildings, resources, climate, and society. Despite this exceptional intellectual and technological legacy, 20th-century architecture is still predominantly interpreted through its technological shortcomings, while the historical evolution of its contributions to environmental sustainability and energy efficiency is still lacking. This study reconstructs the historical genealogy of environmental sustainability and energy efficiency across the principal architectural movements of the 20th century. Through a comparative analysis of design theories and architectural principles, it identifies environmental and energy paradigms, drawbacks, and design lessons. Environmental sustainability evolved around material durability, adaptability, resource optimization, contextual integration, and life cycle thinking, whereas energy efficiency developed through passive climatic strategies, building morphology, envelope performance, daylight, natural ventilation, and environmental control. The study demonstrates that many of the principles underpinning contemporary sustainable and energy-efficient architecture originated during the 20th century. Approaches such as Parametricism, Computational Design, Biomimetic Architecture, Climate-Responsive Design, Circular Architecture, and Regenerative Design extend these concepts through new scientific understanding, digital technologies, and environmental performance objectives. Full article

Lighting in hospital patient rooms supports appropriate visual conditions, patient well-being, and sustainability-oriented healthcare retrofit decisions. Although previous studies have examined daylighting or artificial-lighting systems in healthcare buildings, limited research has systematically compared practical retrofit strategies within a consistent framework while considering both illuminance quantity and spatial uniformity. This study evaluates two existing single-bed patient rooms at Fırat University Hospital in Elazığ, Türkiye. The rooms had comparable dimensions but differed in façade orientation and window width. Three-dimensional models were developed in DIALux Evo 13, and simulations were conducted for the summer and winter solstices under clear- and overcast-sky conditions at 09:00, 12:00, and 18:00, together with an artificial-lighting-only scenario at 00:00. The scenarios included the existing lighting condition, increased wall reflectance, two LED luminaire replacement systems, and combined daylight and artificial-lighting conditions. Lighting performance was assessed using average illuminance, lighting uniformity, and daylight factor. Independent field measurements at 12 points showed close agreement with the simulations, with a mean absolute percentage error of 2.86%, an RMSE of 5.68 lx, and R² = 0.9996. The south-facing room generally received more daylight, but higher illuminance was often accompanied by lower uniformity. Under artificial-lighting-only conditions, increasing wall reflectance raised visual-task-area illuminance by 4.2–4.9%, whereas the LED systems produced increases of 48.6–53.7% in the north-facing room and 93.8–101.2% in the south-facing room. Overall, wall-reflectance modification provided a moderate improvement, whereas LED replacement produced greater improvements in illuminance and spatial uniformity. The findings provide preliminary, context-specific guidance for sustainability-oriented hospital patient-room retrofit projects. Full article

Low-latitude plateau classrooms, such as those in Kunming, experience intense solar radiation that often causes insufficient far-window illumination, excessive near-window brightness, and viewing-direction glare under side-lighting conditions. To investigate this spatial imbalance, field surveys of nine classrooms were used to define realistic parameter ranges, while 100 parametric design cases were evaluated through annual simulation, machine learning, and SHAP analysis. The viewing-direction glare model achieved a test-set R² of 0.819, indicating adequate predictive performance for factor interpretation. Compared with simply increasing the window-to-wall ratio (WWR), coordinated control of classroom geometry, window configuration, and surface reflectance produced a more balanced luminous environment. Daylight availability and excessive illuminance were primarily governed by WWR and window reveal depth, whereas glare was more strongly influenced by seating position, viewing direction, window width, and orientation. Classroom-wide averages may therefore conceal localized glare experienced by students. A moderate WWR of 0.26–0.40 combined with a window reveal depth of 0.75–1.17 m emerged as a preferable strategy within the investigated design space. These findings support desktop-level daylight assessment and student-perspective glare evaluation in the design and renewal of ordinary side-lit classrooms in Kunming and comparable low-latitude plateau regions. Full article

Reliable perception of young apple fruits in natural orchards is a prerequisite for automated thinning and intelligent orchard management, yet remains difficult in real field conditions due to small fruit size, dense distribution, branch–leaf occlusion, background similarity, and severe illumination degradation at night. This study presents FruitDet, a lightweight multi-module detector designed for robust day–night young apple fruit detection in complex orchard environments. A field dataset was established in a high-density apple orchard in Aksu, Xinjiang, covering daylight and low-light night-time scenes with diverse occlusion, scale, and illumination variations. To improve detection robustness without sacrificing computational efficiency, FruitDet combines three complementary mechanisms: an inverted-bottleneck-based multi-scale feature enhancement module for preserving small-fruit details, a channel–spatial attention module for suppressing foliage and illumination interference, and a lightweight Transformer-based context module for modeling long-range dependencies between fruits and surrounding orchard structures. In daytime scenes, FruitDet achieved 91.904% precision, 77.557% recall, 83.254% mAP50, and 66.427% mAP50–95; in night-time scenes, it maintained 90.107% precision, 75.135% recall, 80.544% mAP50, and 64.719% mAP50–95. Compared with mainstream detectors including YOLOv5n, YOLOv8n, YOLO11n, YOLO26n, Faster R-CNN, RT-DETR, and RT-DETRv2, FruitDet consistently delivered higher accuracy across lighting conditions. Ablation, visualization, public-dataset testing, and edge-deployment experiments verified that the proposed modules jointly improve small-object representation, background discrimination, low-light robustness, and real-time applicability. With 2.960 M parameters, 3.726 G FLOPs, and approximately 180 FPS, FruitDet offers a practical and efficient visual perception approach for Young fruit monitoring was conducted under both daytime and night-time orchard conditions covered in this study. All-weather orchard monitoring and robotic young-fruit thinning. The shareable data are available Full article

Traditional stone-slab dwellings in Southwest Henan possess distinctive regional characteristics and inherent climate adaptability. However, previous studies have mainly focused on individual aspects of indoor environmental performance, while integrated optimization of daylighting, thermal environment, and renewable energy utilization under the constraints of heritage conservation has received limited attention. This study systematically evaluates the indoor light and thermal environment of traditional stone-slab dwellings through field measurements and validated numerical simulations, and proposes appropriate optimization technologies. The numerical model was first validated against field measurement data and subsequently employed to evaluate the proposed optimization strategies. The results indicate that the daylight factor in the main occupied rooms does not satisfy current standard requirements. In terms of thermal performance, indoor temperatures are excessively high in summer and excessively low in winter, while the relative humidity remains close to saturation. Based on psychrometric chart analysis and the conservation requirements of traditional dwellings, a series of optimization strategies are proposed and validated. The results demonstrate that the addition of skylights, the application of 60 mm polyurethane (PUR) insulation boards to the roof and exterior walls, and the installation of transparent Low-E insulating glass units for exterior windows are effective technologies for improving the indoor light and thermal environment of stone-slab dwellings in Southwest Henan. The potential for solar energy utilization is also evaluated. This study provides an integrated framework for the environmental optimization of traditional stone dwellings and offers practical guidance for their sustainable conservation, performance enhancement, and renewable energy utilization. Full article

Narrow internal lightwells are often featured in multi-story residential buildings in hot arid climates in order to daylight rooms where direct façade access is not possible, but privacy-driven window closure strongly limits the daylighting potential of these shafts. This paper examines whether three retrofit daylighting strategies—(1) increased shaft wall reflectance, (2) multi-level tubular daylighting devices (MTDDs), and (3) inclined lightwell remodeling with clerestory openings—can retrofit a common residential lightwell in Ha’il City, Saudi Arabia for high performance, high-efficiency daylighting performance under typical privacy-constrained urban conditions. A calibrated daylight model was developed using field measurements of the existing lightwell conditions, and the three retrofit strategies were then evaluated through Radiance-based simulations. The calibrated Radiance model showed good agreement with observations (MBE = −9.6%, RMSE = 17%). It was found that the aged lightwell received less than 0.5% of outdoor daylight in clear summer conditions and that the performance was highly seasonal and orientation-dependent, with 15–20% higher summer peaks in one monitored room, while both rooms remained largely below 100 lx in winter and overcast periods. Simulations determined that the base case results in the ground and first-floor areas remaining comparatively lowly illuminated (UDI_{<100 lx} = 96–100%). The wall reflectance contributed only moderate improvements, while the MTDD strategy was notably effective in improving the daylight availability of lower-floor levels without increasing annual sunlight exposure. The biggest gains (first-floor mean illuminance increasing to 516–952 lx and 100% sDA_300,50% on the second floor) were for the lightwell inclined with clerestory opening type, but an increased risk of over-exposure at upper levels was activated. These findings demonstrate how balancing the needs of daylight autonomy with exposure control shapes the performance of daylight retrofits. Full article

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) separates the control and data planes, introducing a logically centralized controller that is itself a high-value attack target. Despite growing interest in SDN intrusion detection, publicly available datasets either restrict evaluation to binary normal-vs-DDoS classification or lack control-plane telemetry, leaving multi-class detection of SDN-architectural attacks without a dedicated benchmark. This work presents LAN-SDN-NIDS, a publicly available, multi-class flow-level dataset of 1,125,059 records generated in a fully containerized Containernet/OpenDaylight testbed across five standard network topologies. Each flow record combines 29 traffic-level features with 11 control-plane-aware metrics—including Packet-In and Flow-Mod counts and first-seen delay. The dataset covers five attack classes in two categories: three that exploit SDN control-plane mechanisms (link fabrication, host injection, and port hijack) alongside DDoS and port scan, plus normal traffic. An XGBoost classifier trained on the full feature set achieved a macro F1 of 0.94; an ablation study showed that removing OpenFlow features causes link fabrication F1 to collapse from 0.97 to 0.19, indicating that control-plane telemetry is decisive for detecting SDN-architectural attacks under the conditions evaluated. A UMAP embedding is consistent with class separability, except for a structural overlap between host injection and normal traffic attributable to their shared ARP protocol. Full article

Smartphone-based augmented reality (AR) may help dentists visualize an implant axis during treatment or training. Before a virtual overlay can be displayed, however, the application must first recognize the real target reliably. This in vitro study tested how five lighting conditions affected recognition of a two-colored, 3D-printed polylactic acid (PLA) dental model by a Unity/Vuforia smartphone application. The application ran on a Samsung Galaxy S22. A GoPro HERO10 recorded the smartphone display at 240 frames per second, and the videos were evaluated frame by frame. Red, green, blue, daylight-like light-emitting diode (LED) and halogen illumination were tested at a central and an eccentric model position, with ten repetitions per condition and position. The model was not recognized under red or blue illumination within the predefined observation interval. Recognition was successful in all repetitions under green, daylight-like and halogen illumination. Recognition speed differed among these successful conditions, and the eccentric position delayed recognition under daylight-like and halogen illumination. A supplementary region-of-interest analysis also showed lighting-dependent differences in image brightness and contrast. These findings indicate that lighting should be standardized and documented when smartphone-based dental AR systems are developed and tested. Full article

Highland vernacular dwellings face multiple environmental stresses, but existing studies often examine either individual passive strategies or qualitative cultural interpretations, leaving limited evidence on how regional climate, settlement wind environments, and indoor microclimates are connected. This study investigates Tibetan vernacular dwellings in northwestern Sichuan, China, across a climatic gradient from warm–humid low altitude to dry–cool mid altitude and cold–arid high altitude. Three settlements—Zhonglu Township, Sergu Town, and Gemo Township—were examined through field surveys, settlement mapping, and measured drawings of 24 dwellings. Climate Consultant, WindNinja, GBSware CFD simulations, and Radiance daylighting analysis were integrated to assess climatic stresses, outdoor wind environments, indoor ventilation, daylighting, and envelope responses. The results show that patchy, dense, and linear settlement morphologies produce different wind-protection and ventilation performances. Building form factors decrease with altitude from 0.65 to 0.54 and 0.44, while daylighting compliance remains below 10% in all cases. The findings demonstrate the value of multi-scale simulation for diagnosing climate-responsive strategies in vernacular dwellings and provide evidence for highland settlement conservation and climate-responsive building renewal. Full article