Renewable Energy, Vol.5, Part II, pp.

1002-1005, 1994
Elsevier Scienoe Lid
Pergamon Printed in Great Britain
0960-1481/94 $7.00+0.00

STUDY OF COMFORT IN ATRIUM DESIGN

A.N. AYOOB* & J.L. IZARD

Eco~e d'architec~..urede M~eilles

Luminy - Marseilles - FRANCE

ABSTRACT:
A firs.* stage study of some factors which influence the thermal behaviour in an atrium for the summer
comfo~ are carried out. These analysis help in the early design stage decision to authorise an optimisation
of the design parameters of a bioclimatic atrium and to find how good balance between energy saving and
comfort conditions

1- INTRODUCTION:
Glazed atrium is one of the most international famous bioclimatic architectural style in the recent years for
different use. The needs for an attractive environment suitable for the greens & plants or to protects from
noisy & polluted surrounding and for a better estabfishing of an energy balance by providing buffer volume
which protects the occupied parts oftbe building from the full impact of the external climatic condition, all
these factors contributed in the increase of this style of architecture. The summer comfort in these large
and high spaces which is designed for the light comfort also (allowing much sun shine to enter through the
glass to assure lighting), is not easy to solve in the mediterranean climate, which is characterised by a hot
summers and moderate winters. These particular climatic charateristics request specific performance to the
passive components tools involved in the design. With a suitable openings in the highest part of the atrium
roof a natural fresh air ventilation can be created due to the natural buoyancy of solar heated air in the
higher part of atrium. This is can be considered as a very important bioclimatic tool to improve the thermal
comfort. In this work a study of this natural ventilatiorl and some others design parameters which influence
the thermal behaviour of an atrium in the moderate climate is carried out.
.....
Glazing roof . . . ~ " p , ldiation
2-SIMULATION & RESULTS:
Different models of atrium of i000 m 3 a r e simulated witil different
configurations & parameters. The dynan~ic thermal s~ulafion of
the studied models has been carried-out using code SIMULA for
the calculating of the solar gains & interior temperatures. A typical
hot summer day for a mediterranean climate (latitude of 43 ° 7) is ~!!iiiiiiii~~
H:iiii%iiii:,
...
established. Figure(I) present the simulated model.

Temperature evolution :
Simulation results in terms of interior means temperature in three Figm~l) Sketchofthe model
zones along the height of an atrium model of (10xl0xl0 m) for a
summer day of 21/7 under two ventilation rates are plotted in figure(2). It can be seen that the interior
temperature along the height of the atrium exceed the ambient temperature by an amount depend strongly
on the solar energy gains by each zone, naturally; the higher zone which is exposed to the higher solar

* Present address : Laboratoired'Ene~flu¢ et StructuresThermiqu~s,I.I].T.d~.,vry, France..

1002
 1003

intensity obt~sin the higher air temperature. The interior temperature can be treated strongly by the rate or"
outside ventilation.

Index o f c o m f o r t :
The degree of comfort inside the simulated models is calculated in function of (Ic), which represent the
integration o f the over heated period the interior air temperature (Ta) related to comfort temperature
(Tc=28°C) along the occupied pe~z~d.
t2
lc = * , 2 - t l l ] (T a - T c)dt
tl
where t i & t2 are the period of the occupation (h).
In figure(2), the index of comfort is plotted for the simuiated models, the lower zone in the atrium is the
more comfortable, the levels of comfort can be improved by the ventilation.
4 vollh 1 C 20 v o l / h | C

:°0 3 II , t i

,)
' l ll~ •
1
[.
"-
iSmh 1
0 6 12 18 24 O 6 12 15 24
hr 0 5 0 ht 0 5 0

Figure (2) : Temperature evolution in a different atrium zoner for 4 & 20 vol/h The comfort index is represented by lc for
the different three zones atrium (Cv-~oof ~lA~in~area / atrium volum=0.1)
1- the lower zone in the atrium2-the central zone in the atrium3-the higher zone in the atrium

Table (1), shows the values of the maximum and Conditionexlerior:lTnwx=34°CTmin=18°C

minimum interior temperatures at 1.5 meter above the Cv=0.1 Cv~.05
ground level (activity zone) at different climatic Voi/h Tmax°C Tnun °C Tmax°C ITmin °C
conditions and at different roof solar apertures in term o f 2 39.61 24.61 37.16 124.12
the coefficient (Cv = glazing roof area / atrium volume) 4
37.80 22.42 35.82 | 21.81
and at different rates of ventilation. The influence of the
coefficient Cv is quite little on the performance with the 16 35.12 19.61 34.30 119.58
high rate of ventilation, where this influence is more 20 35.06 19.66 34.27 1 19.52
important with the small rate of ventilation, the role o f 25 34.77 19.06 34.1 119.06
the air ventilation can be seen here very clearly, till a Condition exterior :2 Tmax=30°C Tmin=22°C
certain limit ° f ventilafi°n rates where the increase in the [vol/h ITmaxC Tmin°C [Tmax°C ]TminC
ventilation rate become useless. " 136.31 27.04. 134.22 26.47.

Ventilation openings:
i34.41
|~'¢~. . . . . . [~l~k- -- 22.91
25.22 [[30.78
32.6s 25.26
As has been said before, based on the ~ that t~Uow~.. ~ , , . . . . ,. . . . 22.96
much sun shine to enter through b e glass to a~sure [~5". . . . . . . . . . . 22.76
[30.64 22.78
lighting, a natural buoyancy of solar heated air plays to i3"1.~"'" 1 22.64 30.51 22.57
provide more natural ventilation to assure the the~aal " "
comfort, the needed ventilation rate can be assured by a Condition exterior "3. Tmaxffi30.6°CTrain= ! 5.6°C
suitable opening in the floor and roof areas, the Volfn Ttmx°C [TminC ITmaxC [TminC
depression along the height of the atrium is" 2 36.04 [21.51 [33.92. [21.12
4 34.21 120.62 132.s5 [19.12
1 1 16 31.82 117.10 130.96 [17.01
AP=3462 H(T +273 T.+273 ) N/m2 20 i31.68 [16.70 13o.88 116.71
0 i 25 31.46 [19106 130.86 [16.36
H • height of the atrium (m)
Table(l) the maximnm and minimum interior air
To • out side air temperature (°C) tempe.rate,re at different ventilation rates and different
Ti • interior air temperature (°C) solar apertures for different clitoric co.a~tio.~.s.
1004

where the rate ofvemilation can be calculated as •

A I *A 2 ApO.5 m3
m. = 0.827 (A 2+ A 22)°~ se-c

A t & A 2 are the openings in the roof& it. the, ba~ of'J:e a~z'i~:ra m~.
It can be seen that for the previous examples in figure (2), the calculated openings for assuring the needed
rate of ventilation is about 5% of the roof,'w~a for 4 vnl/h and e.bout 20% for the 20 vol/h.

The influence of the atrium configurations ,~n the thermal beh~viour

Different configurations of atrium models with 50% & 100°/0 of solar roof glazing apertures in term of
(Cv = glazing roof area / atrium volume) are simulated and some of the results which represent the interior
temperature are shown in figure (3), the influence of the height of the atrium is clearly shown on the
obtained results, the higher atrium is the higher comfort. The influence of the solar roof glazing aperture is
h:,t, ~.l, ,t,. lower h~ght ~ * ' ~ ' ' "
. . . .

Cv~tl C¢~05 0,=0.2 o,=0.1 C¢4105 C¢~5 0.,=006 OE'0.(B

I
,,D, --j~l- .,I .f •
35 --~III-- 35
,/ - -- JI •! I ° •a
f
• . .
i
I II
|
--!-

0 6 12 18 24 0 6 12 18 24 0 6 1 2 1 8 2 4 i[ 0 6 12 18 24 0 6 12 18 24 0 6 12 18 24 0 6 12 18 24 0 6121824

HZ/L.W=I HZ/L.W=O. 12 H2/L.'~/=8 HZ/L.V r=3.6

Figure (3) the inside air temperature 1.5 m above ground level for different oonfigurations

Figure(4) present the daily solar energy collected by the different types of atriums.This is explaining the
different values in the rise of temperature inside the different models. Figure(5) shows the index of comfort
in the different models, the degree of comfort is corresponding to the collected solar energy by each
model.
10

C v*O .0 6
o

0
0,12 I 3,4 0,12 1 3,4 8
H 2 /L .W H2/I..W

Figure(4) the daily energy gains by different Figure(5) index of ~mtbrt in different atrium
configurations with different Cv configurations with different Cv

Senslvity to the heat transfer coefficient

The influence of the values of the heat transfer coefficient on the maximum solar energy gains and the
maximum temperature of an atrium is presented in figure(6) & table(2). At the lower values of K, the
effect of the rate of ventilation is more sensible.

K~w/m2.°C) 0.3 0.46 ! .5

q~kW~ ~ . ! ) 51.9 53.6 62
Q (kW) CCvffiO.05) 30.6 31.7 42.6
T~1¢(2) The ma,~imum e~tgy g;dm:at diff+~rentvalues of K
 1005

Cv~.l Cv=O.0s

6O 60

--~l~-- 2 voi/h

j. .... " i
--41-~

- - i 1 ~
4 ~J/h

16 v c l / h

20 vol/h
3O
0 I 2 4 - - 2 5 vo l / h
o I 2
K (wh~n2.°C) K (~','m2 .'U )

6 ) the influencc of the insula~on oe the interior air tem~'~rature at different rates of ventilation's

The influence of the inclination of roof glazing

The influence of inclination of glazing roof is tested for an atrium (H2/L.W=I), table(3) shows the daily
energy gained by the atrium and the maximum temperature for the different Cv---0.05 & 0.1. Naturally the
lowering of'the ~ngle is the higher of collected solar energy, which is responsible to the increase in the air
temr~rature. So the higher angle, is the better for the energy saving & comfort condition.

~.05 ~. 1
ansle ~ 0 30 45 60 as$1e c~ 0 30 45 60
Q (kWH} 371 336 240. 192 Q (kWH) 630 396 360 276.
Tmax °C 40 36.1. 34.7 32.6 Tmax *C 46.7 38.2 36.1 34. !
Table(3) The daily solar energy gain.~ and maximum interior temperature at different roof angles

Inde x of consumption:
The energy consumption of an A/C installation 700
in different atrium models are calculated for a 600
controlled comfort temperature of 28°C, the 500 I
results are shown in figure (7), the higher , .~oo I
atrium is the lower energy consumption, where
that is naturally clear that the influence of the 1oo
o
solar glazing roof apertures are also important. 0,12 1 3.4 8
I'L2/LW
Figure(7) Coolerenergyconsumlzionat differentatrium
<xmfigurations

5- C O N C L U S I O N :
A brief presentation of what kin5 of inforauaion an arc.hiteet can gel i.,.tile early design & analyse decision
for a bioclimatie atrium for the summa" comfort. A deft:ring tim purpose of the designed atrium either for
the growing plants or for the improve r.he iliutrtinah'on ip the pub!ie .qpaees etc., is the first stage for the
design. Solar glazing roof aperture ~lilcll iS net~ssary fi~r !ighting and winter comfort and which will
increase the solar radiation gains and increase the interior temperature in the atrium, need certain
optimisation corresponding with needed natural ventilation which is generated by solar driven buoyancy
effect and which can be considered as the important biocSmatic tool to control the interior temperature and
improve the comfort as well as the other factors.

4- REFERENCES:
1- E.Andreadaki, S.papasotiriou, Bioclimatic architecture & passive solar components applied to an
existing housing block, International Conference on Evolution of External Perimetral Components in
Bioclinmfic Are~tecture, 5~'lal~o,1990.
2- P.G.T Owens, Natural Ventilation of Atria ,Europeao Confea:nce of Architecture, Munich April 1987