Conference Paper

Proceedings of Building Simulation 2019: 16th Conference of IBPSA

     

Modeling Outdoor Thermal Comfort in Urban Canyons: Presentation and Validation of a Novel Comprehensive Workflow

GIANPIERO EVOLA 1, EMANUELE NABONI 2, GIUSEPPE MARGANI 1, CRISTINA MAGRI' 1
1 University of Catania, Italy
2 KADK – Copenhagen, Danimarca.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.26868/25222708.2019.210402
Abstract: Within the frame of climate change, it is essential to understand the relation between local microclimate, building energy performance and outdoor comfort. In this sense, a key issue is the possibility to model the thermodynamic interdependency among these three fields, which are often treated separately, through dynamic simulation tools. To this extent, this paper investigates the applicability of a novel simulation methodology developed within the Ladybug tools, where the Honeybee and Ladybug plugins for Grasshopper are used to link the outdoor thermal field to the indoor thermal behaviour of the buildings. The model provides both the hourly dynamic thermal load of the buildings overlooking the canyon and several outdoor thermal parameters such as the Mean Radiant Temperature (MRT) and the Universal Temperature Climate Index (UTCI). In comparison to other existing approaches, the workflow proposed in this paper offers significant flexibility and the complete modelling of the indoor/outdoor thermal fields. This makes it possible to perform a parametric investigation of the effects of different design solutions on the indoor and outdoor environment, both for new and existing buildings. The model is tested in an urban canyon located in Catania, Southern Italy, with the specific aim of validating one of its main modules: the outdoor comfort simulation. In particular, the results concerning MRT are compared to on-site measurements performed with a black-globe thermometer during a sunny day in summer. The validation of the module for outdoor MRT assessment is, at the time of writing, a missing study and this work is a step in this direction.
Keywords: Outdoor Comfort, Urban Canyon, Mean Radiant Temperature, Ladybug Tools
Pages: 3288 - 3295
Paper:

BS2019_210402