EVALUATION OF OPTIMAL HEIGHT THRESHOLD FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND THERMAL COMFORT IN TROPICAL HIGHRISE DWELLINGS

 The concept of high-rise buildings continues to provide a meaningful solution for land conservation in cities. Highrise buildings stand out for many good reasons. A challenge with them however, is that they demand huge amounts of energy to build and operate compared to low and medium-rise buildings. Studies show that this is largely due to the heating and/or cooling load required to sustain human activities at such great altitudes, amongst other factors. The concept of bioclimatic skyscrapers popularized by Ken Yeang is undoubtedly a good approach to tackling this challenge as it helps to save conventional energy, protect the environment and improve indoor thermal comfort. Some questions however still remain unresolved like; “What are the optimal design conditions for achieving bio-climatism in tall buildings? Should height be arbitrary? Does it bear significant influence on thermal comfort and energy use? If so, What is the nature of this influence? and How can developers use this knowledge to their advantage when planning highrise buildings?

Recent studies reveal that building energy use increases as height increases but very little is yet known about the empirical nature of this increase. This paper reviews existing literature related to the relationship between height, occupants’ thermal comfort and building energy use in tropical high-rise dwellings. The authors examine research gaps related to bioclimatic skyscrapers with specific attention to the influence of height as a major design parameter. It concludes that there is a need for further scientific investigations in the light of existing research gaps.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY, HVAC, THERMAL COMFORT AND PASSIVE DESIGN

 

The central philosophy behind green building is the judicious use of resources in a manner that provides for man’s needs today without jeopardizing the ability of the future generation to fulfill their own energy needs.

The illustration above shows the authors’ conceptualization of how energy consumption is related to the use of HVAC equipment, which emanates from the need to maintain a comfortable indoor environment for the occupants in terms of indoor air quality and thermal comfort. The arrows indicate the two way relationship between the sections implying that any change in either of the sections bears significance on the others.  The authors’ argue that for energy consumption to reduce, passive design strategies must be adjusted to provide alternative sources of natural ventilation and thermal comfort. Such design strategies may include but not limited to design issues affecting building height, form, orientation, etcetra.

If we are going to continue building tall, we must figure out how to keep the energy consumption of such buildings within environmentally and economically sustainable limits. 

Ph.D in India Vs. Ph.D in Nigeria - A Contemplation

 

Kosi Emmanuel Chukwujindu - During Ph.D in India - 2021

A PhD in any field of study is a rigorous self-undertaking that usually involves a lot of sacrifice on the part of the scholar.  The entire process leading up to the award of a Doctorate degree in any discipline is structured to ensure that the researcher makes a real contribution to knowledge in that field.

Often times, what we consider as the task at the beginning of our expression of interest to undertake a PhD research changes many times during the process and it helps to have proper guidance and a tailored program of work.

Speaking of proper guidance, it is expected that a Ph.D. research scholar must be guided by a supervisor who him / her self have earned their own doctorate in a related field. As a Nigerian who had enrolled for a Ph.D. study in Nigeria for six(6) years before deciding to leave the country to pursue the same degree abroad, my experience has been tough but I have learnt a lot for which I am immensely grateful.

In this post, I share the highlights of my experience as I can't help comparing conditions of study in both countries.

1. IMPROVED LECTURER'S ACCESSIBILITY 

In Nigeria, I had a hard time accessing my supervisor, he was of the Professor cadre and this meant he was only in school on scheduled days. If you didn't catch him on any of those, then you had to wait till the next time. It's different here in India. The Professors are always on seat and willing to discuss your work anytime. This was a real consolation to me because now I knew I only had to focus on the progress of my research and not bother about chasing the guide, since he's always on sit.

2. INFO/EXPOSURE TO LATEST RESEARCH TOOLS 

In my university in Nigeria, because the lecturers are not very accessible, it's harder to grab guidance on what best research tools are there and how best to combine them. There seems to be a certain "darkness" surrounding this and sometimes one would almost conclude it appears they are not very hands-on with the tools, themselves. This makes it tougher for research scholars in Nigeria to compete with their global counterparts. In India however, I found most research guides had practical current knowledge of research tools and software applications. We were literally thought the use of simulation softwares during the coursework part of our first year. 

This was a huge departure from my African background where if you learnt to use any software at all, you either enrolled for a private lesson at a private tutor place or you got a friend to show you privately, practical exposure to research/simulation software never came from my supervisors.

3. FEWER DISTRACTIONS

The biggest challenge I faced while enrolled as a Ph.D. research scholar in Nigeria was my own inability to focus on the research due to multiple distractions from other engagements such as my very demanding private practice, family, and lecturing. It was easy to drift off from the research when you had a thriving Architecture practice and a demanding lecturing job. I figured if I would make any headway with my PhD work, then I had to get away from all the distractions and the only way to do so was to leave the country to the greatest surprise of everyone, to go somewhere I can focus and finish off the research and probably get better supervision. I had to leave and I had to do so quickly!

I realized PhD research was in itself a full time engagement.

4. NO STUDENT LEVIES

In Nigeria, it was common to have the students levied by lecturers and the school for buying research related equipment for the department. One time we had to pay NGN5,000 each in order to procure a new set of public address system and projector for the department seminar room. The condition was that whoever did not contribute this sum, would not be permitted to present his work in the seminar room and ofcourse you could forget about getting any objective feedback on your work.

In India, I havent paid a rupee for anything departmental asides my tuition and exam fees. Everything is taken care of by the department and maintained by the school authority. This was also a relief.

5. HIGHER GLOBAL BEST PRACTISE AWARENESS

As they say, PhD degree is the highest academic degree obtainable and it is a globally recognized academic venture. Coming to India helped me refine my research to take a global perspective on the research questions I was trying to find answers to. 

6. BETTER QUALITY OF RESEARCH OUTPUT

For some reason Nigerian scholars abroad seemed to be producing richer quality of research output in many disciplines compared to our colleagues in Nigeria. This is a personal observation and I am still unsure why it is so. I think there is no pressure to compete international scheme of things at home in Nigeria, this has a negative effect on researchers ambitions. We settle for whatever can get us past the degree, even if its not relevant anywhere else. 

Also, I saw a metric somewhere that rated research publications from Nigeria, Kenya South Africa and the United States. In terms of economic impact of research, Nigeria scored zero. This points to the fact that in Nigeria, it's either the government does not rely on research output for making economic decision or the research output do not have any immediate or midterm economic relevance. This should be looked into.

7. EXPOSURE TO OTHER INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Doing research while surrounded by a diverse community of co-researchers and scholars naturally lifts your threshold for excellence.

Subscribe to this blog for more of such discussions and leave a comment below if you find any more differences or think differently about something I've highlighted here. Would be glad to discuss

THE IMPACTS OF DUPLICATE OR OVERLAPPING PUBLICATIONS

Duplicate or overlapping publications is a situation where an author publishes the same body of work in its entirety or at least 2/3rd of the original work in multiple journals in order to increase his or her publication count.

Authors and researchers are usually caught in such situations due to pressure to publish or pressure to obtain certain privileges from their academic institution or grant agency. 

There are several drawbacks associated with this kind of unethical research conduct and they include: 

i).  Redundancy : 

this means that there are multiple publications with the same content and value, hence there is no real progress made, They are all saying the same thing. They do not help the future readers or researchers to make positive progress in subsequent works, they only keep repeating the same old knowledge into many places.

ii). Waste of Time : 

Such a practice amounts to a waste of the author's time as well as the reader's time. This is because research is dynamic and every day new knowledge is expected to emerge in every discipline. However, an author who takes to redundant, duplicate, or overlapping publications is actually wasting valuable research time which would otherwise have been channeled to discover new knowledge in the given research area.

iii). Confusion: 

Where multiple publications are made of the same literary content, it tends to cause confusion to the editors, reviewers, and researchers who struggle to identify if there is any new knowledge in the multiple publications. This ultimately leads to confusion because in the end they may be forced to retract some of the publications which may have already been cited by other researchers who did not realize that the works were duplicated or overlapping.

iv). Poor Literary Development of The Scholar :

When a research scholar resorts to duplicate or redundant publishing, he or she fails to develop his / her literary prowess and this ultimately leads to poor quality of researchers who may not be well fitted for technical positions in life and career paths where they belong.

v). Public Loss of Trust in the Parent Organisation : 

Any organization whose members are identified to consistently indulge in duplicate or overlapping publications will eventually lose the trust of the public or funding agency. It is therefore the responsibility of such organizations to ensure that they set up a research and publication ethics committee to vet and approve research works coming from members of their organization in order to ensure quality and guarantee adherence to ethical standards. Also, it is important for such organizations to retract any identified duplication or overlapping publications without recourse to who it is.

EXPLAINING THE USE OF PLAGIARISM SOFTWARE IN RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS

Source : clipartstation.com

A plagiarism software is a computer application that is designed to identify and quantify the extent of "external material" or "similarity to external material" that is contained in any given literary work. 

Plagiarism is a serious and unpardonable misconduct when it comes to academic publishing. It is a situation where an author presents part or whole of another authors work within his own work as if it originally belonged to him and goes ahead to publish same into public domain without making citation or reference to the origin or source of the material.

Because research is a continuum, it is expected that future researchers fall back on already existing body of knowledge for guidance and direction while conducting their own original research which will in turn lead to their own original new found knowledge. However ethical guidelines for research, mandates the researcher to make proper declarations wherever he has borrowed material from another author. This would ultimately contribute to and enrich the existing body of knowledge in the given research field.

However since it has been observed that researchers frequently fail to declare the borrowed contents in their works, the plagiarism software tool is applied while reviewing articles in order identify any such similarities between the current proposed publication and existing database of knowledge.

HOW IT WORKS

i). Submission : 

First the author submits his proposed literary work to a given journal or group of editors who call for papers or are desirous of compiling new knowledge in the given field of interest. The submission is required to be made in a soft copy (editable).

ii). Plagiarism check : 

The group of editors or reviewers usually have an in-house software application installed on their computer or available online where they pass the softcopy proposal through in order to check it for any possible similarities between existing database in the given field. The software is usually designed to read through the entire proposal and check it against the existing published works that have been catalogued in its memory. 

iii). Plagiarism quantification : 

The software usually presents the result of its check in terms of number of phrases, sentences and paragraphs that bear significant similarity to existing publications known to the software. This number of similarity occurrence is calculated a s percentage and usually only 10-15% of similarity is allowed. Literary works bearing similarity beyond 15% may require further human investigation to determine and establish possible plagiarism.

iv). Acceptance or Rejection : 

Based on the results from the plagiarism quantification by the software, the group of editors will either accept or reject the submitted proposal and will advice the author to make adjustments accordingly and resubmit for further evaluations.

Plagiarism detection software works as a safeguard for original content and serious writers, to protect their creative properties from literary thieves.

AN EVALUATION OF BUILDING HEIGHT EFFECTS ON THERMAL COMFORT IN HIGH-RISE OFFICE BUILDINGS IN THE TROPICAL ENVIRONMENT

PROPOSED TITLE OF THESIS                                          An Evaluation Of Building Height Effects On Thermal Comfort in High-rise Office Buildings in the Tropical Environment

SYNOPSIS

INTRODUCTION

Nigeria as a developing economy situated in the tropical climate zone is faced with a number of economic and environmental challenges when it comes to the development of her housing sector. High-rise buildings provide a borrowed but welcome solution to some of these challenges but however must be adapted to suit our own climate and weather conditions. The problem this study is concerned with solving is that of thermal discomfort experienced in high-rise office buildings in the hot humid tropical environment mostly due to arbitrary transfer of western Architectural styles. This study aims to evaluate the possible influence of increase in building height on indoor thermal comfort in high-rise office buildings in the study area with a view to understand the behaviour of high-rise buildings in our climate and thus provide guidelines for the future design of such buildings in the tropical area. The research gap this study intends to fill is easily observed in the plethora of literature from research works addressing related issues like thermal comfort in low-rise office and residential buildings, building height effects on outdoor thermal comfort of a city, but none has actually addressed the possible effects of increase in building height on indoor thermal comfort in high-rise office buildings within the tropical environment. The objectives to aid the achievement of the aim above include: Survey of existing high-rise office buildings in the study area and their constructed heights, empirical assessment of indoor thermal comfort in the sample high-rise buildings at different floor levels during working hours, qualitative assessment of indoor thermal comfort in the sample high rise buildings at different floor levels during working hours, use of statistical analysis tools to compare results from the empirical and qualitative assessments and statistical analysis of experimental results to establish significant relationship(s) between building height and indoor thermal comfort (if any).

FILING IN THE ARCHITECTURE OFFICE

by Kosi Emmanuel Chukwujindu

File-store, Geometrix Consultants & Builders ltd. Abuja.
photo credits: Kosi Emmanuel Chukwujindu

files are the backbone of every office. In an Architecture office, these files will typically contain drawings, contract papers, bidding arrangements, quantity estimates for proposed construction works, and the list continues...

My first task as an intern at Geometrix back in 09' was to clean and arrange dusty file jackets, the likes of which can be seen in the image to the left. I remember I was thrilled by the experience. I wondered how one man and one office could have accumulated such hefty portfolio in one life time - and still counting... I was inspired. But that is only a bubble compared to the filing ingenuity that was in-place at the office. The system was solid and error proof. This post is dedicated to helping Young Architects, interns or project managers, with a glimpse into what filing should be in an Architecture consortium.

First: There are A4 and A3 files. They are seperated in location. Then there is a list for each of them. This list is printed and handy. In this print-out, the file name eg: 'ORANTO Hotel Asokoro' as well as the file number eg: 'DS 757' are indicated. It is also standard practise that all presentation drawings made before the project is awarded, are stored in the A4 file, while all eventual working drawings which were prepared and sent for approval from the office are stored in the A3 folder of the same project.