Review of thermal and environmental performance of prefabricated buildings: Implications to emission reductions in China

Prefabricated buildings recently became more prominent providing significant benefits including contribution to emission reductions at scale and the manufacturing of building components to high accuracy. However, in China, the proportion of prefabrication is lower than that in many developed countries. The prefabricated wall is one of the most important precast elements and its thermal performance has significant impacts on buildings' energy consumption and environmental performance. This work reviews the thermal performance of prefabricated walls encompassing survey of two common structures, precast concrete sandwich walls and lightweight steel-framed walls. The applicability and limitations of methods frequently used to determine the thermal resistances of these two walls are presented. This article also shows a literature review on the implications of prefabricated buildings to China's emission reductions. Compared to conventional buildings, the contribution of prefabricated buildings on China's emission reduction has been recognized. The potentials on building energy efficient and waste minimisation were also acknowledged. It is concluded that the prefabrication has been generally considered to be a more sustainable method in building sector. The energy-saving potential of prefabrication was demonstrated based on life cycle analysis and thermal performance evaluation. It was found the thermal performance of buildings has multiplied by adopting prefabricated façade elements for building retrofitting. More studies related to thermal performance of prefabricated walls with different structures shall be covered in future research. It is also suggested to develop a more representative result of energy performance by adopting prefabrication, with all dimensions of prefabricated buildings' feature considered.

Connector, Emissions reductions, Environmental performance, Prefabricated buildings and walls, Thermal performance

10.1016/j.rser.2020.110472

1364-0321

Yu, Sisi

0af51da3-bbba-43c9-acad-7427eabd0483

Liu, Yanfeng

a6e8b350-7e96-4d74-9337-e4a530cb5b9b

Wang, Dengjia

737ebb76-0b3a-418c-b88e-282e504d0aff

Bahaj, Abu Bakr S.

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Wu, Yue

a9704c03-5dad-4496-8472-87af8e14a712

Liu, Jiaping

aeb999bc-4ba3-49df-b92f-f0741e56511e

March 2021

Yu, Sisi

0af51da3-bbba-43c9-acad-7427eabd0483

Liu, Yanfeng

a6e8b350-7e96-4d74-9337-e4a530cb5b9b

Wang, Dengjia

737ebb76-0b3a-418c-b88e-282e504d0aff

Bahaj, Abu Bakr S.

a64074cc-2b6e-43df-adac-a8437e7f1b37

Wu, Yue

a9704c03-5dad-4496-8472-87af8e14a712

Liu, Jiaping

aeb999bc-4ba3-49df-b92f-f0741e56511e

Yu, Sisi, Liu, Yanfeng, Wang, Dengjia, Bahaj, Abu Bakr S., Wu, Yue and Liu, Jiaping (2021) Review of thermal and environmental performance of prefabricated buildings: Implications to emission reductions in China. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 137, [110472]. (doi:10.1016/j.rser.2020.110472).

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Accepted/In Press date: 14 October 2020

e-pub ahead of print date: 21 October 2020

Published date: March 2021

Additional Information: Funding Information: The development of prefabrication for building applications has not only attracted interest from investors and consumers, but also been actively encouraged by governments in many countries. In UK for example, it was required that a quarter of new publicly funded social housing must use modern methods of construction since 2004 [137]. In Hong Kong, many prefabricated components had been introduced into the construction activities, the applications of facade and staircase are the most common practices [128], and the precast concrete has been frequently applied in both public residential buildings and private sector [117]. The Chinese government has proposed that prefabrication will be one of the main ways for building applications in 2025, and the prefabricated building area of annual new building area should achieve about 30% [138]. On the other hand, prefabricated technology could provide an appropriate solution for overcoming the challenge of housing shortage faced by some developing countries, such as India [139], Tanzania [135], Nigeria [140], the Pacific island nations [141].This paper was supported by the National Key Research Project [Project No. 2016YFC0700400]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [Project Nos. 51590911, 51678468]; and the Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province [Project No.2018ZDCXL?SF?03-01]. Funding Information: This paper was supported by the National Key Research Project [Project No. 2016YFC0700400 ]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [Project Nos. 51590911 , 51678468 ]; and the Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province [Project No. 2018ZDCXL–SF–03-01 ]. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Keywords: Connector, Emissions reductions, Environmental performance, Prefabricated buildings and walls, Thermal performance