Strategies for the energy efficiency of the built environment: study of materials, technologies and systems for the reduction of energy demand and optimization of final uses.

  • What it is

    Mobility experience with a research focus

  • Who it’s for

    PhD sandwich; Post Doc

Department

DIAEE - Department of Astronautic, Electric and Energetic Engineering

 

Main research activities/topics/projects

 The activity could cover the following fields:

Sustainable management of resources and critical raw materials for energy efficiency of the construction sector and decarbonisation of the production system

Development and application of new materials (e.g. high performance or green/low-carbon) and geometries (e.g. metamaterials) capable of increasing efficiency of final uses of energy, reducing carbon emissions and energy demand of buildings and communities, at the same time improving the internal environmental quality of buildings, including acoustic comfort.

Construction and validation of digital models for energy storage devices

Development and optimization of technologies to store electricity and recover thermal energy for integration with renewable energies and inclusion into poly-generation systems.

Application of building simulation technology for thermo/acoustic performance-driven design

Development of components and passive technologies (e.g. anchoring systems for energy harvesting, PCM, ventilated walls, chromogenic glazings, advanced building envelope-ABE) for energy efficiency, environmental quality of buildings end users’comfort (e.g. thermal, acoustic).

Residential renovation strategies such as high performance envelope will be taken into account.

Implementation of a predictive model for HVAC systems with integration of renewable energy in buildings

Comparison of different systems layouts for heating, cooling and domestic hot water production, which can replace or, where necessary, integrate the plant configuration currently more widespread. Account must be taken of how it can be integrated into the existing context. In this field heat pumps represents an efficient way of converting electricity into heat, coupled with traditional NGB and/or RES integrated and energy storage (thermal and electric) being a promising application in different building typologies. The optimization will also cover the control strategies for implementing the energy management of heating and cooling systems.

Implementation of a predictive dynamic model (e.g. TRNSYS)

Simulation-based design of RECs (Renewable Energy Communities) and PEDs (Plus Energy Districts)

Assessment of buildings energy consumption and peak load reduction potential of mixed-use community in urban areas through energy modeling. The modelling will involve thermal and electrical generation through definition of sizes of generators, in series and in parallel operations and dimensioning of storage systems.

Modeling Post-Carbon Cities and Renewable Energy Communities

Development of place-based Urban Building Energy Modeling (UBEM), with tools and platforms. UBEM allows to highlight local specificities, evaluating the spatial distribution of energy consumption, assessing the availability of renewable energy sources and optimizing the aggregation of energy users, producers and prosumers. The aims are to evaluate the benchmarks of municipalities in terms of effective potential energy savings and renewable energy share and to ensure feasibility and sustainability of energy interventions to meet the actual and future energy demand.

Special Entry Requirements

Is positively judged experience in:

-urban buildings energy modeling (UBEM)

-energy modeling

-Matlab, Python

Duration in months (min-max)

PhD sandwich: 6-12

PostDoc: 6-12

Contacts

Main scientific contact person

Andrea Vallati

+393393051482; +390644585664

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Other scientific contact person

Costanza Vittoria Fiorini

+393473742771

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