Sunlight Permeability of Translucent Concrete Panels as a Building Envelope
Publication: Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 24, Issue 3
Abstract
An innovative building envelope was introduced for daylight permeability in an anidolic manner through the opaque parts of exterior façades and roofs. A prefabricated translucent concrete panel (TCP) with embedded optical fibers (OFs) was coupled with a layer outfitted with compound parabolic concentrators (CPCs). Such TCPs have been predominantly used for aesthetic purposes. Moreover, OFs and CPCs have been used in many industries, particularly for telecommunications and the concentration of solar energy, respectively. The goal of this study was to introduce a novel building-envelope construction solution that can transmit sunlight to the interior of a building. Because of the nature of the traditional building materials blocking the passage of natural light, artificial lighting was constantly required, even during daytime, which consumed a great deal of energy in the form of artificial electrical light. This proposed building envelope is a viable solution to alleviate this inefficiency. Experimental results show the effectiveness and limitations of the proposed solution discussed in this paper.
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Acknowledgments
The presented research was funded by the Republic of Singapore National Research Foundation through a grant to the Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS) for the Singapore–Berkeley Building Efficiency and Sustainability in the Tropics (SinBerBEST) program. BEARS was established by the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) as a center for intellectual excellence in research and education in Singapore. The authors thank A.W. Rastetter, UC Berkeley for helping with manufacturing the panels and A. Ahuja, UC Berkeley, and J. Riback, Vulume, LLC, for their revisions to the paper.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 24 • Issue 3 • September 2018
Copyright
© 2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 31, 2015
Accepted: Feb 26, 2018
Published online: May 17, 2018
Published in print: Sep 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Oct 17, 2018
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