Browsing by Subject "Building"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6

Charles W. Moore Guest Lecture
(1983-09-20) Moore, Charles Willard
Audio files are EID restricted. Individuals without an EID should send an email request to apl-aaa@lib.utexas.edu.
Comparison of two architectural intervention strategies for climate resilience : floor-to-ceiling height and overhang depth
(2020-12) Lehr, Robert Z.; Felkner, Julianna
We compare two different design intervention strategies for building resilience to climate change in Austin, Texas. The impact on the total energy use and cooling load are analyzed, with both projected to increase from 2020 to 2100[1]. The comparison uses a building designed to 2015 IECC standards and is modeled in the eQuest 3.65 energy modeling tool. The design intervention strategies compared are floor-to-ceiling height and overhang depth to determine their impact on reducing the total energy use and cooling load of a mid-rise office building. The simulations in eQuest are modeled for three different decades; 2020, 2050, and 2100. These are compared through the use of projected weather files generated by the IPCC. Compared to a baseline building with nine foot ceiling levels and zero foot overhangs, two additional building models are simulated for each year using two design intervention strategies. 1: Adding a three foot overhang to the baseline building. 2: Reducing the baseline line ceiling height to eight feet with a zero foot overhang. The results of the simulation show that a) an overall energy use reduction of up to 5219 kWh (1.182%) by 2050 and 7058 kWh (1.517%) by 2100 occurs using design intervention 1:, b) an overall energy use reduction of up 5246 kWh (1.188%) by 2050 and 6937 kWh (1.276%) by 2100 occurs using design intervention 2:, and c) the cooling load distribution does not follow this same pattern with design intervention strategy 2: reducing the cooling capacity the most in both 2050 and 2100.
Evaluating an energy efficiency project for an existing commercial building
(2011-12) Krasner, William Paul; Nichols, Steven Parks, 1950-; Duvic, Robert Conrad, 1947-
In this thesis I provide general guidelines for a commercial building owner’s decision making process for heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system energy efficiency projects, discuss an example HVAC project at an existing building, and recommend the most energy-efficient, cost-effective project option. First, a building’s HVAC system’s inefficiencies are identified. The systems and the components can be investigated to understand the nature of the operations. In the building owner’s interests, possible alternatives can be developed to address the systems with improvements. Consulting engineers, contractors, and other building professionals can assist in this process. There are necessary engineering and construction considerations for defining realistic project alternatives. With the alternatives, there are costs, benefits, and trade-offs. The costs, which mainly include the investment and the operational costs, and the benefits, which mainly include the available financial incentives, defined in dollars, are identified for the alternatives. The alternatives can be evaluated with Building Life Cycle Cost (BLCC) software. In this evaluation the net present-value (NPV) method is used to rank the alternatives. Then, the highest-ranking, lowest life-cycle cost, alternative is recommended for the owner. In the example, an existing commercial building’s HVAC systems are considered. The construction plans, the facilities records, and the existing field conditions were investigated and analyzed. A few operational inefficiencies were identified. To address two of these existing inefficiencies, there were alternatives considered to replace the standard-efficiency air handling unit motors with premium-efficiency motors and to renovate the ventilation system with an energy recovery wheel. The investment costs, the available rebates, the net annual energy savings, and the energy and other operational costs were estimated, over a 30-year study period, for each of these alternatives, and compared to the costs of the existing system. The BLCC evaluations were performed across a range of discount rates in the present-value calculations. Based on the lowest present-value life-cycle cost reports, the premium-efficiency motor replacement project only is recommended.
Ricardo Legorreta Guest Lecture
(1990-11-16) Legorreta Vilchis, Ricardo
Audio files are EID restricted. Individuals without an EID should send an email request to apl-aaa@lib.utexas.edu.
Strength, stiffness, and damage of reinforced concrete buildings subjected to seismic motions
(2016-05) Kwon, Jinhan; Ghannoum, Wassim M.; Jirsa, James O.; Bayrak, Oguzhan; Hrynyk, Trevor; Sen, Mrinal K.
Current analytical tools were calibrated mainly using pseudo-static experimental investigations of individual structural components. Relatively few tests have been performed on reinforced concrete structural systems under realistic boundary conditions and even fewer exist that were conducted dynamically due to the high costs and experimental challenges. Thus, the structural engineering field has resorted to a number of extrapolations from limited test data to form analytical models of structural systems they design. It is therefore no surprise that blind prediction contest results for structural strength and deformation are typically several times higher and lower than those from experiments. A complete system of a full-scale, four-story, reinforced concrete structure was tested under increasing seismic excitations, to near collapse damage states, one the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED)/E-Defense shaking table in Japan. A moment frame system was adopted in one direction and a pair of shear walls incorporated in the exterior frames in the other direction. Wherever possible, minor adjustments to the designs were made to bring the final structures closer to U.S. seismic design provisions. No other tests currently exist that provide behavioral data about a complete, seismically detailed, reinforced concrete structural system tested under such realistic boundary conditions. Comprehensive and in-depth analyses were performed in light of the NIED/E-Defense test data to 1) assess the validity of current behavioral knowledge and design codes; 2) to assess the accuracy of current analytical methods for this common type of structure; 3) to recommend improvements and ways forward on both fronts. Implications of test results to U.S. seismic provisions and recommendations for estimating structural strength and stiffness of reinforced concrete buildings were made based on comparison between the estimates from the current analytical methods and the actual seismic behavior of the NIED/E-Defense test data.
Thermal mass applications in the hot‐humid region of Austin, TX
(2010-12) Kerbacher, Mariel Elizabeth; Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering; Novoselac, Atila; Xu, Ying
Thermal mass can be successfully implemented in the hot‐humid region of Austin, TX especially when well designed and with supplementary aids like nightcooling and day‐lighting. This study shows that in some situations thermal mass can be actually more beneficial at reducing electricity demands in hot‐humid regions than in the hot‐dry regions that are so emphasized in the literature.