Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications

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    Whole-life baseline carbon assessment of residential building stock – A Victorian case study
    Chan, M ; Foliente, G ; Seo, S ; Hui, K ; Aye, L (Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society (ALCAS), 2023-07-19)
    Assessing residential building decarbonisation opportunities requires a whole-life approach, given the increasing share of embodied carbon as housing becomes more energy efficient. Since most of the projected housing stock would consist of existing buildings, emissions from renovation should also be included in determining both embodied and operational carbon in the residential building sector. A bottom-up typology framework was developed to estimate carbon emissions for existing and new housing up to 2050, scalable from local government area (LGA) to state-level jurisdiction which allows for granularity in testing scenarios for the future. Housing typologies were developed for existing, new, and renovation housing stock based on census data. Operating carbon was obtained using building energy simulation while embodied carbon data was accounted from localised life cycle construction datasets. The state of Victoria along with its corresponding LGAs was used as a case study for said framework. Heating load comprised most of the operating energy demand for most typologies while external walls and floors contributed significant embodied carbon for new residential buildings, particularly for detached houses. For Victoria, detached houses built prior to 1991 contributed most of the operational carbon, however with high construction rates set for most LGAs, new housing may contribute more GHG emissions in 2050. Brick veneer housing yielded more embodied carbon from the external wall compared to timber homes while concrete slabs used in floors also incurred a large amount of embodied carbon for the residential building stock. Renovating existing housing has the potential to reduce operating energy demand while emitting less embodied carbon, thus policies on this should be considered in developing decarbonisation pathways. Using the bottom-up typology whole-life carbon framework offers granularity in analysing individual-level carbon impact which can be expanded to LGA and state level.
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    A simplified sustainable circular economy evaluation for end-of-life photovoltaic
    Suyanto, ER ; Sofi, M ; Lumantarna, E ; Aye, L (Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society (ALCAS), 2023-07-19)
    Sustainability and circular economy in the photovoltaic (PV) industry has been gaining increasing traction. Yet, it is still in its infancy. Sustainability is not synonymous to circularity. The correlations between the two paradigms vary case-by-case. PV panel waste has become one of the fastest growing electronic waste. The potential economic and environmental benefits through recycling and other recircularity initatives have been confirmed. However, there is still an urgency to delineate End-of-Life (EoL) PV management practice that is both sustainable and circular. Private PV stakeholders play a prominent role in achieving best practice. However, the exhaustive nature of life cycle impact studies and their data gathering may deter PV producers and recyclers to consider sustainability and circularity performance in their decision-making. This work aims to propose a framework to evaluate sustainability and circular economy performance of discarded PV processing in an integrated manner for private sector users. Sustainability will be assessed through life cycle assessment for environmental impacts, life cycle cost for economic impacts, and industry stakeholder survey to compensate for the lack of social impacts data. Circularity will be evaluated using selected sets of existing product-level circularity indicators. The two paradigms will be reconciled through a joint analysis via multi-criteria decision making.
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    Experimental evaluation of PCM embedded radiant chilled ceiling for efficient space cooling
    Mousavi, S ; Rismanchi, B ; Brey, S ; Aye, L (Department of the Built Environment, 2023)
    Because of climate change, together with rapid urbanisation and continuous population growth, the global demand for space cooling is increasing dramatically. Under a business-as-usual trajectory, there will be a more than threefold rise in the number of in-use air conditioners worldwide by 2050. A radical shift to innovative space cooling technologies is therefore essential, ones that can sustainably meet the growing requirements. Phase change material embedded radiant chilled ceiling, called PCM-RCC, offers an emerging alternative for more sustainable space cooling provision. This system provides a range of benefits to endusers, in terms of efficiency and indoor environmental quality, together with demand-side flexibility. PCM-RCC, however, is still under development, and further research is needed to realise its full capabilities. The present work experimentally analyses the thermal-energy performance of a PCM-RCC system using a full-scale test cabin equipped with PCM ceiling panels. Here, the transient thermal behaviour of the panels besides the cooling energy delivered in charging-discharging cycles are examined. Additionally, the indoor thermal comfort and peak energy demand reduction enabled by the present PCM-RCC are discussed. Based on the results, typically 4–5 hours of chilled water circulation overnight could sufficiently be able to fully recharge the panels in the morning. Over 80% of the occupancy time was found within Class B thermal comfort defined in ISO 7730. About 70% of the system’s daily electricity usage time was during off-peak hours. The significance of implementing optimal predictive operating schedules was also highlighted to fully utilise PCM-RCC’s potentials.
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    Exploring policy mixes for low-carbon and just energy transitions systems: An Australian case
    Rojas Arevalo, A ; de Haan, F ; Candy, S ; Foliente, G ; Aye, L (DUMU, 2022-11-09)
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    Applications of phase change materials in concrete for sustainable built environment: a review
    JAYALATH, A ; Mendis, PA ; Gammampila, GR ; Aye, L (ICSECM 2011, 2011)
    The fast economic development around the globe and high standards of living imposes an ever increasing demand for energy. As a prime consumer of world‟s material and energy resources building and construction industry has a great potential in developing new efficient and environmentally friendly materials to reduce energy consumptions in buildings. Thermal energy storage systems (TES) with Phase change materials (PCM) offer attractive means of improving the thermal mass and the thermal comfort within a building. PCMs are latent heat thermal storage (LHTS) materials with high energy storage density compared to conventional sensible heat storage materials. Concrete incorporating PCM improves the thermal mass of the building which reduces the space conditioning energy consumption and extreme temperature fluctuations within the building. The heat capacity and high density of concrete coupled with latent heat storage of PCM provides a novel energy saving concepts for sustainable built environment. Microencapsulation is a latest and advanced technology for incorporation of PCM in to concrete which creates finely dispersed PCMs with high surface area for greater amount of heat transfer. This paper reviews available literature on Phase change materials in concrete, its application and numerical modelling of composite concrete. However most of the existing TES systems have been explored with wallboards and plaster materials and comparatively a few researches have been done on TES systems using cementitious materials. Thus, there is a need for comprehensive experimental and analytical investigations on PCM applications with cementitious materials as the most widely used construction materials in buildings.
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    Application of nanomaterials in the sustainable built environment
    Gammampila, GRG ; Mendis, PAM ; Ngo, TDN ; Aye, LA ; JAYALATH, A ; RUPASINGHE, RAM (University of Moratuwa, 2010)
    Nanotechnology is widely regarded as one of the twenty-first century’s key technologies, and its economic importance is sharply on the rise. In the construction industry, nanomaterials has potentials that are already usable today, especially the functional characteristics such as increased tensile strength, self-cleaning capacity, fire resistance, and additives based on nano materials make common materials lighter, more permeable, and more resistant to wear. Nanomaterial are also considered extremely useful for roofs and facades in the built environment. They also expand design possibilities for interior and exterior rooms and spaces. Nano–insulating materials open up new possibilities for ecologically oriented sustainable infrastructure development. It has been demonstrated that nanotechnology has invented products with many unique characteristics which could significantly provide solutions current construction issues and may change the requirement and organization of construction process. This paper examines and documents applicable nanotechnology based products that can improve the sustainable development and overall competitiveness of the construction industry.
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    Application of nano insulation materials in the sustainable built environment
    Gammampila, GRG ; Mendis, PAM ; Ngo, TDN ; Aye, LA ; Herath, NCH (University of Moratuwa, 2010)
    Nanotechnology is widely being used in the built environment for its advantages in many improved engineering properties of the nano materials. Nano insulating materials open up new possibilities for ecologically oriented sustainable infrastructure development. The most widely used nano material in built environment is for the purpose of insulation to improve the energy efficiency namely in the buildings and dwellings. Nanotechnology has now provided an effective and affordable means to increase energy efficiency in pre-existing buildings as well as new construction by increasing thermal resistance. The major advantage of nano insulation materials is its benefit of translucent coatings which increase the thermal envelope of a building without reducing the square footage. The intrinsic property of nano insulating material is it can be applied to windows to reduce heat transfer from solar radiation due it its thermal resistant property and the translucent property allows diffusing of day light. The nano insulating material has significant advantage in reducing the operational energy aspects of buildings due to its valuable insulating properties. This paper examines applicable nanotechnology based products that can improve the sustainable development and overall competitiveness of the building industry. The areas of applying nano insulating material in building industry will be mainly focused on the building envelope. The paper also examines the potential advantages of using nanotechnology based insulating material in reducing the life cycle energy, reduction of material usage and enhancing the useable life span. The paper also investigates the operational energy by simulation methodology and compares the reduction of operational energy consumption.
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    A multi-layered energy resilience framework and metrics for energy master planning of communities: A university campus case study
    Charani Shandiz, S ; Rismanchi, B ; Foliente, G ; Aye, L (Society of Risk Analysis, 2021-12-05)
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    An innovative cost-effective floating solar still with integrated condensation coils
    Mohsenzadeh, M ; Aye, L ; Christopher, P (Australian PV Institute, 2021-12-16)