Paper Conference

Proceedings of SimBuild Conference 2012: 5th conference of IBPSA USA

     

Urban Daylight Simulation Calculating the Daylit Area of Urban Designs

Timur Dogan, Christoph Reinhart, Panagiotis Michalatos
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Abstract: This paper describes the development of a new tool that allows designers to simulate and evaluate the daylight potential of urban master plan proposals. The tool is a plug-in for the Rhinoceros3D CAD modeler and follows a two-step workflow. During the initial step, hourly solar radiation levels on all facades within an urban scene are simulated based on Radiance/Daysim. During the second step, exterior radiation levels are converted into hourly interior illuminance distributions using a generalized impulse response. Climate based daylighting metrics, such as daylight autonomy, are also computed. The results yielded by the new method are carefully compared to regular and substantially more time-consuming Daysim simulations. This comparison shows that the overall daylit area in the investigated master plan matches Daysim predictions within 10%. Given its implementation into the Rhinoceros3D environment, as well as the almost instant simulation feedback, the tool may serve as a generative method for designers.
Pages: 613 - 620
Paper:
simbuild2012_10a_1_Dogan