PhD Candidate Zherui Wang and Thermal Architecture Lab (TAL) researchers present at IBPSA-USA SimBuild 2024 on building thermal mass

Thermal Architecture Lab (TAL) led by Assistant Professor Dr. Dorit Aviv, is focused on leveraging architectural geometry to enhance building thermal performance and reduce both operational and embodied carbon throughout a building's lifespan. TAL is  participating in a 2-year U.S. Department of Energy grant to investigate carbon-absorbing floor slabs with the aim of achieving carbon negative buildings (see link). The basic principle of building thermal mass is that the storage material absorbs and stores heat during the day and releases it at night, with the aid of natural ventilation. In this manner, building thermal mass provides indoor temperature damping and shift, and alleviates over-reliance on mechanical cooling. Excitingly, intelligent geometry can augment thermal mass performance, while minimizing the material volume, thereby reducing the added embodied carbon associated with material use.

Ph.D. candidate Zherui Wang and postdoctoral researcher Xiang Zhang presented their work on how geometry can augment thermal mass performance using whole building energy simulation at the IBPSA-USA SimBuild 2024 Conference in Denver, Colorado. The team later traveled to Dallas, Texas to present the work at the annual ARPA-E summit.

Project team: Zherui Wang, Xiang Zhang, Hemant Diyalani, Xiaoxiao Peng

Collaborators: Salmaan Craig, Jihun Kim, Saeran Vasanthakumar