Impact of transition spaces on the indoor thermal environment: A case study of traditional dwellings in Southern Shaanxi, China

Abstract

Transition space connecting internal space and external environment of buildings, which has a buffering effect on improving the indoor thermal environment and saving energy consumption. This research focuses on thermal environment regulation performance of the corridor space of traditional dwellings in hot summer and cold winter region in China was investigated. Firstly, the field investigation and thermal comfort measurement were conducted to clarify the regulating performance of corridor space in the indoor thermal comfort and human adaptability to the environment. Then, the research uses the Grasshopper and Energy plus platforms to analyze and quantitatively verify the effectiveness of the corridor space in enhancing the indoor thermal comfort. Finally, based on the multi-objective optimization by NSGA-II, the Pareto set is generated to obtain the optimal solution for the corridor space to meet the thermal comfort. The results show that corridor of dwelling has a width of 2 m, a slope of 15°, and a height of 3.9 m. The traditional dwellings with corridor space could improve the thermal comfort hours increase by 5.1 %, the energy consumption reduce by 18.7 %. This research could help inhabitants achieve the adaptive design of corridor space and improve the livability of residential habitats in southern Shaanxi.