Passive cooling

Passive cooling is a building design approach that focuses on heat gain control and heat dissipation in a building in order to improve the indoor thermal comfort with low or no energy consumption. This approach works either by preventing heat from entering the interior (heat gain prevention) or by removing heat from the building (natural cooling). Natural cooling utilizes on-site energy, available from the natural environment, combined with the architectural design of building components (e.g. building envelope), rather than mechanical systems to dissipate heat. Therefore, natural cooling depends not only on the architectural design of the building but on how the site's natural resources are used as heat sinks (i.e. everything that absorbs or dissipates heat). Examples of on-site heat sinks are the upper atmosphere (night sky), the outdoor air (wind), and the earth/soil. Passive cooling is an important tool for design of buildings for climate change adaptation – reducing

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Ventilation (architecture)

Ventilation is the intentional introduction of outdoor air into a space. Ventilation is mainly used to control indoor air quality by diluting and displacing indoor pollutants; it can also be used to

Air conditioning

Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C (US), AC (US), or air con (UK), is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes refer

Evaporative cooler

An evaporative cooler (also known as evaporative air conditioner, swamp cooler, swamp box, desert cooler and wet air cooler) is a device that cools air through the evaporation of water. Evaporative c

Effectiveness of passive climate change adaptation measures in Switzerland: A climate-based analysis on natural ventilation and overheating risks reduction in dwellings

Sergi Aguacil Moreno, Daniel Zepeda Rivas

Building energy codes have been implemented in Switzerland as well as across the world to reduce building energy consumption, however, due to the progressive effect of climate change phenomena and the precipitate change in occupancy patterns due to the global pandemic, their effectiveness and limitations must be constantly re-examined. This paper explores the effectiveness of natural ventilation as a passive cooling strategy, as well as the overheating patterns in dwellings across the Swiss territory. The work is based on a climate-based simulation model at a territorial scale, from which the building performance is further analysed considering the heating energy consumption and overheating risk hours above 26.5°C. The effectiveness of natural ventilation through the operable window operable area in reducing overheating risk was also estimated. The results show the effectiveness across the whole territory of the current regulation (SIA 380/1:2016), which is focused on the performance of the building envelope to reduce heat losses. An unattended alarming overheating pattern was spotted in locations with altitudes below 1500 meters as a direct consequence of the climate change phenomena, hence a series of recommendations are proposed to update and improve the current legal requirements.

2021

Development of interconnected silicon micro-evaporators for the on-detector electronics cooling of the future ITS detector in the ALICE experiment at LHC

Andrea Francescon, Alessandro Mapelli, Giulia Romagnoli, John Richard Thome

The thermal management of the on-detector electronics and the development of low mass integrated cooling systems have become a crucial task in the design of silicon tracking detectors for high energy physics applications. The use of microfabricated ultra-thin silicon cold plates has gained considerable interest in this sense. One of the most challenging open issues with micro-channel devices is the interconnection of several units into a single system, allowing for the thermal management of silicon detectors covering large surfaces. In this paper, we present a novel concept of low mass interconnected silicon microchannel devices for the future Inner Tracking System of the ALICE experiment at CERN. This design involves for the first time flow circulation and fluid evaporation in two hydraulically interconnected devices. The solution proposed satisfies the requirements of the detector while minimizing the mass involved. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2016

On the Influence of Thermal Mass and Natural Ventilation on Overheating Risk in Offices

Jérôme Philippe Bonvin, Arianna Brambilla, Flourentzos Flourentzou, Thomas Bernard Paul Jusselme

Free cooling strategies are gaining importance in design practice due to the increased risk of overheating in well-insulated buildings with high internal loads such as offices. The state of the art highlights that the most efficient passive solution for indoor temperature stabilization and control is the integration of thermal mass with an optimized ventilative cooling profile to enhance the thermal cycle of heat storage. Due to its cyclical behavior, thermal mass effects are difficult to predict and quantify with the traditional steady-state approach to building thermal performance. Dynamic thermal simulations help to assess a building’s behavior under transient situations, including the thermal mass influence. However, building codes usually include thermal simulations based on standard assumptions: typical meteorological year (TMY), standard occupancy, standard daily-based lighting and appliances profiles, and standard weekly-based occupancy. Thus, when assumptions change, the actual behavior of the building may vary consistently from the predicted conditions. In this paper, we focused on the ability of thermal mass to contrast the influence of variations from the standard assumptions, especially in relation to climate and ventilation profiles. The results show the necessity of encompassing different risk scenarios when evaluating a free cooling solution performance. Among the different scenarios simulated, natural ventilation misuse shows greater influence on the thermal indoor environment, especially if coupled with low thermal mass.

2018

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