Effects of external shading devices on daylighting and natural ventilation

External shading devices have been utilized very extensively in residential buildings in the tropics to reduce the amount of solar radiation entering into the buildings. However, this will affect the availability of daylight for interior lighting as well as natural ventilation for passive cooling and thermal comfort. This paper discusses the impacts of six different types of external shading device on a residential building in Singapore. The investigation was carried out via the use of LIGHTSCAPE for daylighting simulations and PHOENICS CFD simulations for natural ventilation. From the series of parametric studies, the design of external shading devices to optimize daylighting and natural ventilation performance is developed. The interactions and the inter-relationship between daylighting and natural ventilation simulations that could affect the simulation results were also
discussed. Lastly an actual field measurement was also conducted, which serves to provide data for the validation of simulation