For this Project 2, I focused on controlling shading devices.
1. Introduction
For project 2, shading devices will be designed for tracking the sun's movement. For tracking the sun's movement, "Solar azimuth angle" and "Solar incident angle" are necessary.
Controlling shading devices by solar azimuth and solar incident angles can be expressed as the pictures below (Fig 1 to 4)
Figure 1. Shading devices control by "solar azimuth angle" at 9:00 A.M.
Figure 2. Shading devices control by "solar azimuth angle" at 3:00 P.M.
Figure 3. Solar incident angle
Figure 4. Shading devices control by "solar incident angle"
2. Shading Devices
Shading devices were built by "Curtain Panel Pattern Based", and these devices have parameters such as "angles, lengths". These parameters were designed for movements of shading devices by solar azimuth and solar incident angles.
Figure 5. Shading device
Figure 6. Shading device movement by solar azimuth angle
Figure 7. Shading device movement by solar incident angle
3. Shading Devices Control by The Sun's Movement
To define the sun's movement, solar azimuth and solar incident angles were calculated by a bunch of variables and equations.
Figure 8. Variables and equations for solar azimuth angle
Figure 9. Variables and equations for solar incident angle
4. Dynamo
The equations of solar azimuth and incident angles were applied to dynamo. Dynamo is a visual programming language for Autodesk Revit and Vasari. By using this programming language, I calculated solar azimuth and incident angles. Finally, shading movements were defined using these calculations.
Figure 10. Result of Dynamo
Figure 11. Equations for solar azimuth angle
Figure 12. Equations for solar incident angle
Figure 13. Shading control by solar azimuth angle (South facade)
Figure 14. Shading control by solar incident angle (South facade)
5. Result
a. Shading devices' movements by time
Solar azimuth and incident angles were defined by time, date, and latitude. Although these all variables can be changed, I assumed the variables as below in this project.
- Location : Essen, Germany
- Date : July 19
- Time : 09:00 A.M., 12:00 P.M., 03:00 P.M.
- Latitude : 51.5° N
I changed time 09:00 A.M. to 03:00 P.M, and shading devices were working well with the time changes. Shading devices on the East, West, South facades of the building were moved for tracking the sun's position to block the direct solar radiation.
Figure 15. Shading movement at 09:00 A.M.
Figure 16. Shading movement at 12:00 P.M.
Figure 17. Shading movement at 03:00 P.M.
b. Rendering images
I compared shading devices with and without shading control. As a result, a large portion of direct radiation was blocked by shading devices with shading control. In the other hand, if the shading control was not used, the portion of direct radiation was increased.
Figure 18. Shading control at 03:00 P.M. (Oct. 27th)
Figure 19. No shading control at 03:00 P.M. (Oct. 27th)
6. Video
