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Fluidglass - Façade elements for active solar control for high-rise buildings.

Number: pap. 3259

Author(s) : LIEBOLD A., GSTOEHL D., OPPLIGER D., et al.

Summary

High-rise buildings of modern architecture are usually built with transparent facades. This often leads to problems with the energy control inside the building. During summer solar radiation leads to overheating of the building and in winter time the low U-Value of the glazing results in high heat losses through the façade. In order to achieve a sufficient comfort level, large amounts of energy are needed. A new facade type, called fluidglass, is under development for future high-rise buildings as well as to retrofit existing buildings. This new facade allows increasing the energy efficiency of the building as well as the comfort of people inside. The system works as a shading device, a solar collector for heating and domestic hot water and as a cooling device. Core of the system is a fluidized glass facade that controls the heat flux as well as the solar radiation through the facade. Two fluid-filled layers are set into the glass facade. These fluid layers regulate the energy flow within the facade by being adjustable in transmittance. The outer layer is used to control the absorption of the solar radiation and the inner layer is used for the control of the inner room temperature. Both layers are thermally separated by an insulation glass system. The radiative energy transmission as well as the shading of the room can be regulated by pigmenting the fluid. For cooling and heating purposes the inner layer of the overall facade is used for heat exchange. Therefore, only small temperature differences between room and supply temperature are required leading to high efficiency of A/C and heat pumping equipment. The aim of this paper is to show the concept, a simulation model and a first prototype of fluidglass. The first simulation shows the impact of the fluid layer thickness onto the transmission rate. The results are that the fluid layer thickness has almost no influence on the transmission rate through the window, for a fluid layer thicknesses larger 1 mm. Secondly, an ideal fluid was simulated, which only lets the visible spectrum of the light pass through the fluid. Shading in several steps was simulated which represents the addition of ideal particles. The absorption rate of the fluid was varied in this way between 10-90%. The results show that the effect of shading and heat protection works, but the solar gains of the thermal collector are relatively small compared to a usual opaque thermal collector. The concept of the façade system could be proven with a prototype. It is expected that architects and engineers will receive a new standardized product, which helps to increase the efficiency of their buildings significantly in a few years of time.

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Pages: 10 p.

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Details

  • Original title: Fluidglass - Façade elements for active solar control for high-rise buildings.
  • Record ID : 30013776
  • Languages: English
  • Subject: Environment
  • Source: 2014 Purdue Conferences. 3rd International High Performance Buildings Conference at Purdue.
  • Publication date: 2014/07/14

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