A geometry-based insolation model for computer-aided building design.

Insolation modeling, an aspect of energy modeling that determines the incident energy on buildings from the sun, clouds, atmosphere, and reflection from the ground and other surfaces, is of research concern to designers of energy-responsive buildings, and to the designers and engineers of lighting, daylighting, heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems, and other mechanical equipment for buildings. This research focuses on two issues underlying further development of insolation modeling for architectural applications: the measurement and modeling of spatially-distributed direct and diffuse solar radiation, and the computation of incident energy on complex building geometries typical of energy-responsive design. The first issue involves the assessment of primary environmental energies that influence the building design: the sun and sky, with clouds and attenuating atmosphere, are a spatially and spectrally distributed, continuously variable system of luminous and thermal energy sources. This research introduces new technology for the measurement, analysis, and documentation of distributed solar energy sources. The second research issue, the interaction of the energy resources with building surfaces, has two parts: the modeling of radiative energy exchange, and the 3D modeling of building surfaces. Each has been researched extensively in their respective disciplines: radiative heat transfer in mechanical engineering, and geometric modeling in computer-aided design. The proposed geometry-based method integrates the two technologies and employs computational geometry techniques to determine the surface views of energy sources. The radiative energy exchange is modeled using the radiosity method, a standard technique in heat transfer applications. The validity of the geometry-based insolation model is evaluated with instrumented sky conditions and insolation on a scaled test geometry that represents a building facade with artificial horizon and shading overhang, and sidefins. This research seeks to advance knowledge in insolation modeling for architectural applications and more specifically, in geometry-based view factor determination techniques for energy exchange modeling in computer-aided architectural design applications. The algorithms of the geometry-based insolation model can be applied to other disciplines: applications in engineering, computer-generated image rendering, computer-aided design, and others, are discussed in conclusions and future directions.Arch.Dr.Applied SciencesArchitectureCommunication and the ArtsComputer scienceUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/128298/2/8920483.pd