Classes

Consensus understanding of climate change identifies a need to drastically reduce anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases in coming decades, including those associated with buildings. In this course, we seek a thermofluids understanding of the basics of natural and mechanical systems for conditioning high-performance buildings and will develop and assess systems based on this understanding. We will for new and existing buildings. Can these and other buildings, large or small, meet municipal and global goals for decarbonization? Should they simply depend on a decarbonized grid or can energy consumption be substantially reduced relative to current practice? Can they be maintained at a comfortable temperature with little or no use of mechanical systems? Can waste heat at building or community scale be effectively captured and reused – or, at last resort, transferred to the environment with minimal environmental and financial cost?

Topics include the thermal and fluid dynamics of airflow in buildings, application to multi-zone wind- and buoyancy-driven airflows. Building cooling strategies will be motivated by mapping conventional and innovative cooling systems on the psychrometric chart. First-principles analysis and simulations with an equation-based language, Modelica, and with EnergyPlus will be used to quantify the performance of energy recovery systems, membrane- and desiccant-based dehumidification, evaporative cooling, thermal storage at diurnal (building materials) and annual (ground-coupled heat pumps) scales and radiant cooling and heat-rejection systems. Current-practice and advanced district heating and cooling systems will be explored. Working in groups and making use of design workflows under development at MIT and Harvard, we will assess climate- and building-specific systems based on thermal comfort, energy consumption, carbon emissions and resilience to climate change. Project-based testing of speculative proposals, based on natural or man-made systems, will be encouraged.

Studies the thermofluid principles of, and design strategies for, natural and mechanical systems for conditioning high-performance buildings that are needed to reduce anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases in coming decades. Topics include the dynamics of airflow in buildings in urban areas and the design of natural and mixed-mode ventilation systems, low-energy strategies and systems for dehumidification and sensible cooling, and thermal storage at diurnal and seasonal time scales. System design in leading commercial practice is presented and critiqued by invited practitioners and students. Through a group project, students assess climate- and building-specific systems on the basis of energy consumption, carbon emissions, and resilience to climate change.