ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø

Summary

Industrial processes significantly contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, as well as material and energy consumption. In Europe, particularly in the Netherlands, the industrial sector accounts for the largest share of energy use. This includes energy consumed during the production process, not just for maintaining indoor comfort. However, the energy and resources used for constructing and maintaining suitable indoor environments in industrial buildings should not be overlooked. Despite this, efforts to improve sustainability in industrial buildings are often overlooked within the broader energy and material optimization strategies. Building codes for industrial buildings are often vague and incomplete. This leads to using office building regulations in energy and COâ‚‚ calculation simulations despite the clear differences between these types of buildings.

A key characteristic of industrial buildings is their typically high internal heat gains, which range from 20-100 W/m² for various production activities and 80-350 W/m² for light manufacturing processes, though these values can vary across different sources. Additionally, production halls often have less stringent thermal comfort requirements. These characteristics demand distinct design considerations compared to other types of buildings. Production halls are typically characterized by high ceilings and often have walls using simple construction methods.

Mid-size production halls used for light production include various zones: production halls, offices for administrative work, showrooms for products, and storage areas for raw materials. These zones have different requirements for thermal comfort, occupancy patterns, and internal gains. The comparable size of each zone means their interplay can significantly impact overall building performance.

Building optimization often starts at the development stages, focusing on the building’s envelope, shading systems, and orientation. Prior to this is the conceptual stage, which concerns architectural design and decisions about geometry and the positioning and interplay of zones.

This project aims to develop a tool to facilitate tracking the impact of decisions at the conceptual design stage on the total emissions of a building. The tool utilizes a genetic algorithm combined with a computational model to automate the design process at the conceptual stage for industrial buildings in the Netherlands. The computational model, ii established using GrassHopper and ClimateStudion, uses a genetic algorithm in which several design parameters related to the building’s geometry and its total CO₂ emissions are incorporated.

The tool’s interface has been designed by creating mock-ups and gathering feedback from stakeholders. Simulations have been performed to understand the consequences of various design choices on building performance and to ensure the tool's reliability. The final tool offers two main pathways for users:

1. Manual Comparison: Users can manually compare a number of design choices, and the estimated COâ‚‚ emissions of each design choice.
2. Automated Optimization: Users can find the optimal solutions among a large number of design options, either using the computational geometry model proposed in this project or their own pool of design options.

To ensure the robustness of the optimization process, the tool evaluates each design option under various occupancy levels, weather scenarios, and other uncertain input factors. This evaluation (uncertainty analysis) is done both for the manual comparison (pathway 1) or in pathway 2, in which a genetic algorithm is utilized to identify the fittest solutions among a large number of design options.

The tool uses EnergyPlus as its core simulation engine. It requires inputs related to the building's geometry, location or weather data, surrounding buildings, construction materials (e.g., materials used for walls, roofs, partitions, etc.), total area of various zones, desired temperature, and the estimated mean value for internal heat gain in the production hall. The output displays the probability distribution, the mean and standard deviation of the probable calculated emissions, and a single value for embodied emissions.

An industrial building in Eindhoven has been chosen as the case study to demonstrate the advantages of using the tool. This building serves as the production and commercial center for DifferentDoors, a company specializing in door manufacturing. The building was recently constructed and is highly efficient, with a score of 9+ in the Gemeentelijke Praktijk Richtlijn (GPR) sustainability assessment system. This project aims to demonstrate that optimization interventions could go beyond the buildings’ codes and be impactful when initiated at the conceptual stage.