A Study on Modifying Campus Buildings to Improve Habitat Comfort—A Case Study of Tianjin University Campus

Abstract

At present, the design and planning of teaching and living areas on university campuses are relatively straightforward but encounter problems, such as poor ventilation, low indoor air quality, and poor sound insulation. In this study, the teaching building and living area cluster at the Tianjin University campus were selected as the research objects. We verified the effectiveness of the simulation results before and after renovation through onsite testing. To improve ventilation, an atrium and patio were added to the teaching building, and the ventilation of the renovated building was studied. The indoor thermal environment intelligent control system regulates carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration and humidity in the teaching building and changes the thermal comfort of the teaching building. Limiting vehicle speeds near the teaching building and the living area cluster, using muffling materials and muffling equipment, and increasing greenery to reduce noise were factors we studied, considering whether they had a noise-reduction effect. It was found that the average number of air changes in the overall functional space of the first teaching building reaches 6.49 times/h, and the wind speed in the human activity region is below 1 m/s. When using a thermal environment intelligent control system, the indoor temperature throughout the year was within the thermal comfort range 81% of the time. The maximum noise around the teaching building during the daytime was 51.0 dB, the maximum noise at nighttime was 41.5 dB, and the maximum sound level on the facade of the living area cluster was 53 dB. The average noise-reduction rate was 22.63%, which exceeds the noise-reduction rate given in the above research literature.