Figen Balo

Selecting an optimal insulation solution for a building envelope requires more than minimizing thermal conductivity, since building-scale energy performance, operational carbon emissions, acoustic comfort, moisture behavior, and mechanical durability all compete for priority. This study proposes a complementary simulation and multi-attribute decision analysis (MADA) framework to support insulation-material selection for the envelope of a contemporary religious education building located in Ankara, Türkiye. Eight advanced polymer aerogel families (polyurethane, polyurea, polyimide, polymethylsilsesquioxane, polyisocyanurate, phenolic, cellulose, and nanocellulose aerogels) were combined with three structural wall materials (aerogel concrete, clay brick, and autoclaved aerated concrete) and two envelope configurations, yielding 48 candidate wall assemblies. Dynamic whole-building simulations were performed in IES-VE to quantify annual heating and cooling energy demand and operational CO₂ emissions for each assembly under identical building conditions. The simulation outputs were assessed at the whole-wall-assembly scale, while literature-based material properties (thermal conductivity, density, compressive strength, sound absorption coefficient, and water contact angle) were assessed individually at the material scale through MADA. Criteria weights were determined via LOGSTA and SIWEC-M, and the eight aerogel materials were ranked using MUNRA, benchmarked against seven additional ranking methods. While polyisocyanurate aerogel (A5) achieved the lowest annual operational energy use and CO₂ emissions among the simulated wall assemblies, based on the adopted criteria, the extracted property values from the literature, and the combined weighting system, the material-level MADA ranked A3 as the best material. An average pairwise Spearman correlation of 0.945 indicated agreement among ranking methods, while extended sensitivity analyses showed that A3 leads when mechanical robustness is weighted substantially, A8 is the most stable alternative across divergent priorities, and A5 leads under thermal priority. These results illustrate that operational energy performance at the building level and the multifunctional product-level suitability for the material are two separate but complementary aspects of insulation selection and that a full economic and life-cycle environmental analysis is hindered by the lack of information on additional costs and embodied carbon.

The building industry is the largest consumer of energy and the largest source of carbon emissions, and the sustainable development of building envelopes is thus inevitable. Among the facade systems, metal cladding materials offer a number of benefits such as high durability, architectural freedom, and recyclability; however, the choice of these materials needs to be based on several performance aspects. This research presents a novel comprehensive approach for analyzing metal cladding options in a health care building through the integration of building energy simulation and multi-attribute decision analysis (MADA) techniques. A primary health care facility in Istanbul, Türkiye, was used as a case example. Eight metal cladding materials—steel, aluminum, copper, zinc, titanium, stainless steel, Corten steel, and magnesium alloy—were evaluated against various wall and insulation combinations. The assessment combined energy with physical–mechanical, thermal, acoustic, and sustainability indicators such as density, thermal conductivity, Young’s modulus, damping capacity, traffic noise insulation, service life, and recyclability. A series of building energy simulations was performed to estimate the effect of facade design options on yearly energy consumption, and the resulting data set was analyzed based on the CRITIC, LOPCOW and ALPAS methods. This method allows the comprehensive evaluation of metal cladding material on energy efficiency, structural strength, acoustic performance, durability, and circularity simultaneously. The results provide a practical decision support framework for sustainable facade material selection in health care and other energy-intensive buildings. Titanium emerged as the optimal metal cladding material, distinguished by its superior combination of low thermal conductivity, damping capacity, and recyclability under both CRITIC and LOPCOW weighting schemes. Comparative analysis across nine MADA methods (ρ = 0.932) and sensitivity analysis over 70 scenarios confirmed the robustness of this finding, with titanium retaining first place in 64 out of 70 perturbation scenarios. These outcomes provide materials engineering insight into how the mechanical, thermal, and durability characteristics of structural metals and alloys translate into differentiated in-service performance, offering evidence-based guidance for metal selection in facade applications. The outcomes reported relate to one health care facility located in Istanbul and demonstrate the potential of the novel framework for the specific investigated case but are not intended to be generalized across all building types and climatic zones or to provide universally applicable material rankings.

The selection of materials for enhancing the energy performance of historic mosque structures, which form a significant part of Türkiye’s cultural heritage, should be based on scientifically supported methodologies and should also consider their architectural nature. In this work, an innovative Energy3D–MADA approach is developed for the comparative evaluation of thermal performance and sustainable selection of heritage natural stones. The proposed framework concentrates on the thermal aspect, while environmental, economic, mechanical, and material-related acoustic indicators are used as supplementary decision indicators. The study examined eight representative heritage natural stones using a representative Ottoman composite masonry wall. For the four climatic regions of Türkiye, the energy performance was predicted, and 32 scenarios were obtained. The annual heating and cooling energy requirements, total operational energy, operational CO₂ emissions, and costs of wall manufacturing were investigated through Energy3D. The results of the simulation indicated that the natural stones had a considerable impact on the performance of historic mosque buildings. Od Stone (Tuff) had the lowest heating and cooling annual energy demand, the minimum total operational energy consumption, and the fewest operational CO₂ emissions among all the alternatives considered, while Red Granite had the greatest energy demand. Compared to Red Granite, Od Stone achieved reductions in annual heating energy of 31%, in total operational energy consumption of 22–25%, and in operational CO₂ emissions of 22–25%, with only about a 1% increase in initial construction cost. Spearman’s rank correlation analysis (ρ) indicated the same ranking in all climate regions, which demonstrated the ranking consistency of the Energy3D-based comparative analysis. Ultimately, the Energy3D simulation outcomes were combined with the LODECI, MEREC, SPC, SIWEC-M, and ALPAS techniques to formulate a decision-support system for the comparative analysis and prioritization of heritage natural stones, to support sustainable mosque design and heritage conservation planning.

An approach for the thermo-energy and environmental evaluation of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA)-based biopolymer coatings in green building envelopes is presented in this study. A boutique hotel designed for Antalya, Türkiye, was selected as a case study, and 117 multi-layer wall composites assemblies incorporating 13 different PHA-based coatings were evaluated. The thermal conductivity values were predicted by a crystallinity-dependent semi-empirical equation and used in dynamic building simulations with Integrated Environmental Solutions–Virtual Environment (IES-VE) to predict the annual energy use and CO₂ emissions. The performance of material was evaluated based on biodegradability, density, crystallinity, thermal stability, and mechanical properties by using the integrated LOGSTA–LODECI weighting and MUNRA ranking techniques. P3HB4HB showed the best overall material performance, in contrast to P3HB, which had the lowest energy requirement and emissions. The findings emphasize crystallinity as a key determinant for material and building energy performance.

This study presents an integrated numerical and multi-criteria decision-making framework to evaluate and optimize building envelope designs for energy efficiency under the climatic conditions of the Black Sea Region, Turkey. A total of 108 alternative wall configurations were systematically generated by combining three wall types, five natural stone claddings, and two insulation materials. High-resolution thermal simulations were conducted using ANSYS to assess temperature distribution and heat transfer behavior across the building envelope under fixed indoor thermal comfort conditions. The simulation results were first evaluated from an energy-performance perspective, revealing that wall systems incorporating aerated concrete, EPS insulation, and Niğde marble cladding, particularly in sandwich configurations, exhibited the most favorable thermal behavior, while configurations using Giresun granite showed the poorest energy performance due to higher thermal conductivity. To complement the energy-focused analysis, an Analytic Hierarchy Approach (AHP) was applied as a multi-criteria material selection tool, integrating mechanical and durability-related properties together with thermal conductivity. Under this broader evaluation framework, Giresun granite was ranked as the optimal material owing to its superior mechanical performance, despite its unfavorable thermal behavior. The results demonstrate that material optimality in building envelope design is inherently context-dependent. While Niğde marble is preferable for energy-efficient envelope applications, Giresun granite becomes dominant when mechanical durability and long-term performance are prioritized. The combined use of ANSYS simulations and AHP provides a robust, transparent, and adaptable decision-support methodology for context-specific building envelope design.Received: 11 December 2025 | Revised: 5 March 2026 | Accepted: 23 March 2026Conflicts of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.Data Availability Statement Data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.Author Contribution Statement Figen Balo: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration. Ünal Yılmaz: Software.

In this work, a bio-based thermal insulation composite is developed and processed with epoxidized cottonseed oil (ECSO) as a renewable binder; performance is then assessed at material and building levels by using a natural fiber. Composite insulators were synthesized by mixing clay, fly ash, perlite, and eggshell powder with ECSO at different concentrations (45–55 wt%) and curing temperatures (165–205 °C). The density, thermal conductivity, compressive and tensile strengths, wear resistance, and water absorption capacity of the obtained composites were investigated in detail in extensive experimental work. The density and thermal conductivity were much dependent on the ECSO content and the curing temperature, unbeknownst to us; they significantly decreased with the increasing ECSO content and curing temperature, due to better binder–filler interaction and increased porosity. Among all the tested samples, the lowest thermal conductivity and density were observed for ECSO36, which suggested the best insulation performance. To validate its real-world usability, the best composite (ECSO36) was also tested by an IES-VE building energy simulation under the climate of Ankara in terms of annual energy consumption and CO₂ emission. The results signify that ECSO36 achieves a similar energy consumption and CO₂ emission performance to traditional insulation materials. In summary, the results of this work illustrate that ECSO-based composites have excellent potential to be a green and low-carbon alternative for sustainable building insulation applications.

This study investigates the performance of flue systems in a library building located in Rize province, a region characterized by high humidity and variable climatic conditions. The heating system of the building is designed using a solid fuel (coal) boiler with a thermal output of 100,000 kcal/h. The flue system connected to the boiler was modeled using square and rectangular cross-sections in combination with four distinct chimney materials: chamotte form stones, varnished ceramic, ceramic with an internal varnish layer, and concrete form stones. A total of eight alternative design scenarios were developed based on combinations of cross-sectional geometry and construction material. Performance assessments were conducted using the Kesa-aladin software, allowing for precise simulations of thermal, aerodynamic, and acoustic behavior under real-world operating conditions. To further enhance the reliability of the evaluation, a random forest regression model was applied to determine the relative importance of performance parameters. The analysis revealed that maximum negative pressure and flow velocity were the dominant predictors of chimney performance, followed by thermal conditions (inner wall temperature and insulation temperature) and acoustic effects (flow sound). This prioritization underscores the critical role of aerodynamic and thermal stability in flue optimization. Additionally, two multi-attribute decision-approaches, Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR), were employed to rank the eight chimney alternatives. Both methods consistently identified chamotte-based chimneys as the optimal solutions, irrespective of geometry. While TOPSIS ranked concrete alternatives higher than ceramics, VIKOR favored ceramics after chamotte, demonstrating how methodological differences can influence final decision-making. Overall, the integration of simulation, machine learning, and multi-attribute decision-approaches methods provides a comprehensive framework for chimney system evaluation. The findings highlight that optimizing pressure stability, gas flow dynamics, and thermal insulation are key for improving chimney efficiency and sustainability. This research not only provides a replicable framework for the design of energy-efficient flue systems but also offers practical guidance for architects and engineers working in regions with complex climatic challenges.