Smart Composite Material for Advanced Building Fenestration to Enhance Energy Efficiency

建筑用于供暖、制冷和照明的能源消耗占二氧化碳排放量的40%以上。然而，在保持热舒适和视觉舒适的同时，由于我们无法通过透明的建筑围护结构（主要是窗户和立面）控制能量的进出，大量的能量损失了。英国政府雄心勃勃的目标是到2050年实现零排放，如果不控制通过建筑进出的能源，就无法实现。到2050年，85%的现有建筑仍在使用，这表明改造建筑围护结构是必不可少的。在其他建筑围护结构中，窗户和外墙是最不节能的，但很容易更换。玻璃技术在决定建筑的能源性能方面起着重要的作用，需要在内部和外部环境之间通过传导对流、太阳和长波辐射来调节热量传递，同时通过允许自然光的透射来保持舒适的日光环境；减少了对辅助电力照明的需求。窗户和立面也发挥了重要的审美功能，为居住者提供了与外部环境的视觉联系，并影响了建筑物的外观。因此，为窗户和外墙开发新的智能玻璃技术，以调节室内空间的进出热量，减少建筑能源负荷，同时提供视觉舒适，这一点至关重要。拟议的项目旨在开展一项雄心勃勃的创新研究计划，开发新技术，以可接受的成本大幅减少建筑环境中的能源需求。该目标将通过减少热量损失，控制入射的太阳辐射以最大限度地提高太阳能增益，在冬季最大限度地减少热量损失，并在夏季通过翻转窗户来逆转热量损失，同时确保最佳的自然采光条件，没有眩光。节能和视觉舒适的首要目标将通过智能复合材料来实现，其中复合材料的每个元素都将带来独特的性能，并有助于提高窗户和立面的能源效率。在冬季，TIA将吸收外部红外辐射并将热量传递给PCM储存，这些热量将被释放回建筑物，复合材料中的TIM将通过长波热辐射阻止热量损失，红外反射涂层将通过将红外反射回室内来防止热量损失。在夏季，朝向将翻转，以减少冷负荷。在翻转情况下，红外反射层将阻止红外热增益，而TCM将调节透明度以控制室内温度常数。本课题研制的多层智能复合材料。这将使先进的玻璃技术实现低至0.4 W/m2K1的u值，同时保持舒适的日光环境，并将建筑物的年能耗降低30-40%。这项研究的结果将使我们能够创造出在英国实现节能建筑的技术途径。

Energy consumed by buildings for heating, cooling, and lighting needs, accounts for more than 40% CO2 emissions. However, while keeping the thermal and visual comfort, a substantial portion of energy is lost due to our inability to control the ingress and egress of energy through transparent building envelope - mainly windows and facades. The UK government's ambitious target of reaching zero emission by 2050 cannot be achieved without controlling ingress and egress of energy through buildings. By 2050, 85% of the existing building stock will still be in use which indicates that retrofitting of building envelope is indispensable. Among the other building envelope, windows and facades are the least energy efficient but are easily replaceable. Glazing technology plays an important role in determining a building's energy performance, required to perform multiple roles of regulating heat transfer by conduction convection, solar and long wave radiation between internal and external environments while maintaining comfortable daylight environments by allowing the transmittance of natural daylight; reducing the need for supplementary electric lighting. The windows and facades also play an important aesthetic function by providing occupants a visual link to the external environment and influencing the appearance of buildings. Thus, developing new smart glazing technology for windows and facades to modulate the incoming and outgoing heat into indoor space to reduce building energy load, while at the same time providing visual comfort, is crucial.The proposed project aims to undertake an ambitious innovative research program of developing new technology to significantly reduce energy demand in the built environment at an acceptable cost. The goal will be achieved by reducing heat loss, controlling incoming solar radiation to maximise solar gain, minimise heat loss in winter and reverse it by flipping windows in summer while ensuring the best natural lighting conditions with no glare.The overarching goal of energy efficacy and visual comfort will be achieved by smart composite material in which each elements of composite will bring a unique property and contribute to enhance energy efficiency of windows and facades. In winter, the TIA will absorb external IR radiations and transfer heat to PCM for storage, which will be released back to the building, the TIM in composite will forbid heat loss through longwave thermal radiation and the IR reflective coating will prevent heat loss by reflecting IR back to room. In summer, the orientation will be flipped around to reduce cooling load. In the flipped case, heat gain by IR will be prevented by IR reflective layer while the TCM will regulator the transparency to control the indoor temperature constant. The multi-fold smart composite developed in this research program. This will enable advanced glazing technology to achieve U-values down to 0.4 W/m2K1 while maintaining comfortable daylight environments and reduce annual energy consumption by 30-40% for buildings. The outcome of this research will enable us to create technological pathways towards achieving energy positive buildings in the UK.