Visual integration of the building interior and exterior is one of the charms of today's architecture. The Double-Skin facade system is a technology that can reduce the drawbacks of using glass in a building's elevation. In fact, the double-skin façade (DSF) offers transparency while reducing energy consumption when compared to single-skin systems in cold and moderate weather conditions. However, there is no clear evidence of how the system will perform in hot climate conditions. In this research, a testing procedure was established to experimentally evaluate the performance of the double-skin façade system, data was collected to create multiple regression models, and then evaluate the double-skin façade's performance and compare it to a single-skin system in hot arid climate conditions. / Doctor of Philosophy / Improving the quality of indoor environments is a main goal in today’s architecture. Towards this goal, the use of glass and curtain walls is common in office buildings. The building façade is a key factor for the amount of energy consumed to reach comfort levels in the building. That is, because facades influence lighting, glare, heat gain, noise safety and energy usage. Therefore, the use of glass improves transparency which can interfere with comfort levels inside the building due to solar heat gain. The Double Skin façade system is widely adopted in Europe and has been shown to reduce energy used for heating in cold weather. In winter, heat losses can be reduced as the system’s intermediate cavity acts as a thermal buffer. However, there is no clear understanding of how the system will perform in hot arid climate conditions where cooling is the dominant operating mode. A Double Skin Façade can provide shading during the overheating period, while having the desired glass elevations sought by designers. This is due to ventilation and solar control devices located inside the system’s cavity. Being placed between the interior and the exterior glass panels, solar control devices are protected from the weather, which in return decreases its size. Furthermore, the additional glass panel allows windows in the system’s inner layer to be opened for natural ventilation. Unfortunately, the performance of the Double Skin Façade system for hot arid climate is not well documented. Therefore, the primary goal of this research is to compare the thermal and light performance of the Double Skin Façade system to a single façade system for hot weather conditions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/90783 |
| Date | 28 June 2019 |
| Creators | Altahlawi, Naif Tarik |
| Contributors | Architecture, Jones, James R., Adas, Adnan Abbas, Schubert, Robert P., Grant, Elizabeth J. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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