Comparative Energy and Thermal Performance of Biomimetic Louver Retrofits in Hot-Arid Climate Residential Buildings.
- 1Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21544, Egypt.
- 2Faculty of Energy and Environmental Engineering, The British University in Egypt, El Sherouk City 11837, Egypt.
Abstract
Building envelopes at this time of climate change should enhance their energy performance and, as a result, minimize undesirable environmental impacts. This study performed a comparative simulation analysis of a residential building in New Cairo, Egypt, to evaluate its performance following the implementation of a passive design element in relation to its traditional structure. The suggested passive design element consists of biomimetic louver shading devices manufactured from locally available natural and agricultural waste materials inspired by animal adaptation mechanisms in nature, including rice straw, rice husk, cotton waste fibers, palm fronds, jute fabric, and reflective aluminum foil, whereas the base-case scenario encompasses none of these. To accomplish this, the Energy Plus simulation engine was employed to conduct Design Builder simulations, and Meteonorm was employed to generate meteorological data for the site. Results indicate that biomimetic retrofit strategies achieved reductions in peak operative temperatures of 2.2-3.65 °C, improved thermal comfort conditions during summer months, and achieved cooling energy savings of 26-27% compared to the base case.
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BibTeX
@article{seif2026comparative,
title = {{Comparative Energy and Thermal Performance of Biomimetic Louver Retrofits in Hot-Arid Climate Residential Buildings.}},
author = {Sherouk Hamdy Seif and Mohamed Fikry and Tarek Farghaly},
journal = {Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland)},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.3390/biomimetics11100688},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42930240},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Comparative Energy and Thermal Performance of Biomimetic Louver Retrofits in Hot-Arid Climate Residential Buildings.
AU - Sherouk Hamdy Seif
AU - Mohamed Fikry
AU - Tarek Farghaly
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/23
JO - Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland)
DO - 10.3390/biomimetics11100688
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42930240
AB - Building envelopes at this time of climate change should enhance their energy performance and, as a result, minimize undesirable environmental impacts. This study performed a comparative simulation analysis of a residential building in New Cairo, Egypt, to evaluate its performance following the implementation of a passive design element in relation to its traditional structure. The suggested passive design element consists of biomimetic louver shading devices manufactured from locally available natural and agricultural waste materials inspired by animal adaptation mechanisms in nature, including rice straw, rice husk, cotton waste fibers, palm fronds, jute fabric, and reflective aluminum foil, whereas the base-case scenario encompasses none of these. To accomplish this, the Energy Plus simulation engine was employed to conduct Design Builder simulations, and Meteonorm was employed to generate meteorological data for the site. Results indicate that biomimetic retrofit strategies achieved reductions in peak operative temperatures of 2.2-3.65 °C, improved thermal comfort conditions during summer months, and achieved cooling energy savings of 26-27% compared to the base case.
SN - 2313-7673
ER -