Effects of external shading devices on daylighting and natural ventilation

External  shading  devices  have  been  utilized  very extensively in residential buildings in the tropics to reduce the amount of solar radiation entering into the buildings. However, this will affect the availability of daylight   for   interior   lighting   as   well   as   natural ventilation  for  passive cooling and thermal comfort. This  paper  discusses  the  impacts  of  six  different types  of  external  shading  device  on  a  residential building in Singapore. The investigation was carried out  via  the  use  of   LIGHTSCAPE  for  daylighting simulations   and   PHOENICS  CFD   simulations   for natural  ventilation.  From  the  series  of  parametric studies,  the  design  of  external  shading  devices  to optimize     daylighting     and     natural     ventilation performance  is  developed.  The  interactions  and  the inter-relationship   between   daylighting   and   natural ventilation     simulations     that     could     affect     the simulation  results  were  also discussed.  Lastly  an actual field measurement was also conducted, which serves to provide data for the validation of simulation output.