Numerical Studies On The Design Of Ecological Atria

The atrium is a popular design element for architects. And setting atrium space is also a widely used strategy in the ecological building design process. The objective of this thesis is to increase our understanding of the energy consumption in atrium buildings and find out efficient energy-saving strategies of design using computer simulation method.In the first part of this thesis, computer program Dest is used to simulate the indoor thermal environment of different types of atrium buildings in the climate and common construction condition of Beijing area. Results show that the type and the orientation of atriums have a great significance for the thermal environment of the rooms surrounding atriums in selective mode buildings. But in exclusive mode buildings, the main factor is the type of atriums. It is intended that the greenhouse effect of atriums should be aggravated in order to reducing the energy requirement in selective buildings in winter. The efficient methods include raising the temperature of atriums, increasing the wall area between atriums and the main buildings and minimizing the surface area of main buildings. But some of these methods will also raise the indoor air temperature of the main buildings in summer, so natural ventilation in atriums should be considered carefully. In exclusive buildings, the most efficient way to save energy is to choose proper atrium type which can minimize the surface area of the buildings. Furthermore, covering the surface of the main building with atrium space can also benefit energy saving.The second part of this thesis is focused on the natural ventilation of atriums during summer time with the application of PHOENICS. The simulation demonstrates that the ventilation driven by heat pressure can significantly improve the overheating environment in atriums in summer. And the ventilation can be enhanced by the way of enlarging inlet/outlet area or raising the height of outlet. It is also found that the ventilation can cause the air to flow in surrounding rooms in the consideration of neutral level. And three main methods are proved to be able to increase the height of neutral level. The first one is raising the height of outlet. The second one is increasing proportion of outlet area to inlet area. The last one is adopting increasing narrow section of atria. Moreover, simulation on ventilation driven by wind pressure shows that it can cause a faster airflow in atriums. But the distribution of air velocity is uneven, and it is possible that a large mount of heat will be reserved in atriums. An suggestion to improve the situation is to adjust the position of outlet.