ROBUST DESIGN FOR BUILDING THERMAL INSULATION MATERIAL

Abstract

This work studies a building thermal insulation material design problem using an optimization-based approach. A basic design optimization model is first developed, which considers both economic and environmental impacts in a comprehensive manner. To account for the uncertainties in environmental parameters, this work proposes a robust design model that can generate solutions against the effects of parameter uncertainties. For addressing the computational challenges of the robust design model, a novel solution approach is proposed to achieve a safe approximation, which is then solved via a sequence of convex optimization models. Computational studies based on a high-rise apartment in Shanghai are performed. Numerical results demonstrate that the robust design model can effectively mitigate against the effects of uncertainties, and also outperforms the solutions from a sampling based design model across various performance metrics.