Browsing by Author "López Guerrero, Rafael Eduardo"

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    A quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the sustainability of industrialised building systems: A bibliographic review and analysis of case studies
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2022) López Guerrero, Rafael Eduardo; Vera Araya, Sergio Eduardo; Carpio Martínez, Manuel; CEDEUS (Chile)
    The building construction has a significant impact on sustainability worldwide. However, industrialised building systems (IBS) might reduce these impacts compared to traditional building systems (TBS). Previous literature reviews have analysed IBS's sustainability, based primarily on environmental aspects and through qualitative indicators, disregarding a detailed quantitative comparison between both technologies and nor considering economic and social sustainability indicators. To fill this gap, this paper aims to evaluate vis-à-vis IBS's sustainability in relation to TBS, based on the quantitative and qualitative indicators studied in the literature. Thus, an exhaustive bibliographic review of IBS and TBS case studies was conducted. In total, 67 scientific papers were selected (papers, book chapters and reports), containing 86 case studies. Major findings indicated that IBS are more sustainable in almost all studied values – except construction costs. Nevertheless, this advantage depends on material design, prefabrication levels, transportation, work management and each author's methodological approaches. These factors are discussed to explain the reasons for IBS′ sustainability. Furthermore, main conclusions indicate that sustainability assessments have been unbalanced in literature, with few analyses of economic and social performance, and some indicators have been poorly studied (e.g., water and acidification potential), so their results are not yet representative. Similarly, reusability, prefabrication levels and the social indicators of IBS were insufficiently analysed in the reviewed case studies. Finally, the current review highlights IBS sustainability indicators that have been less studied in order to motivate new investigations in the broader field, exposing the IBS sustainability outlook and other research gaps.
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    Urban heat islands' effects on the thermo-energy performance of buildings according to their socio-economic factors
    (Elsevier, 2024) López Guerrero, Rafael Eduardo; Verichev, Konstantin; Cárdenas, Juan Pablo; Carpio Martínez, Manuel
    Urban areas experience the urban heat island (UHI) effect, which affects the thermal comfort and energy consumption of buildings. These consequences could vary depending on the socio-economic status of the neighbourhoods. Few studies have investigated how UHI affects socio-economically contrasting districts in thermal comfort and energy performance. Therefore, the primary goal of this research is to evaluate and compare the energy efficiency and thermal comfort conditions of residential buildings in the same city (Temuco, Chile) but located in socio-economically contrasting neighbourhoods. Urban weather files were first modelled in four urban zones using UWG software. Also, EnergyPlus building simulations were conducted to evaluate discomfort hours in adaptive comfort models and energy performance. The results showed annual average UHI intensities between 1.5 and 2.5 K. Urban–rural cooling energy load differences ranged between 12.47% and 38.92%, while heating energy load differences ranged between −20.47% and −81.95%. These distinctions depended on the urban zone, residence model analysed, or energy building standard applied. Similarly, urban-rural differences in thermal comfort times varied from 0.5% to 100%. Results illustrate that the risk of overheating could increase in socio-economically vulnerable areas. This issue could worsen if urban segregation continues to generate poor urban design in low-income districts.