PhD success for Dilek Arslan
Congratulations to Dilek Arslan for being awarded her PhD in November 2024. Dilek’s thesis was entitled ‘Life Cycle Carbon and Cost Assessment of Prefabricated Retrofit Elements for EnerPHit in Türkiye’s Warm-Temperate Climate Region’ and Dilek’s research was supervised by Dr Haniyeh Mohammadpourkarbasi and Professor Steve Sharples.
Dilek’s study investigated the embodied and operational carbon performance of prefabricated retrofit modules by examining the effectiveness of two retrofit approaches: (i) the EnerPHit standard, which is one of world’s strictest building retrofit standards, and (ii) a Turkish business-as-usual (BAU) model. The research was conducted using an existing mid-rise apartment building in Istanbul, with a digital twin of the building being modelled in a dynamic simulation tool. On-site surveys and air temperature and relative humidity measurements were used to calibrate the building model. While the BAU model’s saving in primary energy consumption was 48%, the EnerPHit scenario achieved a 73% reduction. Life-cycle cost analysis revealed a payback period of 5–8 years, demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of the retrofits, although window replacements were less efficient in terms of cost-benefit comparisons. Retrofit performance was also tested under future climate change scenarios for Istanbul.
The quality of Dilek’s research is reflected in the number of papers she has published from her work:
Arslan, D., Mohammadpourkarbasi, H. & Sharples, S. (2024). Sensitivity analysis of the impact of environmental product declaration values on whole life carbon assessment: A case study using expanded polystyrene insulation for the retrofit of a building in Turkiye. Building Services Engineering Research and Technology, 45(2), 101-121
Arslan, D., Sharples, S., & Mohammadpourkarbasi, H. (2024). Life-Cycle Analysis of EnerPHit Compared to a Turkish Business-as-Usual (BAU) Model: A Case Study Example of a Mid-rise Apartment Block. In Proc. 1st International Conference of Net Zero Carbon Built Environment, 3-5th July, Nottingham, UK.
Arslan, D., Sharples, S., Mohammadpourkarbasi, H., & Khan-Fitzgerald, R. (2023). Carbon Analysis, Life Cycle Assessment, and Prefabrication: A Case Study of a High-Rise Residential Built-to-Rent Development in the UK. Energies, 16(2)
Arslan, D., Sharples, S., & Mohammadpourkarbasi, H. (2022). Embodied carbon viability of prefabricated retrofit modules for Passivhaus-EnerPHit. In Proc. 3rd International Conference on Comfort at the Extremes, 5 – 6 September, Edinburgh
Arslan, D., Sharples, S., & Mohammadpourkarbasi, H. (2022). Renovating the existing residential building stock in Turkey with prefabricated components for Passivhaus-EnerPHit. In Proc. 4th iiSBE Forum of Young Researchers in Sustainable Building, 4 July, Prague