Facade Technologies Research Articles

Analysis of Facade Redesign for Enhanced Satisfaction and Improved Building Performance

The building envelope is known to be an important aspect of design and engineering of ultra-low energy buildings. The facade (building skin) could have the potential to redirect and filter daylight, influence frontal external wind intensity, provide natural ventilation, manage heat transfer, enhance occupant well-being, and create visual and physical connections between the inside and outside. The advances in facade technologies have been triggered in part by higher energy prices, stricter building codes, and higher occupant and owner expectations regarding the quality of the finished construction. This paper provides a comparative assessment of the effect of redesigning an existing building facade and other building improvements. It assesses the impact on external environmental conditions (wind speed and pressure) by employing computational fluid dynamics. The impact of these changes on occupant satisfaction was also gauged. It is hoped that this analysis will provide a framework for assessing benefits of improved facades in other buildings and applications

International Façades - CROFT. Climate Related Optimized Façade Technologies

International Façades - CROFT. Climate Related Optimized Façade Technologies

A Brief Discussion and Analysis on Methods of High Performance Architecture Facades Design

Glass is remarkable material and its functionality is significantly enhanced when it is processed or altered to provide added intrinsic capabilities. The overall performance of glass elements in a building can be further enhanced when they are designed to be part of a complete façade system. Finally, the façade system delivers greater performance to both the owner and the occupants of the building. A limited number of facade technologies or combinations of technologies can be evaluated in a field test program, for the reason of both resource constraint and the practical use. The specific method can be used to determine what technologies are to be selected for the research. It based on technical and market objectives, surveys of commercially-available technologies, manufacturers, architects and engineers, utilities, and other stakeholders.

Investigation of the performance of a ventilated wall

The need for environmental friendly and energy efficient building design has stimulated the design of new facade technologies, including various configurations of double skin facades. This paper investigates the thermal performance of a ventilated wall, both for heating and cooling. A thermal analysis was carried out, paying special attention to the characterization of the heat convection resulting from the buoyancy-induced flow in the open air channel which proved to be a critical aspect of the ventilated wall's behaviour. An integrated thermal and air flow model for the entire system was developed. A model of the ventilated wall construction was developed with the ESP-r simulation program and checked against experimental data from a real-scale test cell facility. The thermal benefits of adding a radiant barrier layer were also investigated. The results showed that this layer was beneficial in terms of the energy performance of the construction. Also, the comparison between the experimental and simulation model results showed satisfactory levels of convergence with the exception of the night hours during the summer period. A sensitivity analysis was also undertaken in order to investigate the main factors and the extent of their effect on the temperature variation inside the ventilated facades.

Electrochromic glazing and facade photovoltaic panels: a strategic assessment of the potential energy benefits

This article describes a methodology to compare the energy benefit that may result from the adoption of two very different facade technologies in non-domestic buildings. A comparison is made of the energy benefit that might result from: (a) replacing conventional glass with electrochromic (EC) glazing; and, (b) installing PV panels across the opaque sections of vertical facade. The energy benefit from electrochromic glazing is predicted on the basis of displaced electric lighting usage against standard glazing with blinds, whereas the energy benefit from facade PV panels is equal to their delivered electrical output. The evaluation setting is a `typical' six metre deep perimeter office space with vertical glazing. Office orientations for each of the four cardinal compass points are considered. Performance evaluations are founded on a full year's hourly meteorological data for fourteen locales across the world. The predicted energy benefit from electrochromic glazing and facade PV are related to the total annual vertical irradiation incident on the building facade. The findings indicate that the energy benefit that results from replacing standard glazing with electrochromic glazing may exceed that of facade PV for the majority of cases studied. Surprisingly, electrochromic glazings are found to provide the greatest energy benefit for those cases at the lower end of the experienced range in total annual vertical irradiation. The effectiveness of widespread deployment across multiple facades for each locale is examined. The likelihood that electrochromic glazing alone can offer sufficient solar protection without recourse to additional shading is assessed using the recently formulated useful daylight illuminance (UDI) scheme.

New facade technologies: AIW — Active intelligent window

The A.I.W. has been studied and designed in order to exploit solar radiation, outdoor air temperature and relative humidity to provide automatically controlled direct or indirect solar gains, cooling by ventilation, humidification-dehumidification, variable insulation and daylighting of indoors. Each function or set of functions is automatically selected by an intelligent control system, operating under neural network control, that elaborates the optimal operating configuration in order to achieve the desired indoor conditions by exploiting the available renewable energy sources. Solar components integrated in the building envelope can provide an important contribution to the utilisation of renewable energy sources for the climatization of the building indoor space, when these components are designed for optimal efficiency and when they are equipped with an appropriate control of their operating parameters. The present paper describes the development of one facade-integrated and one roof-mounted component performing active functions of indoor climatization and remote space daylighting, respectively. The main design objective was to produce reliable, low cost, high efficient industrialised solar components which can be integrated in a wide range of office typologies.