Integrated Thermal-Energy Analysis of Innovative Translucent White Marble for Building Envelope Application

Federica Rosso, Anna Laura Pisello, Franco Cotana and Marco Ferrero
Additional contact information
Federica Rosso: Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering (DICEA), University of Rome "Sapienza", Via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Roma, Italy
Anna Laura Pisello: Department of Engineering, University of Perugia, Via G. Duranti 67, 06125 Perugia, Italy
Franco Cotana: Department of Engineering, University of Perugia, Via G. Duranti 67, 06125 Perugia, Italy
Marco Ferrero: Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering (DICEA), University of Rome "Sapienza", Via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Roma, Italy

Sustainability, 2014, vol. 6, issue 8, 1-24

Abstract: Marble is a natural material, used in the construction field since antiquity. It has always been used to communicate monumentality and solidity. Nowadays new technologies permit marble to express new languages: particularly, translucent marble technology overturns the concept of solidity. The main issue to address is the lack of thermal-energy performance of such a thin stone layer as the only facade component. Conversely, Bianco Carrara and Statuario marbles, for instance, have intrinsic benefits as natural cool materials, due to their high solar reflectance and thermal emissivity. Thus, this paper analyzes the thermal-energy and environmental behavior of marble facade for a new designed building in New York City. An integrated analysis of the energy performance of the marble skin is performed through a preliminary experimental characterization, carried out for two different types of naturally white marble, for comparative purposes. Then, a dynamic simulation model of the building is developed to evaluate year-round benefits and drawbacks of the translucent marble envelope in terms of indoor thermal comfort and air-conditioning requirement. The analysis showed how the proposed marble facade is able to decrease the energy requirement for cooling up to 6%, demonstrating possible relevant perspectives for marble-based facades, even in energy-efficient buildings.

Keywords: thin translucent marble; building envelope; energy efficiency in buildings; cool natural material; optic-energy and thermal characterization; dynamic thermal-energy simulation of buildings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/8/5439/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/8/5439/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2014:i:8:p:5439-5462:d:39411

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().