Decision-making guidelines to design mixed-mode office buildings with balconies based of thermal, energy and daylight performance

• Grant number: 21/14680-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)
• Effective date (Start): May 01, 2022
• Effective date (End): April 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Architecture and Urbanism Technology
• Principal Investigator: Leticia de Oliveira Neves
• Grantee: Iris Maria Costa Fajardo Werneck Loche
• Supervisor: Roel Loonen
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FEC). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Netherlands
• Associated to the scholarship: 20/16495-2 - Effects of the use of balconies on thermal, energy and daylight performance of office buildings, BP.DD

Abstract

Balconies are horizontal overhanging structures that can be used as solar shading devices. In medium and high-rise buildings, they can work as an eave to the lower floor, reducing undesirable direct solar radiation and diminishing cooling loads, while allowing reflected and diffuse daylight and natural ventilation through window opening. A systematic literature mapping regarding the effects of balconies on buildings' thermal, daylight and energy performance identified three main research gaps: the lack of studies for the office building typology specifically, investigations of the impacts of the surrounding environment and studies about the impacts of the balconies' design and construction parameters. This research project aims to address these research gaps by developing decision-making guidelines to optimize thermal, energy and daylight performance of mixed-mode office buildings with balconies. To help overcoming the difficulties of considering a simultaneous multi-input and output parameters interaction, the co-simulation approach was chosen, since it allows combining multiple specialized simulation software tools and scripts, enabling simultaneous data exchange during simulation runtime to obtain optimized results. However, successful execution of co-simulation requires robust knowledge regarding the use of models and algorithms implemented in building performance simulation tools, as well as programming skills. Therefore, to support the original research project (Effects of the use of balconies on thermal, energy and daylight performance of office buildings - FAPESP grant number 2020/16495-2), a one-year academic exchange at Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands, is being planned, under the supervision of Prof. Dr Roel Loonen, an experienced researcher in the co-simulation area that is currently working on several related research projects using the proposed methodology. (AU)