Integrated structural and energy building retrofit by reinforced concrete wall addition

Abstract

AbstractIn light of the paramount considerations of environmental sustainability and the protection of both life and property, a significant number of existing reinforced concrete (RC) buildings fall short of meeting contemporary standards in terms of their structural and energy performances. In response to these pressing concerns, there is an imperative need for comprehensive building retrofitting processes that integrate both structural and energy considerations. One such approach, the addition of RC walls, is commonly employed as a structural retrofitting technique. However, its potential to enhance overall building efficiency has been relatively underexplored in previous research. In this study, we focus on a representative RC building and utilize two key performance indices: structural residual life and energy consumption, to comprehensively evaluate the impact of RC wall retrofitting on both structural and energy performance. Our investigation considers retrofitting on both the exterior and interior sides of the building. It is observed that the structural performance exhibits notable improvement with the addition of RC walls on either side, and this improvement becomes even more pronounced when complemented by local retrofits to adjacent beams. While the RC walls added on the interior side have negligible impact on the building energy efficiency, those installed on the exterior side could obviously reduce the energy consumption of the HVAC system by 7.9%. Hence, the outcomes of this study indicate that employing the RC wall retrofitting on the exterior side of the existing building is an efficient way to reach structural and energy performance targets simultaneously.