This thesis investigates the potential for natural ventilative cooling strategies to improve the cooling and comfort of residential midrise buildings in the Netherlands. Ventilative Cooling is “the application of the cooling capacity of the outdoor air flow by ventilation to reduce or even eliminate the cooling loads and/or the energy use by mechanical cooling in buildings, while guaranteeing a comfortable thermal environment”. The effect of Day and Night ventilation strategies on the indoor environment of two common typologies of midrise apartments seen in the Netherlands was evaluated. The project investigated window and stack ventilation using dynamic energy simulations coupled with airflow network (AFN) modelling. EnergyPlus airflow network model was used for simulations with Grasshopper and Rhino as the user interface. Honeybee and Ladybug plug-in for Grasshopper translated the model into the EnergyPlus-readable input format. Various performance indicators were used to evaluate the apartments' comfort and cooling. These included temperature limit exceedance hours, GTO hours, Cooling requirements reduction ratio, Climate Potential for Natural Ventilation (CPNV), Natural Ventilative Cooling Effectiveness (NVCE) and Climate Potential Utilization Ratio (CPUR). Ventilative cooling simulations yielded favorable results. There was a significant reduction in the peak temperatures and GTO hours within the rooms when the windows were opened, compared to when they were closed. Out of the tested two typologies of apartments, the number of hours when the temperature exceeds 28°C reduced by 50-70% when the windows were fully opened in typology 1 apartments and was reduced by 36-70% in typology 2. GTO hours reduced by 70-80% when the windows were opened for ventilative cooling in typology 1 apartments and reduced by 55-60% for typology 2 apartments in comparison to when they were closed. Apartments with the capability of cross ventilation performed better than those with only single-sided ventilation. The cooling effectiveness of the existing building designs was also evaluated. The results showed that there is room for improvement of design to utilize the site’s potential for natural ventilation. When passive stack is used along with the opening of windows in an apartment, there was a slight reduction in temperature when compared to using only open windows for the same apartment. However, the reduction was not very significant. The findings are presented in a comparative and quantitative manner, providing valuable insight into the relevant field.

Cold-bent insulating glass units (IGU) have the potential to be one of the answers to current needs and wishes of modern and sustainable architecture. Curved glass is stiffer against out-of-plane loads and therefore the structural behaviour of cold-bent IGU’s is different compared to flat IGU’s. Structural behaviour of flat glass in buildings is assessed using standards such as EN 16612 and NEN 2608. Within these norms, isochoric and load sharing cavity pressures are assessed using simplified analytical equations. In case of cold-bent IGU’s, the additional assessment of increased stiffness, permanent cold-bending stresses and optical distortions are of importance. Currently, no standards are available for building envelopes containing curved glass elements. Methods from current standards have proved to be sufficient to quantify the complex role of cavity pressure in flat IGU’s. The goal of this research is to develop an analytical method to determine the effect of cavity pressure on the structural behaviour of cold-bent insulating glass units.

For the structural assessment of cold-bent IGU’s three stages are defined: ’Bending phase’, ‘Fixation moment’ and ‘Use phase’. Numerical models are developed to gain insights into the structural behaviour of cold-bent glass plates. Insights are then used to derive and validate simplified analytical methods.

The bending phase is numerically modelled with a geometrically nonlinear analysis in which curvatures are realized by prescribed displacements along two opposite edges of the plate. Results show that maximum cold-bending stresses are independent of plate size. By defining a tensile bending strength, insights are gained into the maximum radius of curvature of a plate with a specified thickness. A closed form equation is derived, which is used to calculate cold-bending stresses considering plate thickness and radius of curvature as input parameters. Resulting principal stresses have an average accuracy of 99.1% compared to numerical outcomes. Validity of the cold-bending stresses is limited to linearly fixed plates, up to a size of 6x3m, with equivalent plate thicknesses ranging from 4-20mm and design radii ranging from 3m to 25m.

Numerical results from the fixation moment show an anticlastic double or triple (w-shape) curvature in single curved plates, that cause optical distortions. The extent and shape of anticlastic bending depend on the Poisson’s ratio, plate thickness, radius of curvature and plate size. Based on regression between the parameters of influence, a result-based approach is developed to determine anticlastic bending displacements at the centre of curved plates. The approach is simplified to a curved plate with a sinusoidal anticlastic bending curvature. The displacements are expressed in a parameter for the radius at midspan and are calculated using tabulated coefficients with an average accuracy of 99.3%. Validity of the radius at midspan is limited to the previously mentioned boundary conditions.

For the use phase, the calculation of cavity pressures depends on the volume of deformation per pane of a linearly supported cold-bent IGU. Interaction between the panes is modelled using pressure loads derived from Boyle’s law. Using numerical models, volumes of deformation (v) from curved plates subjected to pressure loads (p) are presented in P-V diagrams. These diagrams are used calculate cavity pressures ranging from -1 to 1 kN/m2, considering plate sizes up to 6x3m, plate thickness of 8, 10 and 12mm and design radii up to 8m. Due to the increased stiffness of curved IGU’s, a higher load is shared by the pane onto which an external pressure is applied. Furthermore, as a result of anticlastic bending, a permanent isochoric pressure is present inside cavities of asymmetric IGU’s, which increases as curvatures increase.

A simplified analytical method to calculate effective cavity pressures is derived from shell theory. Load sharing pressures of symmetric IGU’s are calculated with an average accuracy of 95%, compared to results from the numerical P-V diagrams. Load sharing pressures of asymmetric IGU’s (91% accuracy) are summed with isochoric pressures due to cold-bending (92% accuracy) to calculate combined effective pressures with an average accuracy of 87%.

The equations are summarized in a guideline, which is complemented by an interactive calculation tool. The developed analytical method is effective in calculating effective cavity pressures and can be used to quickly explore various design options in a wide range of cold-bent IGU’s.

Designing energy-efficient facades can have a significant impact on reducing the building's energy consumption while providing comfort for the occupants. While highly-insulated buildings have good thermal insulation and high airtightness, they deal with the risk of overheating issues. Dynamic insulation, a technology consisting of porous materials, is a responsive building element that has been introduced to the built environment to tackle these problems. Due to the current lack of information and available resources on dynamic insulation, and its possible contribution to the built environment, the presented research focuses on the effect of complex geometries as the air channels in dynamic insulation, and as part of the overall building wall. This thesis aims to discover whether and how a designed microstructure (now possible by Additive Manufacturing) in dynamic insulation can offer a solution for controlling the airflow passing through the wall and therefore, improving the performance of the dynamic insulation. The methodology of the thesis started with the literature review and studying different articles and books. Then in a design-through-research approach, various parameters were identified that could affect the airflow rate and pattern. These parameters were categorized in two groups with relation to geometry and texture. The dominant factors were then selected to be further analyzed. Next, different geometries were generated using the 3D sampling method, based on different textures with different properties. The engineered geometries are texture-based metamaterials with cavities. To investigate the behavior of airflow in these geometries, CFD simulations were performed in Ansys Fluent. The results were evaluated based on their correspondence to the research objectives and conclusions were drawn to answer the research questions. Keywords: Texture-based metamaterials with cavities, complex geometries, dynamic insulation, porous materials, airflow behavior, responsive building elements.

The objective of the thesis is to reduce the cooling load of the offices in Delhi, India by integrating passive strategies and low-ex cooling (evaporative) technology through facades as a decentralized ventilation system. The cooling demand in India is going to increase up to 8 folds by 2030. Almost 50% of the energy is spent on space cooling for offices in Indian climatic conditions. In order to reduce the cooling demand alternative low ex cooling technologies are being researched and implemented. In this thesis, various types of evaporative cooling and their various properties and its application on Delhi’s climatic scenario and its limitations were studied as one of the low-ex techs. The study concludes by choosing Dew-point indirect evaporative cooler because of its high wet bulb effectiveness with no addition of humidity. For continuous operation, the humidity in the air needs to removed before supplying it to the cooler. So, the design involves a combination of Dew-point Indirect evaporative cooler (D-IEC) coupled with Desiccant coated heat exchanger (DCHE). The system also requires a source for heating and cooling down the water for Regeneration cycle and Dehumidification cycle, evaporative cooler respectively. The cooling demand of the building needs to be addressed by multiple devices in a decentralized ventilation system. The total number of devices required determines the cost of installation and ease of maintenance over the years and it depends on the cooling load. So, it is necessary to reduce the cooling demand of the building using passive strategies before integrating the evaporative cooler. The building’s cooling load has been reduced to 50W/m2 by adapting suitable passive strategies like shading systems, reducing U values of walls, glazing and roof, reducing infiltration and the internal heat gain. The above-mentioned strategies result in 146.41kWh/m2/yr with a water-based chiller (CENTRALIZED), and it is efficient when compared to the recommended national figure of 180 kWh/m2/yr. But using the De-VAP systems (DECENTRALIZED) cuts down the energy by even much further to up to 40% (92.26kWh/m2) in which almost 1/3rd of the energy can be generated by installing PV on the roof. This design takes us further one step closer to the NET ZERO building.

This report includes all the research conducted during the last phase of the Master of Science Building Engineering within the faculty of Civil Engineering. The main aim is to form a strategy for designing demountable unitized curtain walls; one that could actually be used in practice by future engineers and architects. This is why this graduation project includes an application on 4 chosen adaptive concepts. Having already been applied in a comparison study of these quite complicated and costly designs, this framework can provide one extra consideration that will be critical in the near future at the very early stages of designing a building: the Design for Disassembly.

This projects addresses the social aspect of daily life, how different people in a community get to meet each other and how the community as a whole, and in a larger context the city, can benefit of these festive social qualities.