Material impacts on operational energy usage

Decisions regarding materials and construction of a building are made all the time in the architectural process, but thought is not always given to how those choices may affect the buildings ultimate energy usage and the impact they may have on climate change. This thesis focuses on concrete structures and how the thermal mass and the thermal resistivity influence energy usage. The investigation was done looking at large commercial office buildings in the climates of Phoenix and Chicago. A comparison was conducted between a steel frame and concrete frame structure, showing how the differing thermal mass impact energy usage. An investigation was also undertaken to better understand thermal bridging in concrete commercial building envelopes and the impact they have.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Love, Andrea, S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Leslie Keith Norford.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/65440

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/65440