Abstract
A metamaterial is a composite with unprecedented properties, either in nature or in the market. Specifically designed, a metamaterial exhibits either extraordinary or “à la carte” macroscopic physical properties, or allows the device made of it (the “metadevice”) to have an optimal response. In the context of the thermal performance of a building, let the metadevice be the whole building envelope, say the “metaenvelope”. Then, the metamaterial in the metaenvelope is determined in order to maximize the building energy efficiency. To this end, we apply the optimization-based metamaterial design approach, which consists in solving a nonlinear constrained optimization problem where the objective function is the energy consumption for cooling and heating, and the design variables define the metamaterial in the envelope. Particular emphasis is given to the use of NRG-foams, which are foamed concretes with embedded microencapsulated phase change materials developed within the framework of the EU H2020 project NRG-STORAGE. Finally, metaenvelopes having NRG-foams as insulation materials will be compared with a standard envelope in terms of the energy consumed by the enclosed building to keep the indoor thermal comfort.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
European Commission. Integrated porous cementitious Nanocomposites in non-Residential building envelopes for Green active/passive energy STORAGE, grant agreement 870114 (2020)
Gołaszewski, J., et al.: Effect of foaming agent, binder and density on the compressive strength and thermal conductivity of ultra-light foam concrete. Buildings 12(8), 1176 (2022)
Gilka-Bötzow, A., Röser, F., Koenders, E.A.B.: Mineral foam in energy active buildings. In: International Conference on the Regeneration and Conservation of Concrete Structures, Nagasaki, Japan. Japan Concrete Institute (2015)
Peralta, I., Fachinotti, V.D., Ciarbonetti, A.A.: Optimization-based design of a heat flux concentrator. Sci. Rep. 7(1) (2017)
Bindiganavile, V., Hoseini, M.: Foamed concrete. In: Developments in the Formulation and Reinforcement of Concrete, chapter 16, 2nd edn, pp. 365–390. Elsevier (2019)
Maxwell, J.C.: A treatise on electricity and magnetism, vol. I. Clarendon Press (1873)
Feustel, H.E.: Simplified numerical description of latent storage characteristics for phase change wallboard. Technical report LBL-36933, UC-1600. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley (1995)
Batool, F., Bindiganavile, V.: Air-void size distribution of cement based foam and its effect on thermal conductivity. Constr. Build. Mater. 149, 17–28 (2017)
Fachinotti, V., Peralta, I., Toro, S., Storti, B., Caggiano, A.: Automatic generation of high-fidelity representative volume elements and computational homogenization for the determination of thermal conductivity in foamed concretes. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4286262 (2022)
Nielsen, L.E.: The thermal and electrical conductivity of two-phase systems. Ind. Eng. Chem. Fundam. 13(1), 17–20 (1974)
Batool, F.: Effect of Microstructure on Thermal Conductivity of Cement Based Foam. PhD thesis, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, Canada (2015)
Batool, F., Bindiganavile, V.: Quantification of factors influencing the thermal conductivity of cement-based foam. Cem. Concr. Compos. 91, 76–86 (2018)
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 140-2017: Standard method of test for the evaluation of building energy analysis computer programs (2017)
U.S. Department of Energy (DoE). EnergyPlus Version 22.2.0 Documentation – Input Output Reference (2022)
https://github.com/NREL/BESTEST-GSR/releases/tag/v22.1b. Accessed 26 Nov 2022
https://climate.onebuilding.org/WMO Region 6 Europe/BGR Bulgaria. Accessed 10 Dec 2019
Nocedal, J., Wright, S.: Numerical optimization. Springer Science & Business Media (2006)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Fachinotti, V.D., Álvarez Hostos, J., Peralta, I., Caggiano, A. (2023). Computational Design of Building Envelopes as Thermal Metamaterials. In: Jędrzejewska, A., Kanavaris, F., Azenha, M., Benboudjema, F., Schlicke, D. (eds) International RILEM Conference on Synergising Expertise towards Sustainability and Robustness of Cement-based Materials and Concrete Structures. SynerCrete 2023. RILEM Bookseries, vol 43. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33211-1_106
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33211-1_106
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-33210-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-33211-1
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)