Katerina Tsikaloudaki

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki | AUTH · School of Civil Engineering

The use of prefabricated elements is widely adopted in the construction sector to reduce the necessary on-site construction works and time, to maximise efficiency in material use and to mitigate on-site fabrication and assembly errors. The established use of such methodologies necessitates ongoing investigation and improvement of their performance...

The construction sector is responsible for a large part of CO 2 emissions, consumption of resources and generation of waste globally. Although the importance of construction and demolition waste management in a circular and sustainable way has been acknowledged on an academic and policy level, there are still steps needed to be taken both in terms...

Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) effective management is of vital importance, especially regarding the climate-neutral economy target set for 2050. The common practice of landfilling them during the past decades and ignoring the environmental impacts is now obsolete, with countries around the world adopting national regulations for their pro...

Nowadays, the adoption of techniques found in vernacular architecture has been proposed by numerous researchers as the key to enhancing energy efficiency and upgrading the environmental performance of contemporary buildings. Undoubtedly, vernacular architecture has its routes on the temporal development of building construction. Daylight design and...

Towards the achievement of nZEB and the enormous effort for mitigating climate change effects, new sustainable construction strategies are continuously introduced and adopted in the building sector. Thermal insulation is considered a fundamental strategy before moving to more complex ones. Over the past 50 years, thermal insulation is mainly concei...

In recent decades, steel frames infilled with precast load-bearing walls have been successfully employed as lateral load-resisting structural systems in high-rise buildings. This is due to their structural efficiency as outer and major inner facades and to the higher construction speed of the building. This paper presents a detailed experimental in...

Development and use of preconstruction have been exhibited for several decades. Numerous modules, ranging from the simplest to the most advanced concepts, have been suggested to ameliorate the layout of building structures, with respect to a broad spectrum of needs. This study aims to unfold the fire defensiveness of an innovative precast concrete...

Subject of this study is the analysis of the Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI), as well as its application for a residential building in Greece. The indicator, which was firstly introduced in the revised EPBD in 2018, assesses the buildings’ smart readiness through the examination of the presence and the evaluation of the functionality level of smart...

Although modern prefabricated buildings may offer many advantages, such as a significant reduction in cost and time, improved quality and accuracy in manufacture, easy dismantle and reuse of its components, etc., they have not gained the attention they deserve in the construction market yet. In this paper, a holistic approach for the formation of p...

Climate change has a major impact on the urban built environment, both with respect to the heating and cooling energy requirements, but also regarding the higher probability of confronting extreme events such as heatwaves. In parallel, the ongoing urbanization, the urban microclimate and the formation of the urban heat island effect, compounding th...

The paper concerns the development of an innovative building module with advanced thermophysical and mechanical properties that will be used in constructing sustainable prefabricated buildings with high structural, hygrothermal, energy, acoustic, fire and environmental performance at the minimum possible time and cost. In this paper, the configurat...

The complicated nature of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) (thermal, visual, acoustic comfort, etc.) dictates a multi-fold approach for desirable IEQ levels to be achieved. The improvement of building shells’ thermal performance, imposed by the constantly revised buildings’ energy performance regulations, does not necessarily guarantee the upgrad...

Heading towards more energy-efficient buildings, legislative requirements are becoming increasingly demanding. A decade ago, the thermal bridge effect was a known deficiency of building facades but, beyond design guidelines, no qualitative or quantitative requirements occurred in order to minimize its impact. The implementation of international sta...

Despite the multiple advantages of prefabricated compared to conventional buildings, such as significant reductions in cost and time, improved quality and accuracy in manufacture, easy dismantling and reuse of components, reduction in environmental degradation, increase of productivity gains, etc., they still share a small part of the European buil...

The increased rates of urbanization and industrialization of the 20th and 21st centuries have dramatically changed the land use and cover of modern cities, contributing to the degradation of the urban microclimate and the rise of the ambient urban air temperatures. Given the multiple negative energy, environmental and social consequences of urban w...

Towards the zero energy and emission future, near Zero Energy Buildings (nZEBs) lead the path for the building construction sector. European legislation provides normative provisions for the definition of nZEBs and their cost-optimal levels within the context of EPBD recast and Delegated Regulation No.244 (2012). However, that same framework unilat...

This study evaluates the effect of the morphological characteristics of 4 urban districts in Thessaloniki, Greece on the vertical profile of the Tair inside the various urban canyons under different meteorological conditions. ENVI-met v.4 microclimate simulations are conducted for the 4 selected case study areas, while different meteorological boun...

This paper presents the primary findings of a research project, aiming to introduce an innovative building module with improved thermophysical and mechanical properties that will serve as a bearing element and/or as an internal partition wall in prefabricated residential buildings. This new building module will comply with current requirements as r...

Several studies underline the dramatic changes that are expected to take place in nature and environment due to climate change. The latter is also expected to affect the built environment. Particular emphasis is currently given to the impact of climate change on historical structures. Within this context, it is important to use simple methods and n...

The Greek EPB regulation was recently reformed. During this procedure a scientific workgroup produced a series of Technical Guidelines for energy efficiency interventions in the existing building fabric constructed before 1955 (year of the 1 st building code), in order to be implemented in the new legislation. These old buildings differ in architec...

Replacing conventional pavements with the corresponding high albedo ones constitutes a well-known technique to improve outdoor thermal environment of modern cites. Since most of the existing studies assess the impact of the high albedo pavements at the pedestrian’s height and with respect to thermal comfort, this study aims to examine the effect of...

Double-skin facades (DSFs) are a technology that lies behind innovative energy efficient facade systems. While it provides a potential for high energy efficient buildings, other important parameters, like point thermal bridge problems, are in most cases overlooked. The aim of this study is to investigate the magnitude of this approach and the effec...

Increased urban air temperatures due to urbanization affect the buildings’ energy performance and the outdoor thermal comfort. Aiming on the establishment of adaption strategies, urban microclimate studies using numerical simulation tools are gaining great scientific attention. The ENVI-met model is one of the most widely employed dynamic simulatio...

Within the existing European building stock, a large share is built before 1960, when there were only a few or no requirements for energy efficiency. Given that only a small portion of these buildings have undergone major energy retrofits, it is easily concluded that the oldest part of the building stock contributes greatly to the high energy consu...

Aiming at the improvement of a dense urban area's microclimatic conditions, this study examines by simulation means, the application of highly reflective materials as a mitigation strategy. However, as significant albedo changes may occur due to weathering and aging, the study investigates the surface (Tsurf) and air (Tair) temperature cooling pote...

On the way to achieve the demanding energy efficiency targets that adopt and even surpass the requirements of near Zero Energy Buildings, numerous techniques and systems have been proposed and constructed, aiming not only at improving the thermophysical characteristics of the building envelope, but even convert it to a smart, adaptive or energetic,...

Predicting buildings' heating and cooling needs through dynamic simulation methods requires the input of hourly weather data, so as to represent the typical meteorological characteristics of a specific location. Hence, the so called 'typical weather years' (TWY), mainly deduced from multi-year records of meteorological stations outside the urban ce...

This paper investigates the public and professional attitudes towards an innovative energy efficient façade refurbishment system, in Mediterranean countries, including Greece, Italy and Spain. Two types of multiple choice questionnaires were developed and addressed to two different target groups: building professionals and users. The survey questio...

Urban sustainability has been connected to form and compactness of the urban tissue. At the same time the relationship between urban form and energy efficiency is strongly affected by climate. This paper investigates the effect of climate conditions on the relation between urban morphology and energy efficiency of urban blocks, focusing on the Gree...

Electricity generation on site is a design challenge aiming at supporting the concept of energy-autonomous building. Many projects worldwide have promoted the installation of photovoltaic panels on urban buildings, aiming at utilizing a large area to produce electricity. In most cases, photovoltaics are considered strictly as electricity generators...

The paper presents the ventilated facades as an intervention for efficient energy upgrade of new and, mainly, existing buildings. It focuses on the requirements that this specific building element should fulfill, with regard to legal, technical, social and financial aspects. More specifically, legal aspects concern mainly the regulations that deter...

In this paper, some well-known buildings’ environmental performance assessment tools and methods are reviewed with regard to the consideration of visual comfort in their structure and assessment process. Specifically, the parameters used for visual comfort's assessment in widely used tools (BREEAM, LEED, SBTool and CASBEE - versions for office buil...

Resent developments on the requirements regarding the thermal efficiency of buildings and building envelopes, have increased the need for energy retrofit of building envelopes. Cladding systems and ventilated facades are among the most attractive solutions to these problems due to a variety of reasons, including aesthetics, moisture control, servic...

This paper aims to analyse the changes that the new Hellenic Regulation on the Energy Performance of Buildings (REPB) has brought to the Hellenic residential buildings, which is in line with the European Directive 2010/31/EC. These changes refer to construction techniques, construction costs and energy performance. Our assessment is based on the nu...

In this study, three different Typical Weather Years (TWYs) generated in Meteonorm using different techniques are compared with each other and with an actual hourly climate dataset of a calendar year. The impact of different hourly weather files on building's annual energy needs is then assessed via dynamic simulations of a typical building. The an...

The present study investigates the impact of different intervention scenarios regarding morphological characteristics of an urban district of Thessaloniki on microclimatic parameters such as surface, air and mean radiant temperature distribution during a typical summer day. The proposed intervention scenarios include the total replacement of concre...

The high rates of urbanization are considered responsible for a negative impact on microclimatic parameters, provoking the significant rise of air temperature in urban districts and affecting the thermal comfort of pedestrians. Cool materials have been widely investigated as a strategy towards the amelioration of the local thermal environment; yet,...

This paper presents a feasibility analysis for the installation of ground source heat pump systems in Cyprus. Two reference buildings, a single- and a multi-family one, are designed and analyzed using the EnergyPlus software, in order to calculate their energy needs for heating and cooling for the climate conditions of Cyprus, one of the warmest ar...

Cladding systems have become an attractive solution in energy renovation of existing buildings since they combine multiple benefits. In such systems, the use of a metallic frame and brackets, which penetrates the thermal insulation layer, creates point thermal bridges that are usually neglected by thermal insulation regulations due to their calcula...

The paper focuses on the assessment of the windows’ contribution to the energy performance of buildings in the warmer regions of Europe. This is derived by calculating the cooling energy index qc and the area weighted energy needs for different window configurations installed on a reference room for two different building uses, office and residenti...

This paper attempts to analyse the changes that the new regulation on the energy performance of buildings (KENAK) has brought to the Greek residential buildings, which, according to the building census of 2000, hold approximately 77% of the building stock in the country. It is worth noticing that 74% of the residential buildings in Greece are singl...

During the last decade, several countries worldwide established systems for the energy rating of windows, which allow for the direct comparison of different window products on a common basis and enable the consumers and designers to select windows with regard to their energy performance. Most of the existing methodologies do not take into account t...

Thermal bridges have received much attention during the last decades, due to their role on the formation of the energy needs on one hand and the on-going objective for building energy efficiency on the other. Due to their complex nature, thermal bridge effect is taken into account by the linear thermal transfer coefficient Ψ. Values of Ψ can be det...

The paper presents the content and part of the results produced under the context of the SYNERGY research project, which focuses on the holistic study and development of building elements with advanced performance in the fields of energy, hygrothermal, fire and environmental performance. Although the above aspects may have been studied individually...

Thermal bridges have received much attention during the last decades, due to their role on the formation of the energy needs on one hand and the on-going objective for building energy efficiency on the other. In the proposed paper alternative configurations of the building façade are considered and the values of the linear thermal transmittance at...

The exploitation of forest and agricultural biomass residues for energy production may offer significant advantages to the energy policy of the relevant country, but it strongly depends on a number of financial, technological and political factors. The work in hand focuses on the investigation of the energy, environmental and financial benefits, re...

The application of green roofs on urban buildings is considered to have a positive impact on their thermal behaviour and local microclimatic conditions. According to the literature, their ability for attenuation of storm water run-off as well as their contribution to the building's thermal protection is among the most important benefits of this tec...

In this study the variations of concrete density and concrete thermal conductivity of various wall assemblies are considered to analyse their influence on the dynamic thermal characteristics, such as the decrement factor and time lag. The assemblies under study refer to insulated walls with variable concrete density and the concrete placement in on...

Bu makale, tipik bir 15. yuzyil Osmanli Hamami olan Selanik Bey Hamami ozelinde gerceklestirilmis olan, hamamlarda aydinlanma calismasini aktarmak uzere olusturulmustur. Calismanin amaci, hamam mekanlarinin kullanimina bagli degisen gunisigi duzeylerini ve bunlarin tinsel degerlerinin etki ve etkilesimini arastirmaktir. Bu amacla, hamamin farkli od...

Heat transfer through windows accounts for a significant proportion of energy used in the building sector for covering both heating and cooling needs, since the optical and the thermal characteristics of conventional fenestration products constitute them more “vulnerable” in energy flows when compared to opaque building elements. In this study, an...

K.L.); bikasd@civil.auth.gr (D.B.) Abstract: Nowadays, subjects such as eco-design requirements, product rating or code compliance with regard to energy efficiency are expanding towards a pan-European level. This leads to the necessity of defining zones within the European region, which share common climatic characteristics and will further facilit...

This document provides information regarding the state of the art of the building construction in Greece. At first, the overview of the building stock is presented, including detailed analysis about the evolution of building construction, as well as statistical data and the government housing policies. Special attention is given to buildings erecte...

The current interest in energy efficient design has led to a demand for methods of predicting daylight availability in buildings. However, basic daylight data, which are the basis of these prediction methods, are not available for most regions of Greece, as well as for many areas worldwide. For that purpose luminous efficacy can be used in order to...

The paper involves the study of the indoor comfort conditions prevailing in the glazed Observatory located on the roof of the Meteorological Bureau of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The study was based on in situ measurements and simulations of the thermal and visual environment as regards the existing conditions, the types of sun protec...

Recent studies worldwide have indicated the great influence of densely built urban areas on the formation of regional climatic conditions and particularly on the determination of the microclimate. The evaluation of human comfort in outdoor urban spaces and the identification of the parameters determining the microclimate in such areas are among the...

The objective of the current study is to investigate the performance of anidolic vertical openings under real climatic conditions in Greece. For that purpose, an anidolic ceiling was installed in a scale model and was placed next to a reference model equipped with a conventional facade. The models had identical interior photometric properties and g...