Numerical simulations of thermal comfort in an atrium -The impact of thermal mass and atrium dimensions
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Publicerad
2020
Författare
Hansson, Johanna
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
Energy is used in residential buildings to provide thermal comfort and lightning for
occupants. By including a glazed space within a residential building, the building has
an ability to capture solar heat, which reduces the energy demand for heating the
building during certain parts of the year. In this way, glazed spaces can sometimes be
used to save energy in residential buildings and improve the energy performance and
to provide a space for social interaction.
This study investigates how thermal comfort in atriums is affected by several design
parameters and how these should be changed in order to improve thermal comfort
without using mechanical heating, cooling or ventilation. A reference building,
consisting of two residential buildings with a glazed space in between, is used to
perform a parametric study of the impact of thermal mass of building material, glazing
material, atrium type, atrium dimension, building orientation, solar shading and natural
ventilation. The parametric study is performed by numerical simulations in the software
IDA ICE. The results are mainly based on operative temperatures, which are evaluated
according to the standard SS-EN 15251.
The study shows that the glazed space in the reference building has low operative
temperatures during the winter and high operative temperatures during the summer. The
most upper floor level is the most critical floor level since it has the coldest operative
temperature during the winter and the warmest operative temperature during the
summer. A higher thermal mass inside the glazed space is beneficial when the outdoor
temperature and solar radiation is high during the summer, and when the outdoor
temperature and solar radiation is low during the winter. However, a higher thermal
mass is not beneficial when the outdoor temperature and solar radiation is low during
the summer and when the outdoor temperature and solar radiation is high during the
winter. In terms of dimensions, an increased atrium length is not beneficial when the
solar radiation is high during the summer, due to the increased window area on the roof.
However, it was shown that the atrium dimension width (i.e. distance between the
residential buildings) does not have a major impact of the operative temperature in the
atrium.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
thermal comfort, atrium, glazed space, solar energy, operative temperature, passive heating, passive cooling