University of Central England - Thermal Analysis

Client - Shepherd Construction Ltd

The analysis here concerns the performance of the New Technology Offices, University of Central England. The contractor, Shepherd Construction Ltd, required an independent assessment to ensure that the proposed design would meet the Employer's Requirements. Flow Analysis were commissioned to fulfill this role. The thermal analysis performed by Flow Analysis is described below.

The five-storey building is designed around a central atrium which serves the dual purpose of providing additional daylight and providing the exit route for the air supply. The building has been thoughtfully designed with overhangs and bris-soleil added to provide solar shading. Some views of the dynamic thermal simulation model are shown to the left.

Apart from some fairly standard comfort criteria, the Employer's Requirements stated that the solar gains should not exceed 100W per linear metre of facade. This proved to be a demanding condition to meet.

The results demonstrated that although the facade appears to be generously covered by solar shading devices, high solar gains were still likely to occur in the early morning (on the eastern side) and in the late afternoon (on the western side). Several glazing types were tested, until one was found which met the 100W per linear metre criterion (see results to the right) at all times of the day on several hot, sunny days chosen from the weather data set.

Interestingly, the higher performance glazing made relatively little impact on occupant comfort in terms of exceedences of 25 degrees C resultant temperature. The effects of several cooling strategies were assessed including allowing occupants to control the windows and night-purging. In this respect, it was found that night purging had the largest impact on reducing the number of hours of exceedence of 25 degrees.  

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