Stella Tsoka

University of Patras | UP · Department of Civil Engineering

The present study aims to evaluate the effect of climate change on the heating and cooling energy needs of a residential building unit, located in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece. Future weather files have been generated using both statistical and dynamical downscaling methods. In the first case, the Meteonorm weather generator was used to generat...

The current research proposes an integrated computational method to consider the effect of the urban microclimate and the higher urban air temperatures on the assessment of urban building energy demands on an annual basis. A one-way coupling procedure is established to generate datasets on typical weather years that can capture the particularities...

The prediction of buildings’ energy demand through dynamic energy performance simulation methods requires the input of climatic weather data that represent the typical meteorological characteristics of a specific location. Hence, the respective methods that have been used in the existing literature to generate the so-called typical weather years (T...

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...

Extreme thermal conditions and heat waves, as a result of global warming, have increased in recent years. Especially in the Mediterranean area, cities face higher temperatures during summer months which severely affect thermal comfort and citizens’ well-being. In this context, this study aims to evaluate the role of urban greenery as a mitigation s...

The present study aims to evaluate by simulation means, the effect of different night ventilations rates on the thermal and energy performance of typical building units, located in dense urban areas in Thessaloniki, Greece, both under thermostatic control and free-floating conditions. The numerical assessment is conducted with the dynamic building...

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...

This study presents an one-way coupling approach between the ENVI-met microclimate model and the EnergyPlus building energy simulation program, to assess the effect of the urban greenery on the improvement of the buildings' cooling energy needs, in a dense urban area in Thessaloniki, Greece. Three commonly encountered urban tree species with differ...

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...

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...

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...

Cool coatings have been widely investigated as a solution toward the improvement of the urban microclimate and the building’s energy performance; yet, assuming constant values of their surface properties for their whole life cycle may be misleading during their performance evaluation, as significant changes may occur over time due to weathering and...

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,...

The current study presents a simplified method towards the improvement of the ISO Standard for the wind driven rain (WDR) assessment; given that the corresponding semi-empirical ISO model only provides wall factor values for a limited number of façade configurations, potential variations along the building façades such as protrusion of windowsills,...

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...

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...

The study investigates the impact of two different strategies on the amelioration of the local thermal environment regarding surface and air temperatures, in two urban districts of Thessaloniki, the morphology of which present rather similar characteristics. The examined strategies include the use of cool materials and additional vegetation and tre...

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,...

The present paper investigates the indoor climate conditions of a sports building in Michel Walter Stadium in Strasbourg during typical and extreme summer conditions. The thermal modeling of the building is conducted using the simulation tool Pleiades Comfie. Different design strategies were analyzed such as solar shadings, usage of vegetation, dif...

Les grandes agglomérations sont de plus en plus souvent accusées de provoquer des modifications microclimatiques dont la plus importante et connue sous le nom de l'effet d'îlot de chaleur urbain. La chaleur excessive entrainée pendant la période estivale peut provoquer à la fois une consommation énergétique accrue pour des raisons de climatisation...