Incorporation of Embodied Energy into Building Energy-Efficiency Codes: A Pathway to Life-Cycle Net-Zero Energy Building in Australia

This thesis aims to demonstrate the importance of incorporating embodied energy into the building energy efficiency regulations (BEERs) of Australia. This study commences with conducting a comprehensive literature review of studies that employ a life cycle energy assessment (LCEA) approach in evaluating the total energy performance of buildings. As a result, sixty-six studies have been analysed with respect to the methodological approaches taken for defining system boundary conditions. It is shown that the current trend of LCEA application in residential buildings suffers from significant inaccuracies due to incomplete definitions of system boundary conditions. The findings form the base for developing a comprehensive framework through which the system boundary definition for calculations of embodied and operational energies can be standardized. Further, this study quantifies the significance of embodied energy associated with Australian BEERs by assessing the total life cycle energy performance of more than 2,300 design scenarios of a residential building – reflecting a range of performance from standard 6-star buildings to highly energy-efficient buildings. The results revealed that the proportion of embodied energy significantly increases from 20–40% to 50–75% in transitioning from standard 6.0-star buildings to highly energy-efficient buildings. This finding underlines the necessity of including the embodied energy impacts into the BEERs when moving towards energy neutrality in the residential building sector. This study also puts forward a comprehensive framework based on the findings of a literature review examination that enables incorporating embodied energy into BEERs by standardising system boundary definitions in LCEA analysis. The framework developed in the research consists of six distinctive dimensions i.e., temporal, physical, methodological, hypothetical, spatial, and functional. These dimensions encapsulate 15 components collectively, including ‘stages of building life cycle’, ‘building components and systems’, ‘elements beyond building scales’, ‘method for assessment of embodied energy’, ‘background database for embodied energy assessment’, ‘type of energy’, ‘unit of measurement’, ‘parameters contributing to operational energy assessment’, ‘method for assessment of operational energy’, ‘assumptions’, ‘building lifespan’, ‘climate’, ‘building site location’, ‘building type’, and ‘density’. The proposed framework possesses two key characteristics. First, its application facilitates defining the conditions of a system boundary within a transparent context. This consequently leads to improved reliability of obtained LCEA results for decision-making purposes since any particular conditions (e.g., truncation or assumption) are considered in establishing the boundaries of a system. Second, the use of a framework will also provide a meaningful basis for cross comparison of cases within a global context, which allows identification of best practices for the design of buildings with low life-cycle energy use. The study application of the proposed framework has been demonstrated by analysing the LCEA performance of a case study building in Adelaide and cross comparing the results with a case study building retrieved from literature and located in Melbourne. The results have indicated the capability of the framework for maintaining transparency in establishing a system boundary in an LCEA analysis, as well as a standardized basis for cross-comparison of cases. The study concludes with recommending potential measures for future developments of Australian BEERs. In summary, the implications of this research underscore the need for future generations of Australian BEERs to consider reduction of buildings’ embodied energy impacts as a requirement for realizing net-zero energy or carbon in the built environment. The implementation of this approach can positively contribute to reducing the use of energy (or carbon)-intensive products in the residential building sector, limiting their impacts on national carbon emissions while encouraging cleaner production of construction products. On a broader scale, this study contributes to improving the current procedures for standardisation of LCEA analysis by proposing a framework that introduces six distinctive dimensions. The outcomes of this research are expected to assist policymakers with including embodied energy into current BEERs.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Architecture & Built Environment, 202

The application of open building system for housing scheme in Malaysia

Immense resources such as land, material, time, labor, money, energy – are being invested in constructing buildings. However, almost all of these buildings, including those currently under construction and on the drawing boards, are not designed with adaptability and flexibility as intention and will cause inflexibility in the future. The lack of functional adaptability for the future re-activation means that their only fate is demolition. Consuming even more resources, producing more waste, and causing more disruption to the environment are considered to be only some tangible consequences of the demolition. However, alteration of mind-set in residential housing design of single storey as well as high-raised towers will pave the way to sustainability. This research studies the level of flexibility in Malaysian house and the impact of inflexibility on the users is studied. Moreover, this research study investigated the probable barriers on the way of developing the Open Building concept and the measures required to be taken for how to overcome these obstacles on the architectural perspective. Finally, the most appropriate partition wall system and the most preferable material which can be used in Malaysia based on the particular climatic condition of this country are studied. It is found that vast majority of the interior layout of the respondents’ houses are fixed and suffering from inflexibility which eventually it will enforce the respondents to move away from the house. Moreover, the unavailability of the ‘modular walls, fastener and other technical detail’, ‘Financial Issue’ and ‘Lack of clients and consultants’ awareness towards the Open Building’ are recognized by architects as the most important barriers to develop the Open Building System (OBS) in Malaysia. Additionally, sliding partition wall and wood material are chosen by the architects as the most appropriate partition wall system and the most preferable material which can be used in Malaysia based on the particular climatic condition of this country

Economic comparison of industrialized building system and conventional construction system using building information modeling

The new construction method known as Industrialized Building System (IBS) offers several benefits compared to the Conventional Building System (CBS); however, IBS is perceived by most of the practitioners to be an expensive method for being utilized in construction industry. Whilst relatively numerous studies have been carried out on the subject of IBS and CBS methods, there has not been any exploiting building information modeling (BIM) as a useful tool to calculate quantities, time, and cost needed to construct building with each of the two aforementioned methods. The aim of this paper is to calculate cost of two similar buildings (one is constructed with IBS method and other one with CBS method) and compare them in terms of economy based on a chosen case study and same initial investment. To this end, the construction cost of buildings is calculated using BIM software, namely Revit Architecture and Navisworks Manage for modeling the chosen case study and estimating construction cost, respectively. The findings indicated that IBS was not economic in low investment of company; however, with investment on more than 100 units of IBS, this method was shown more economical compared to CBS method. In addition, the initial investment on IBS method could be returned when more than 200 units of IBS were implemented in the projects

Digital twins in the construction industry: a comprehensive review of current implementations, enabling technologies, and future directions

This paper presents a comprehensive understanding of current digital twin (DT) implementations in the construction industry, along with providing an overview of technologies enabling the operation of DTs in the industry. To this end, 145 publications were identified using a systematic literature review. The results revealed eight key areas of DT implementation including (i) virtual design, (ii) project planning and management, (iii) asset management and maintenance, (iv) safety management, (v) energy efficiency and sustainability, (vi) quality control and management, (vii) supply chain management and logistics, and (viii) structural health monitoring. The findings demonstrate that DT technology has the capacity to revolutionise the construction industry across these areas, enabling optimised designs, improved collaboration, real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, enhanced safety practices, energy performance optimisation, quality inspections, efficient supply chain management, and proactive maintenance. This study also identified several challenges that hinder the widespread implementation of DT in construction, including (i) data integration and interoperability, (ii) data accuracy and completeness, (iii) scalability and complexity, (iv) privacy and security, and (v) standards and governance. To address these challenges, this paper recommends prioritising standardised data formats, protocols, and APIs for seamless collaboration, exploring semantic data modelling and ontologies for data integration, implementing validation processes and robust data governance for accuracy and completeness, harnessing high-performance computing and advanced modelling techniques for scalability and complexity, establishing comprehensive data protection and access controls for privacy and security, and developing widely accepted standards and governance frameworks with industry-wide collaboration. By addressing these challenges, the construction industry can unlock the full potential of DT technology, thus enhancing safety, reliability, and efficiency in construction projects

What leads to variations in the results of life-cycle energy assessment? An evidence-based framework for residential buildings

Available online 23 September 2020Residential buildings are one of the major contributors to climate change due to their significant impacts on global energy consumption. Hence, most countries have introduced regulations to minimize energy use in residential buildings. To date, the focus of these regulations has mainly been on operational energy while excluding embodied energy. In recent years, extensive studies have highlighted the necessity of minimizing both embodied energy and operational energy by applying the life-cycle energy assessment (LCEA) approach. However, the absence of a standardized framework and calculation methodology for the analysis of embodied energy has reportedly led to variations in the LCEA results. Retrospective research endeavoured to explore the causes of variations, with a limited focus on calculating embodied impacts. Despite the undertaken attempts, there is still a need to investigate the key parameters causing variations in LCEA results by examining methodological approaches of the current studies toward quantifications of embodied and operational energies. This paper aims to address three primary questions: ‘what is the current trend of methodological approach for applying LCEA in residential buildings?’; ‘what are the key parameters causing variations in LCEA results?’; and ‘how can the continued variations in the application of LCEA in residential buildings be overcome?’. To this end, 40 LCEA studies representing 157 cases of residential buildings across 16 countries have been critically reviewed. The findings reveal four principal categories of parameters that potentially contribute to the varying results of LCEAs: system boundary definition, calculation methods, geographical context, and interpretation of results. This paper also proposes a conceptual framework to minimize variations in LCEA studies by standardizing the process of conducting LCEAs.Hossein Omrany, Veronica Soebarto, Jian Zuo, Ehsan Sharifi, Ruidong Chan

Comparison of building existing partitions through building information modeling (BIM)

Partition walls are considered as one of the most crucial elements on interior space within the buildings. While a considerable amount of research has been carried out studying theses critical elements to be used on the interior space of the buildings, BIM has not been exploited so far in order to enhance the accuracy of work. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to compare three types of commonly used partition walls in terms of materials, time and cost needed to install each of them using BIM. To achieve the specified goal, a case study was chosen. The framework used in this study consists of modeling the installation steps of each partition wall based on the chosen case study using Revit Architecture and Autodesk Inventor. In order to calculate the materials, time and cost required, Naviswork Manage was employed and it was found that drywall could be considered as the most useful one to be installed on the interior space of the buildings in comparison to the other two types of partitions

IoT-enabled smart cities: a hybrid systematic analysis of key research areas, challenges, and recommendations for future direction

Cities are expected to face daunting challenges due to the increasing population in the near future, putting immense strain on urban resources and infrastructures. In recent years, numerous studies have been developed to investigate different aspects of implementing IoT in the context of smart cities. This has led the current body of literature to become fairly fragmented. Correspondingly, this study adopts a hybrid literature review technique consisting of bibliometric analysis, text-mining analysis, and content analysis to systematically analyse the literature connected to IoT-enabled smart cities (IESCs). As a result, 843 publications were selected for detailed examination between 2010 to 2022. The findings identified four research areas in IESCs that received the highest attention and constituted the conceptual structure of the field. These include (i) data analysis, (ii) network and communication management and technologies, (iii) security and privacy management, and (iv) data collection. Further, the current body of knowledge related to these areas was critically analysed. The review singled out seven major challenges associated with the implementation of IESCs that should be addressed by future studies, including energy consumption and environmental issues, data analysis, issues of privacy and security, interoperability, ethical issues, scalability and adaptability as well as the incorporation of IoT systems into future development plans of cities. Finally, the study revealed some recommendations for those interconnected challenges in implementing IESCs and effective integrations within policies to support net-zero futures

Sick building syndrome: are we doing enough?

Health and well-being are vitally important aspects of people centric building design and are the roots of productivity. Sick building syndrome (SBS) is a collection of factors that can negatively affect physical health in several ways. Besides physical health is also related to psychological well-being because the human body is one interactive biological system. This paper focuses on reviewing the current state of knowledge on building sickness syndrome which has been prevalent as a building illness since the 1970s especially in offices and schools. While the concepts of intelligent, smart and sustainable buildings have gained considerable attention during recent decades, there is now increasing attention being given to designing healthy buildings. This study provides a review about SBS symptoms. Several negative effects of SBS are identified and potential solutions are advocated. Finally, the study stresses the role of built environment and concludes that ongoing research towards tackling SBS and developing healthy indoor environments should not be limited to a single formula as any health-related building design approach is dependent on several interacting factors

Multi-Objective Optimisation Framework for Designing Office Windows::Quality of View, Daylight and Energy Efficiency

This paper presents a new, multi-objective method of analysing and optimising the energy processes associated with window system design in office buildings. The simultaneous consideration of multiple and conflicting design objectives can make the architectural design process more complicated. This study is based on the fundamental recognition that optimising parameters on the building energy loads via window system design can reduce the quality of the view to outside and the received daylight – both qualities highly valued by building occupants. This paper proposes an approach for quantifying Quality of View in office buildings in balance with energy performance and daylighting, thus enabling an optimisation framework for office window design. The study builds on previous research by developing a multi-objective method of assessment of a reference room which is parametrically modelled using actual climate data. A method of Pareto Frontier and a weighting sum is applied for multi-objective optimisation to determine best outcomes that balance design requirements. The Results reveal the maximum possible window to wall ratio for the reference room. The optimisation model indicates that the room geometry should be altered to achieve the lighting and view requirements set out in building performance standards. The research results emphasise the need for window system configuration to be considered in the early design stages. This exploratory approach to a methodology and framework considers both building parameters and the local climate condition. It has the potential to be adopted and further refined by other researchers and designers to support complex, multi-factorial design decision-making