Incorporating façade-specific climatic factors to improve the ISO 15927-3 characterisation of wind-driven rain spells: Dutch and Spanish case studies

ISO standard 15927-3 characterise episodic exposures of wind-driven rain (WDR) on building façades by identifying wetting intervals, referred to as spells. Spells separated by 96 h or more without WDR are considered, assuming that this interval is sufficient for evaporative losses to exceed prior rainwater gains. This approach ignores variations in evaporation due to the façade orientation and local environmental factors, which cause diverse drying intervals even for the same material. This study proposes an estimation of potential evaporation losses in façades, considering their orientation and local climate. Representative drying intervals and enhanced façade-specific WDR spells are identified by combining potential evaporation losses with the directional WDR exposure. The results at locations in The Netherlands and Spain demonstrates that the drying intervals can vary significantly depending on these factors (regardless of the surface materials), which suggests reconsidering the current 96-h ISO model to minimise uncertainties when characterising episodic WDR exposures

Incorporating façade-specific climatic factors to improve the ISO 15927-3 characterisation of wind-driven rain spells: Dutch and Spanish case studies

ISO standard 15927-3 characterise episodic exposures of wind-driven rain (WDR) on building façades by identifying wetting intervals, referred to as spells. Spells separated by 96 h or more without WDR are considered, assuming that this interval is sufficient for evaporative losses to exceed prior rainwater gains. This approach ignores variations in evaporation due to the façade orientation and local environmental factors, which cause diverse drying intervals even for the same material. This study proposes an estimation of potential evaporation losses in façades, considering their orientation and local climate. Representative drying intervals and enhanced façade-specific WDR spells are identified by combining potential evaporation losses with the directional WDR exposure. The results at locations in The Netherlands and Spain demonstrates that the drying intervals can vary significantly depending on these factors (regardless of the surface materials), which suggests reconsidering the current 96-h ISO model to minimise uncertainties when characterising episodic WDR exposures

Closing the gap between traditional wind-driven rain studies and the performance-based design of building façades: Case study of the Netherlands

Over the last few decades, analyses of wind-driven rain exposure on building façades have been conducted in multiple regions. Sometimes, these studies also included the driving rain wind pressure, thereby characterising both critical factors contributing to rainwater penetration into façade materials. However, practitioners typically rely on performance results obtained from standardised watertightness tests to make façade design decisions, even though these tests do not recreate the specific exposure combinations that can occur on each façade. Consequently, there is no quantitative correlation between the traditionally identified exposures and actual façade designs, resulting in pure qualitative choices and poorly optimised designs. This study addresses this issue by correcting the existing methodological deficiencies in a prior calculation procedure, which aims to relate the exposure parameters that the façade configuration withstood during any watertightness test to the expected climate exposures at its design operating conditions. New contributions are presented to enhance the method reliability as well as to reduce calculation effort and reliance on exhaustive weather data. The various climate parameters required to establish this relationship were analysed and tabulated for the Netherlands, enabling a truly performance-based design of façades to resist rainwater penetration throughout the country. Different methods of implementing this procedure, according to the availability of weather data, were also compared for façade case studies located in Amsterdam and Maastricht

Incorporating façade-specific climatic factors to improve the ISO 15927-3 characterisation of wind-driven rain spells: Dutch and Spanish case studies

ISO standard 15927-3 characterise episodic exposures of wind-driven rain (WDR) on building façades by identifying wetting intervals, referred to as spells. Spells separated by 96 h or more without WDR are considered, assuming that this interval is sufficient for evaporative losses to exceed prior rainwater gains. This approach ignores variations in evaporation due to the façade orientation and local environmental factors, which cause diverse drying intervals even for the same material. This study proposes an estimation of potential evaporation losses in façades, considering their orientation and local climate. Representative drying intervals and enhanced façade-specific WDR spells are identified by combining potential evaporation losses with the directional WDR exposure. The results at locations in The Netherlands and Spain demonstrates that the drying intervals can vary significantly depending on these factors (regardless of the surface materials), which suggests reconsidering the current 96-h ISO model to minimise uncertainties when characterising episodic WDR exposures

Una historia contada al revés, la biomasa

En los congresos que celebran los países industrializados, más concretamente los comprometidos con el medio ambiente, se llega a la conclusión constantemente que el cambio climático es una realidad y que sus efectos ya se hacen patentes, siendo los menos optimistas los que indican el peligro que corren muchas especies si se sigue con la evolución de estos últimos 50 años respecto al calentamiento global del planeta. Este calentamiento como bien es sabido se produce por la emisión de gases efecto invernadero a la atmosfera procedente de tres grandes fuentes, el transporte (41,65%), la industria (23,53%) y el resto (34,82%) donde se encuentran el residencial, el comercio y el sector servicios, tanto público como privado. El aislamiento, orientación, utilización de energías renovables y la utilización de equipos con mejores rendimientos son los puntos a tratar cuando se quiere mejorar la calificación energética de un edificio. Alguno de ellos de fácil implementación en obra nueva pero de difícil logro en rehabilitación o regeneración de cascos antiguos. Esta ponencia se centra en justificar técnicamente uno de los parámetros que se utilizan para mejorar considerablemente la certificación energética de los edificios, cuando está en contradicción con la mejora del rendimiento, la no contaminación y el consumo cero de energía. La biomasa es el combustible que se utiliza para calentar el agua de calefacción y ACS de los edificios sin que contribuya a la emisión de CO2 en su balance energético, echo que hace que los técnicos recomienden el cambio de la caldera existente por una de biomasa en sus estudios de certificación energética cuando se refiere a obra existente, evitando recomendar de esta forma cualquier mejora real del edificio.Consejo General de la Arquitectura Técnica de Españ