Conservation-compatible retrofit solutions in historic buildings: An integrated approach

Historic, listed, or unlisted, buildings account for 30% of the European building stock. Since they are complex systems of cultural, architectural, and identity value, they need particular attention to ensure that they are preserved, used, and managed over time in a sustainable way. This implies a demand for retrofit solutions able to improve indoor thermal conditions while reducing the use of energy sources and preserving the heritage significance. Often, however, the choice and implementation of retrofit solutions in historic buildings is limited by socio-technical barriers (regulations, lack of knowledge on the hygrothermal behaviour of built heritage, economic viability, etc.). This paper presents the approach devised in the IEA-SHC Task 59 project (Renovating Historic Buildings Towards Zero Energy) to support decision makers in selecting retrofit solutions, in accordance with the provision of the EN 16883:2017 standard. In particular, the method followed by the project partners to gather and assess compatible solutions for historic buildings retrofitting is presented. It focuses on best practices for walls, windows, HVAC systems, and solar technologies. This work demonstrates that well-balanced retrofit solutions can exist and can be evaluated case-by-case through detailed assessment criteria. As a main result, the paper encourages decision makers to opt for tailored energy retrofit to solve the conflict between conservation and energy performance requirements

Development Process for Multi-Disciplinary Embedded Control Systems

This report contains the progress report for the qualification exam for Industrial PhD student Sune Wolff. Initial work on describing a development process for multi-disciplinary systems using collaborative modelling and co-simulation is described

Deliverable D2.4. Modelling module for biological diversity and functions in land surface water balance

The WP2 "Soil Functioning and Ecosystem Services", of the EcoFINDERS project, has produced a modelling module linking soil biodiversity and its functioning to hydrological properties of agricultural soil. The scope is of a proof-of-concept, including only earthworm burrows as a proxy for cropping systems. The biodiversity focus is on anecic earthworm burrows, which traverse vertically into the deep soil. At the LTO Lusignan this group of earthworms dominates the cropping systems of permanent grass (T5) and of three years of grass in a sequence with three years of annual crops (T2). In contrast, a cropping system without grass and with frequent tillage (T1) is dominated by the soil dwelling endogeic earthworms. The hydrological modelling starting point was the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES), but the soil hydrology module in JULES only considers water-flow through the soil matrix. Hence, we incorporated a representation of the water flow through macropores made by earthworms by adopting representation of macropore soil water flow in the open source soil-plant-atmosphere model, DAISY. The macropore parameters used for this module are: density, diameter, depth, conductivity of the macropore wall and soil water pressure. The approach has enabled the assessment of events of waterlogging and water deficiency in agricultural soils in real case scenarios, identifying the periods of risk in relation to earthworm burrowing. Two metrics were calculated from the simulated soil water contents: trafficability and vegetation soil water stress, corresponding to detrimental effects of water logging and insufficient plant accessible water. The presence of burrows could somewhat mitigate the risks for soil water logging and hence increase trafficability of the land. However, a trade-off was observed in a corresponding increase of the risk for water deficiency, although this may be a model artefact as water uptake related to crop type was not included in the model. A sensitive aspect in our data is the number of hydrologically active earthworm burrows which vary by season. The results of this study should not be extrapolated to other soil types or land uses and management. For extrapolation purposes, further research would be required. The output of the modelling is input to an economic assessment, e.g. by quantitatively assessing the occurrences of soil water deficiency and water logging as risk to farmers’ income stability as a result of reduced yields or loss of entire crops

A locally adaptive time-stepping algorithm for\ud petroleum reservoir simulations

An algorithm for locally adapting the step-size for large scale finite volume simulations of multi-phase flow in petroleum reservoirs is suggested which allows for an “all-in-one” implicit calculation of behaviour over a very large time scale. Some numerical results for simple two-phase flow in one space dimension illustrate the promise of the algorithm, which has also been applied to very simple 3D cases. A description of the algorithm is presented here along with early results. Further development of the technique is hoped to facilitate useful scaling properties

Developing Ontologies withing Decentralized Settings

This chapter addresses two research questions: “How should a well-engineered methodology facilitate the development of ontologies within communities of practice?” and “What methodology should be used?” If ontologies are to be developed by communities then the ontology development life cycle should be better understood within this context. This chapter presents the Melting Point (MP), a proposed new methodology for developing ontologies within decentralised settings. It describes how MP was developed by taking best practices from other methodologies, provides details on recommended steps and recommended processes, and compares MP with alternatives. The methodology presented here is the product of direct first-hand experience and observation of biological communities of practice in which some of the authors have been involved. The Melting Point is a methodology engineered for decentralised communities of practice for which the designers of technology and the users may be the same group. As such, MP provides a potential foundation for the establishment of standard practices for ontology engineering