Breathing building: A decentralized façade-integrated solar air-conditioning system
A decentralized adaptive solar air conditioning system is presented, which contains usual air-conditioning equipment and a new module, designed with a honeycomb structure, containing phase change material for latent thermal cold and hot energy storage. Heat recovery devices are responsible for higher system efficiency. A low-cost configuration and a multi-function deluxe version are presented,where in the second case a (magnetic) heat pump, a (magnetic) cooling device and an evaporative apparatus are added. Whereas the simple configuration is of medium cost and shows a good energy saving potential, the deluxe version is more expensive, but, on the other hand, is designed to show a higher energy saving potential. It is also expected to yield exquisite indoor hygienic and climatic conditions.
A translucent honeycomb solar collector and thermal storage module for building façades
Abstract An innovative new translucent honeycomb solar collector and thermal energy storage module has been designed. The honeycomb module contains two different kinds of channels, namely empty ones and those that are filled with a P hase C hange M aterial (PCM). The latter are sealed at the front and back side and, therefore, form chambers. Solar radiation enters the empty channels and is transmitted forward into them. The absorbed energy fraction at the side walls of these empty chambers leads to a melting of the PCM in their neighboring filled chambers, where then thermal energy is stored as latent heat. A heat transfer fluid, usually air, crosses the empty channels by forced convection and additionally charges or discharges the storage modules. Such elements are ideal to equip “intelligent” building facades in passive houses or then to form thermal storage elements in decentralized air-conditioning systems by integration into the facade of e.g. an office building. This first article presents the innovative solar system and gives new results on simplified two-dimensional temporal-spatial physical modeling, numerical simulation of charging and discharging modes and of a combined mode for a typical practice case. The content of a second planned article on system optimization and full system performance, including the description of thermal behavior of system/building combinations is roughly sketched in the section ‘Conclusions and Outlook’.
Impacts of climate and land use changes on flood risk management for the Schijn River, Belgium
Abstract Flooding is the most common natural disaster in Europe. Modern flood risk management relies not only infrastructure development but also on governmental and non-governmental actors applying legal, economic and communicative water management instruments. Within the European Union (EU), flood management closely relies on policy set at the EU and national levels. It is now recognized that a sound understanding of climate change is required in addition to current management by taking into account land use change and socio-political context, as climate and land use changes have major impacts on hydrological responses. This paper investigates the hydrological behavior due to urbanization under current and future climate scenarios of high summer and high winter rainfall for 20 sub-catchments of the Schijn River, located in the Flanders region near Antwerp, Belgium. As urbanization increases and existing rainfall-runoff models neglecting the specific behavior of urban runoff, a hydrological model was developed based on a basic reservoir concept and applied to the existing rainfall-runoff model (PDM) flow to examine the specific urban contribution. Results revealed that peak flow for urban runoff and the total peak flow (i.e. rural and urban runoff) were significantly higher (i.e. ranges from 200% to 500%) than the existing rainfall-runoff model (PDM) flows, because of faster and more peaked urban runoff response. The impact of climate change on current and future conditions was also assessed by estimating peak flows with respect to return periods from the flood frequency curve. The predicted peak flow of high summer future climate scenario was significantly higher (i.e. ranges from 200% to 250%) than that of the current climatic condition for this region. Furthermore, hourly peak flow and daily volume ratios of 100-year return period for the highest, lowest and average impervious area were projected for the time horizon of the year 2100. It is concluded that climate change impacts contribute the most in producing peak flow in coming years, while increased urbanization takes the second place for both hourly and daily values. Results on urbanization effect and climate change impact assessment are useful to the water managers for spatial planning, emergency planning and insurance industry.