Evaluating the impact of different atria configurations on the energy performance of buildings in different climates

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2016
Farhoudi, Meysam
Generally, the impact of the building sector on the world energy consumption and environmental protection is considerable; in fact, the building sector holds the half of the world total energy consumption share. Nowadays, energy efficiency phenomena as the result of several challenges that the world is encountering has become an important issue. Meanwhile, the atrium as a tool to improve the energy performance of a building can be utilized to address the high energy consumption of the conventional buildings. This study aimed to examine the impacts of different physical properties of an atrium on the energy performance of the atrium buildings in different climates. To be more specific, this research intended to understand the impacts of atrium orientation, aspect ratio and the atrium building height on the heating, cooling and lighting loads of the atrium buildings in different climatic conditions. To examine the effect of each variable on the energy performance of the building several digital models of atrium buildings were prepared and their energy performance were simulated by DesignBuilder software. Each of the atrium buildings were set with different variables to monitor the effects of a single variable or the combination of the variables on the energy performance of the buildings. According to this research, in vi few examined climates the height of the atrium building has the most effect on its energy performance. Though the effect of the atrium aspect ratio on the building energy performance is almost considerable, the atrium orientation does not contribute to it significantly. To further clarify the conclusions, atrium buildings with square shape atria have better energy performance than those with rectangular shaped atria, regardless of the atrium orientation. 

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Citation Formats
M. Farhoudi, “Evaluating the impact of different atria configurations on the energy performance of buildings in different climates,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2016.