Climate Responsive Automatic Operation Strategies for Double Skin Façade (DSF) System of High-Rise Buildings

Double skin façade (DSF) systems are increasingly used in high-rise buildings in hot summer and cold winter climate cities for the enhancement of acoustic insulation, aesthetic appearance, thermal insulation, natural ventilation, and energy efficiency. However, inappropriate DSF configuration can cause an increase in the risk of overheating in the cavity space during summer, which is one of the main disadvantages of DSF systems. In order to improve DSF configuration, as a means of increasing energy efficiency, an effective analysis method for thermal performance evaluation that considers all possible thermal parameters should be used. However, widely used current analysis methods are mostly focused on the evaluation of thermal performance by changing the façade optical properties in the DSF cavity space. In addition, the opening system in DSF is mostly operated as one unit. Taking into consideration these limits, this study focuses on the fact that wind speed and ambient temperature can change the airflow movement in the cavity with opening operation. In addition, the temperature and heat flow in the cavity can differently affect inside thermal performance depending on the height of the room. It is important to consider all possible parameters that can affect thermal performance, including wind speed and building height, for effective thermal analysis in a DSF configuration. This study explored the applicability of a climate-responsive automatic opening system for high-rise DSF buildings. Detailed Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation was used to develop an automatic opening pattern which was individually operated to optimize thermal character of the cavity.