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Multi-objective optimization of thermochromic glazing based on daylight and energy performance evaluation

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Abstract

Many efforts have been detected to investigate thermochromic (TC) glazing for improving building energy saving, while only a few approaches for daylight performance analysis. In this study, the performance of TC glazing is investigated based on multi-objective optimization for minimizing energy demand while maximizing daylight availability. The effects of five parameters including transition temperature, solar transmittance in clear state, solar transmittance modulation ability, luminous transmittance in clear state, and luminous modulation ability on the building energy consumption and useful daylighting illuminance (UDI300–3000) are examined. Linear Programming Technique for Multi-dimensional Analysis of Preference (LINMAP) is used for the decision-making of Pareto frontier. This research aims to explore the ideal thermochromic glazing by considering the daylight and energy performance of a typical office room, taking the weather condition of Xiamen, China as an example. Although it is impossible to achieve both optimal values of energy consumption and UDI300–3000 simultaneously, the proposed multi-objective optimization method could still provide low energy consumption with sufficient daylight. The non-dominated sorting of Pareto optimal solution (POS) demonstrated that the optimum building energy consumption and UDI300–3000 for single glazed windows are 46.64 kWh/m2 and 70.92%, respectively, while the values for double glazed windows are 44.40 kWh/m2 and 71.88%, respectively. The selected hypothetical TC windows can improve the building energy and daylighting performance simultaneously when compared with traditional clear single and double glazed windows. The presented framework provides a multi-objective optimization method to determine the most suitable TC glazing technologies for designers and architects during the design and retrofit procedure.

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Abbreviations

A :

area (m2)

COP:

coefficient of performance (—)

E :

electricity power (kWh)

EPA:

electric power consumption per unit indoor area (kWh/m2)

F(X):

vector of objective function (—)

g :

inequality constraints

G :

solar irradiation (W)

h :

equality constraints

p :

number of inequality constraints

q :

number of equality constraints

Q :

energy consumption (kWh)

T :

transmittance

X :

vector of decision variables (—)

TC:

thermochromic (—)

τ :

temperature (°C)

c:

cooling

c&h:

cooling and heating

h:

heating

lighting:

artificial lighting

lum:

luminous

k :

decision variables

solar:

solar

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51878581 and No. 51778549) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 20720200087).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Xiaoqiang Hong, Feng Shi, Shaosen Wang & Xuan Yang

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Yue Yang

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  1. Xiaoqiang Hong
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  2. Feng Shi
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  3. Shaosen Wang
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  4. Xuan Yang
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  5. Yue Yang
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Correspondence to Xiaoqiang Hong or Yue Yang.

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Hong, X., Shi, F., Wang, S. et al. Multi-objective optimization of thermochromic glazing based on daylight and energy performance evaluation. Build. Simul. 14, 1685–1695 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-021-0778-7

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