Linking Wide-ranging Geometrical and Non-geometrical Glazing Options for Daylight Effectiveness Estimation at an Early Design Stage

Abstract

This paper consists a first numerical approach to evaluate the main geometrical and non-geometrical characteristics of glazed areas and evaluate their influence on the daylight conditions and the visual comfort in the adjoining spaces. Since visual comfort is the main factor of well-being and also influences the occupant to produce measurable, long term improvements in his professional performance providing higher quality services, we decided to focus our case study on an office room prototype (3m x 3m x 5.40m) where openings exist only in the one side. Hence, the present work is a case study where a numerical approach limited on daylight calculation is presented. As literature reveals, the transparency and the roughness of the glazed area as well as the length and the height are important parameters in the daylighting design of office buildings. So, the present paper presents a singular case study where a simplified methodology on the basis of a classic composite DOE method is employed, to predict the daylight factor for different simulation scenarios applied to a given 3D geometry. The entire numerical analysis is developed through computer simulation using DIALux 4.5© as a tool. Then a parametric study has been conducted, where the influence of each investigated parameter that concerns the main geometrical and non-geometrical glazed area's characteristics (length, height, transparency and roughness of the glazing area) is investigated and expressed in the form of adjoining coefficient values, while the mean daylight factor in the working plane is evaluated in detail. As a conclusion, the main aim of this paper is to define and evaluate the influence of each investigated parameter linking selected geometrical and non-geometrical characteristics through statistical modeling via a polynomial function, in order to provide essential information for daylight effectiveness assessment at early design stages to maximize occupant's visual comfort in office buildings according to the international standards.