Energy, Seismic, and Architectural Renovation of RC Framed Buildings with Prefabricated Timber Panels

Abstract

In seismic European countries most of the residential building stock is highly energy-intensive and earthquake-prone because it was built before the enforcement of the most recent energy and seismic codes. Furthermore, this stock often shows a low architectural quality due to poor maintenance and/or construction and design deficiencies: for all these reasons, it needs deep renovation, but the use of common energy and seismic upgrading techniques is often unsustainable in terms of costs, work duration, and occupants’ disturbance. Therefore, new integrated, affordable, fast, and low-disruptive renovation actions are strongly needed. This study proposes an innovative energy, seismic, and architectural renovation solution for reinforced concrete (RC) framed buildings, based on the addition of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels to the outer walls, in combination with wooden-framed panels. The two panels integrate insulation and cladding materials in order to improve the energy performance and the architectural image of the renovated building. Moreover, the CLT panels are connected to the existing RC frame through innovative seismic energy dissipation devices. In case of an earthquake, these devices in combination with the CLT panels reduce the drift demand of the building, preventing or reducing structural damages and consequent repair costs. In particular, this paper investigates the technical feasibility, the energy efficiency, and the architectural enhancement of the proposed retrofitting system. To this purpose, dynamic thermal simulations were conducted on a typical multi-story residential building from the 1960s, located in Catania, Italy. The results indicated that this retrofitting technique considerably improved the energy performance of the selected building, with a reduction of the global energy demand up to nearly 60%. The presented study is part of a larger research project aimed at also investigating, in a further stage, the seismic performance achievable by the above-mentioned renovation solution.

Energy Retrofitting Opportunities Using Renewable Materials—Comparative Analysis of the Current Frameworks in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia

“…Previous research [55] by the authors indicated that Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia have almost identical energy savings when comparing refurbishment of the entire building envelope for the same type of building (e.g., MFH-multifamily houses-and AB-apartment buildings), which would be adequate for renovation with renewable materials when analyzing the possibility of using prefabricated panels such as Timber Energy System (TES) [56], Building Energy Renovation Through Timber Prefabricated Module (BERTIM) [57], or energy, seismic, and architectural renovation through Prefabricated Timber Panels (PTP) [58].…”

“…The previous sections demonstrated that the use of renewable materials in energy refurbishments in B&H and Slovenia is rather uncommon and remains off the radar of policymakers. Even if it is a relevant topic in different countries, with some successful technological solutions being developed (for example, TES, BERTIM, MORE-CONNECT, and CLT panel façade systems) [56][57][58]65], there has not been a general breakthrough leading to a wider use of such solutions in the analyzed countries. However, mentioned prefabricated solutions have significant potential, yet there are still gaps in understanding their possible use for energy refurbishment.…”

A sustainable material for sustainable architecture: wood in parasite architecture

“…(Buonocore et al, 2014). Today, wood and the modern materials derived from it can represent an optimal choice for interventions of volumetric additions (Margani et al, 2020;Valluzzi et al, 2021). Modern research and technological innovations have allowed overcoming the problems related to the anisotropy of the original material by creating a "new generation" of products and technologies that fully compete with the most commonly used materials (Di Gennaro et al, 2019;Frunzio et al, 2021;Izzi et al, 2018;Sun et al, 2020).…”

Decision Support System for the Sustainable Seismic and Energy Renovation of Buildings: Methodological Layout

“…Another innovative energy, seismic and architectural retrofit strategy for RC framed buildings is based on the external addition of cross-laminated timber panels to the outer walls, in combination with wooden-framed panels. As recently proposed by Margani et al [25], these prefabricated panels are connected to the existing structure through special seismic energy dissipation devices, and they also integrate insulation and cladding materials to improve both energy performance and architectural image.…”