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This paper relates to the mechanical performance of timber-glass composite beams, which take exceptional advantage of the combination of the materials involved. Beam bending tests were performed with beams made from float glass and heat-strengthened glass. Three different adhesive types were used: silicone, acrylate and epoxy. The test results show that, with a proper design, the timber is able to transfer load after glass failure and hence collapse is delayed and a ductile behavior can be obtained. The results from the tests were compared with an analytical method using the gamma-method and the agreement between the analytical method and the tests are shown to be excellent.

Interests in radiant cooling systems have increased in recent years. There is, however, no standardized method for radiant system design that is broadly accepted by the building industry. Through literature review, twelve surveys and eight interviews with leading practitioners, this paper summarizes the design methods documented in the guidelines, assesses the state of the industry, and identifies potential gaps and limitations in current design practice. The findings include: 1) design guidelines provide a wide range of approaches for cooling load calculation and system sizing; 2) most practitioners calculate cooling load for radiant systems the same way as for air systems, with only 23% of the respondents reported using dynamic simulation tools that have the capability to model radiant systems for cooling load estimation; 3) 46% of the respondents reported that steady state analysis methods/tools were used for radiant system sizing.

CO2 removal from flue gas emitted by coal fired power plants is an important objective for process sustainability. However, solvent regeneration in state-of-the-art absorption processes results in power plant efficiency losses of 7 to 15 % (Neveux et al., 2013). Process intensification, combining different and innovative technologies for gas separation, can result in highly efficient processes capable of reducing the energy penalty caused by CO2 capture. Current approaches for conceptual process design (CPD) however rarely consider emerging technologies like membrane contactors or hybrid process configurations. We present a multi-stage approach to overcome this drawback, which bases on process decomposition in different levels, combined with an efficient screening of promising materials and process design variants by means of shortcut methods. The approach follows the idea of an iterative refinement, in which the modeling accuracy increases while the number of process variants decreases.

Although refurbishment is a necessary step to reach the ambitious energy and decarbonisation targets for 2020 and 2050, which require an eventual reduction up to 90% in CO2 emissions, the rate of renovation is still relatively low. There is an increasing demand to upgrade both the physical condition and the performance of the building, with the minimum disturbance to the interior, so that the occupants do not have to be relocated during construction. Thus, the role of the occupant becomes essential not only in terms of performance during the post-refurbishment phase, but also in terms of the design and planning of the refurbishment. Furthermore, the traditional design and delivery processes are fragmented and are not efficient to take on the challenges ahead. To address these issues, the 2ndSkin-BTA project brings different stakeholder together, aiming at reversing the traditional decision-making process, to integrate their expertise and objectives into an innovate building technology concept. The objective is to design, construct and monitor a renovation project that achieves zero energy use of a dwelling, while providing upscaling possibilities and broad adoptability of the process. This paper presents the first project phase, which is the integrated design process. To this end, the development of the preliminary design of the refurbishment strategy is based on a reference building. It proceeds in parallel with the prototypes’ development and it benefits from the test results. Nevertheless, the proposed design is not a one-project solution but rather an approach that highlights the underlying argumentation line for different retrofitting measures, in different cases.