Public defence in Mechanical Engineering, M.Sc. Azin Velashjerdi Farahani

Over the past 150 years, the global mean temperature has risen by approximately 1°C, leading to more frequent, intense, and prolonged heatwaves. These heatwaves impact human health, agriculture, workplace efficiency, wildfire occurrences, and public infrastructure, with effects expected to intensify due to ongoing global warming. In Finland, this trend is accelerating, with heatwaves significantly increasing mortality rates, particularly among the elderly. 

The resilience of different buildings to climate change and its associated hot summers has been studied in this thesis. The main goal of the thesis was to create an advanced understanding of the effects of climate change on indoor summertime overheating risks, energy consumption, and power demand in different buildings considering the adaptation and mitigation measures. Further, it aimed to investigate the relationship between indoor and outdoor temperatures during climate change associated hot summers in residential buildings. 

The study reveals significant overheating issues in older residential buildings compared to newer ones built according to the latest building codes. Although passive cooling strategies are effective, mechanical cooling systems are necessary to maintain comfortable indoor temperatures during heat events, with the required electricity being relatively small compared to overall energy use in buildings. The study also notes that indoor and outdoor temperature correlations weaken during prolonged heatwaves, emphasizing the need to incorporate extreme heat considerations into building design for cold climates.

In office buildings, both all-air and air-water cooling systems perform similarly regarding energy consumption and indoor conditions. However, future climate scenarios predict a substantial increase in cooling power and energy demand for both systems by 2050, depending on CO2 emission scenarios.

Doctoral Student: Azin Velashjerdi Farahani

Opponent: Prof. Per Kvols Heiselberg, Aalborg University, Denmark

Custos: Prof. Risto Kosonen, Aalto University School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering

The public defense will be organized in Lecture Hall 216, Otakaari 4.

The thesis is publicly displayed 10 days prior to the defense in the publication archive Aaltodoc of Aalto University. 

Contact information of doctoral student:

Doctoral theses in the School of Engineering: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/49