Vishakha V. Sakhare

Development of sustainable retrofitting material for energy conservation of existing buildings

Energy conservation in buildings plays a vital role for sustainable development of societies and nations. Although, newer buildings in developing nations are being constructed using energy conservation approach, existing buildings have higher energy demand to meet the desired comfort. Excessive energy demand for cooling the built environment is a major problem over most of the arid climatic zones. The problem is predominant in all the top storied buildings which are directly under exposed roof condition. In order to reduce the overheating of the roof surface a composite combination of reflecting-cuminsulating (R-I) material was developed. The sustainable materials viz., expanded polystyrene (construction waste), saw dust (industrial waste), and the false ceiling panels prepared from industrial waste were used for the development of sustainable RI material. The R-I material was retrofitted over the existing roof of a model room in an educational building over composite climate (Nagpur, India) and was analyzed experimentally for the period of a year. The thermal resistance of the overall roof assembly was increased from 0.28 to 0.55 m² K/W, which in turn helped to achieve 16% of the duration of the year under thermal comfort. The developed R-I material has also an advantage of low cost (INR 900 per sq. m.) of installation as well as light weight (50 kg/m²) retrofitting solution. The R-I product can further be applied on larger roof areas by the designers to reduce the cooling load of the built environment as well as increase the occupants comfort over the local climatic zone.

Development of multi-parametric functional index model for evaluating the indoor comfort in built environment

Due to rapid urbanization of developing cities, the planners have a major challenge in designing climate responsive built environment for modern urban dwellers. In order to maintain a good built environmental quality, the various key design parameters of existing built form would need to be reviewed and analyzed to seek appropriate improvement. The present paper highlights the case study of a test room model in an educational campus. The experimentation was carried out in composite climatic zone of Nagpur in India. The desired built environment parameters viz., indoor light intensity, temperature and humidity was recorded and analyzed during experiments under controlled conditions of room openings. A functional index model was developed by this study using the multi-parametric regression analysis of the results. The qualitative assessment of the aforesaid parameters in terms of indoor comfort in the built environment was carried out. The developed mathematical index model for various functional parameters over the given geographic location can suitably be used by the designers for evaluating and enhancing the indoor comfort of a built environment suitable for the climate of Nagpur, India.

Redevelopment of Urban Slum Dwellings: Issues and Challenges

Urbanization has created a large housing demand of urban poor. Although different stakeholders are involved, there is a challenge to meet the redevelopment of urban slum dwelling projects in an effective manner. The concept is discussed with a case study of a slum in Nagpur City. Physical data was collected from stakeholders (construction material choices and cost incurred) and site monitoring (indoor temperature and light). The study revealed the possible issues and challenges related to project execution, i.e. resource and time management. The outcome of the study is to suggest a suitable strategy for improving the functionality of the project to increase the speed and conserve the resources that ultimately benefit government as well as end user.