atrium

After describing smoke hazards, this document gives for the designers the basic principles of smoke management in atriums. Requirements of the Canadian building code are also described.

In order to save energy for building cooling during hot days in regions with cool nights, air circulation throughout the interior of the building has been envisaged as a means to lower the temperature of the building structural mass. In this way, energy required for cooling the building interior is reduced, due to lowered temperature of the wall, ceiling and other structural elements mass, and a greater storage of heat resulting from various heat gains the following day when air-conditioning is on.

The transformation of the Conservatorio San Giuseppe , into the Cospicua Residential Home for the Elderly has become a landmark in the neighbourhood. It brings past and present together with its old church and stepped new development incorporating a colourful orange windbreak. It is an example of how an old building, originally an orphanage for girls, with limitations of location and orientation could be rehabilitated to incorporate energy efficient features. Both the original structure and the new construction are load bearing with a high thermal mass to utilise a direct gain system.

The objective of this parametric study is to vary some parameters related to the conception of an atrium in order to analyse through CFD calculations their impact on the thermal behaviour during the critical summer conditions. The guideline produced are intended to help the architects especially at the first stage of the conception process.

Evaluates by measurement and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modelling, the thermal performance of an atrium integrated with photovoltaic (PV) modules, situated at the Jubilee Campus of the UK University of Nottingham. The project monitored the internal and external environments of the atrium, and applied CFD to the prediction of its thermal performance. Investigated the effect of ventilation strategies on the performance of PV arrays. Found that CFD modelling showed that for effective cooling of roof mounted PV arrays, the air inlet should be situated close to the roof.

This is the first of a series of four papers that describe a 3-year EU-funded research project into the application of passive downdraught evaporative cooling to nondomestic buildings. In this paper various evaporative cooling techniques are reviewed. By spraying fine droplets of water at the top of atria, a downdraught of air cooled by evaporation can be produced. Such direct evaporative cooling using an evaporation tower appears to be a suitable approach for partly displacing the need for air-conditioning in hot, dry climates.

Computer modelling is becoming an everyday tool for the building services engineer to ensure that a ventilation design will work early on in the development process. This paper describes this process in relation to Novartis' new office building in the UK. In this case, airflow modelling was used to fine-tune a conceptual idea for the atrium air conditioning. This influenced the solar shading incorporated into the architectural design and allowed engineers to optimise the volume of air used and the location of supply air terminals.