Faraday Fast Track: Control of heat transfer and airflow in multi-functional facades: a basis for design guidance for low-energy buildings

Completed

Renewable Energy Sources(Solar Energy, Photovoltaics)
Renewable Energy Sources(Solar Energy, Solar heating and cooling (including daylighting))

Basic and strategic applied research

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Architecture and the Built Environment)

Not Cross-cutting

Professor V Hanby
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development (IESD)
De Montfort University

Standard

EPSRC

01 April 2003

30 June 2006

39 months

£131,938

Management & business studies

East Midlands

Faraday - Eng for Infrastructure -- Process Environment and Sustainability

Professor V Hanby, Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development (IESD), De Montfort University

Project Contact, IT Power Ltd
Project Contact, Ove Arup & Partners Ltd

Multifunctional PV facades, integrating thermal and electrical output, are being increasingly deployed in low energy buildings that exploit direct use of solar energy. Much existing research has focused on the integration of these facades with the rest of the building, but detailed information on the performance of multifunctional facades is scarce, especially on the issue of control of both the electrical and thermal output. The experimental programme of work will utilise the advanced, large-scale solar simulator at Loughborough University to conduct detailed measurements of the airflow, heat transfer and electrical output in prototypical contructions over a wide range of operating conditions, focusing on the UK environment . A parallel modelling study will be carried out using a component-based approach: this will produce a set of advanced facade performance models which will represent a significant advance over the existing, closed-form models currently in use. Templates will bedeveloped which will allow the advanced component models produced to be synthesised into facade models in a range of contemporary simulation environments. Specific issues, such as the interaction of buoyancy-driven flow and heat transfer within the cavity, will be studied using an hierarchical approach based on a commercially-available CFD code

01/01/07