English

The evaluation of shading devices is generally carried out using a sequence of shadow pattern images showing the progression of solar penetration for particular times of the day or year. This approach can reveal when solar penetration may occur, say at the summer solstice, but it cannot give a quantitative measure of the degree and likelihood of solar penetration over a representative period of a full year. This paper describes a new image-based technique to quantify the effectiveness of shading devices.

This paper describes a performance-based evolution model using GA as the evolution algorithm and CFD as the evaluation mechanism. The advantages of such an evolutionary performance-based design approach is that diverse instances of the state space can be investigated in relation to specific goal requirements that will enhance the possibility of discovering a variety of potential solutions.

Experimental studies in building energy usage and environmental analysis are very time consuming and expensive, and require sophisticated sensors and instrumentation techniques. So, there has been great interest in developing Computational  Fluid Dynamics (CFD) computer codes to improve building design and HVAC systems. The majority of these CFD programs are based on the solution of Navier-Stokes equations, the energy equation, the mass and concentration equations as well as the transport equations for turbulent velocity and its scale.

A study by Reinhart and Herkel showed term predictions of daylight availability in architectural spaces should take the conditions  of all individual time steps into account. However, most contemporary simulation tool algorithms require such long computation times that it  is  impractical  or  even  unrealistic to simulation of the daylight penetration for each time step. This  paper  discusses  two  adaptations of a known  algorithm,  radiosity, that  bring down the required  computation time for an annual prediction from the order of days to the order of seconds.

Since buildings have a predominant impact on the global climate change and other  environmental issues, it has become necessary to consider environmental performance in building design. An optimization approach is presented in this paper to minimize life-cycle environmental impacts of buildings. Parameters included in the model are usually determined at the conceptual design phase and have a critical influence on environmental performance. Life-cycle environmental impacts are evaluated in terms of expanded cumulative exergy consumption.

The present paper addresses and fosters the factors that  affect airflow movement and energy efficiencies in the surgical operating theatres. The present work puts forward  analyses for major factors con tributing to failure to achieve and attain the optimum Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), and the methods suggested to solve such problem. Appropriate architectural and mechanical engineering recommendations to achieve the optimum hygienic operating theatre are set out in the paper.

This paper draws the attention to the importance of a correct modelling of the inlet temperature of naturally and mechanically ventilated multiple-skin facades. A sensitivity study illustrates the significance of the inlet temperature as a boundary condition for numerical multiple-skin facade models.

Occupant responsive optimal control is developed for so called smart façade systems. The control optimizes the performance of the system by rotating a motorized louver slat in the cavity and ventilation dampers at the top and bottom of exterior and interior glazing. One prominent feature of the system is the capability of dynamically reacting to the environmental input data through real-time optimization in terms of energy, visual comfort and thermal comfort. Users interaction with the system is Web enabled.

This study is aimed to contribute to energy saving and to achieve the indoor thermal comfort by preventing the down draft along the window in building with less heating energy than the common equipment, e.g. FCU. Firstly for the counter along the perimeter equipped with the heat panel, the flow inlet, the flow outlet and the declined plate over the counter, the 2-D simulations of 64 cases with varying the configuration of the counter, the heat generation rate, etc. are executed.

In this work two numerical models are presented. The first one simulates the buildings thermal response and evaluates the internal air quality, while the second one simulates the human and clothing thermal systems and calculates the thermal comfort level in non-uniform environments.