ADAPTIVE FACADES

OPTIMISING PARAMETERS FOR DYNAMIC SOLAR SHADING

Christine Wermke, MArch Mag.arch. BA M.Eng.

_{Status: ongoing
Supervisor: Prof. Brian Cody}

Abstract

The integration of daylight analysis and building performance simulation together with optimisation

techniques has been a problem for simulating adaptive building envelopes. This is currently only possible by combining different analysis tools and software as there are no conventional all-encompassing programmes available on the market. There have been recent advances in simulating adaptive façade technologies by combining EnergyPlus simulation software with MATLAB as well as GenOpt to perform optimisations. This work is adopting software frameworks developed by previous researchers, applying a similar method but using Grasshopper for Rhinoceros interface. The main goal of this study is to develop a tool that can help optimise the control of an external shading device by minimising the energy demand for cooling and lighting (during the cooling period of the year) as

well as maximising the occupants comfort (daylight availability and room temperature). The simulation tool designed for this work integrates EnergyPlus(by means of Grasshopper plug-in Honeybee) for building performance simulation as well as Daysim (Grasshopper plug-in based on Radiance) to undertake daylight analyses and an optimisation plug-in for Grasshopper namely Octopus and OctopusLoop. The results of the optimized controlled external shading in comparison to static shading show significant improvements in energy reduction and occupants comfort.

Planned Completion

2022

Publications

Wermke, C.: "Optimising parameters for dynamic solar shading", 2018