Study on the thermal environment in buildings with large-scale atriums and large area of glass surface

The control of thermal environment is complicated in buildings with glass-covered atriums. Numerical simulation can play an important role in the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning (HVAC) design of atriums. Many researches have developed various computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods to accurately predict the thermal environment in atriums. However, a simple, reliable and fast method to deal with complex building construction is more suitable for building designers and engineers to take as a routine assistant tool of HVAC design. In this paper, such numerical method is analyzed and summarized, which includes the composite grid method for solar radiation simulation, a new zero-equation model for airflow analysis, and Gebhart method for long-wave radiation calculation. The method is validated by compared with measurement data and applied to optimize the HVAC design of a practical project to demonstrate its application.