10.2190/68XW-2LNQ-NXYT-4BXC 68XW2LNQNXYT4BXC 5 Assessment of Thermal Environment in an Atrium with Air-Conditioning 409 420 20020509 20020509 20020509 20020509 68XW2LNQNXYT4BXC.pdf http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=68XW2LNQNXYT4BXC 4 W. K. Chow The Hong Kong Polytechnic University This article is a report on assessing the thermal environment in an atrium with air-conditioning by studying the air temperature at the occupied zone. By surveying the general shapes of the atrium buildings in Hong Kong, it is found that most of the atria have a glazed roof and a lower occupant zone cooled by installing air-conditioning systems. A three-zone model is proposed to study the air temperature in the atrium. the upper zone is hot due to solar radiation heating up the glazed roof, interior side walls and building contents; a middle zone is an intermittent region; and the lower zone is cooled by an air-conditioning system. Heat transfer between the zones through convection is proposed. Air temperature is predicted by solving the system of heat balance equations numerically. Further, a closed form expression on the air temperature at the lower zone is derived by assuming a constant upper layer temperature. the result is useful at the initial stage in designing thermal environmental control systems for atria. R. Lu, Tsim Sha Tsui's New Pride, <i>Building Journal Hong Kong, 68</i>, April 1986. W. K. Chow and L. T. Wong, <i>Survey on the Atrium Buildings for Thermal Environment Design in Hong Kong—Research Report</i>, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, 1996. F. Mills, Environmental Design of Atrium Building in the U. K., <i>ASHRAE Transactions, 96</i>:1, pp. 14-21, 1990. J. R. Jones and M. B. Luther, A Summary of Analytical Methods and Case Study Monitoring of Atria, <i>ASHRAE Transactions, 99</i>:1, pp. 1070-1081, 1993. I. Bryn, Atrium Buildings Environmental Design and Energy Use, <i>ASHRAE Transactions, 99</i>:1, pp. 1082-1091, 1993. M. R. Atif, D. E. Claridge, L. L. Boyer, and L. O. Degelman, Atrium Buildings: Thermal Performance and Climatic Factors, <i>ASHRAE Transactions—Research, 101</i>:1, pp. 454-460, 1995. H. Yoshino and K. Aozasa, Literature Surveys on Thermal Environmental Strategies of Atrium Buildings in Japan, <i>Proceedings of the Pan Pacific Symposium on Building and Urban Environmental Conditioning in Atria, March 1995 Nagoya, Japan</i>, N. Nakahara (ed.), pp. 21-32, 1995. W. K. Chow and W. K. Wong, On the Simulation of Atrium Fire Environment in Hong Kong Using Zone Models, <i>Journal of Fire Sciences, 11</i>, pp. 101-151, 1993. W. K. Chow, Application of Computational Fluid in Building Services Engineering, <i>Building and Environment, 31</i>:5, pp. 425-436, 1996. D. E. Ross, W. S. Lewis, A. LoPinto, S. P. W. Wong, A. Wong, and H. C. Mak, Case Study: Bank of China Building, <i>The Journal of Hong Kong Institution of Engineers</i>, pp. 35-42, May 1989. Building Journal Hong Kong, <i>Hong Kong Bank Headquarter Building—An Eye-Catching ‘Space-Scraper’ Explores the Hong Kong Skyline</i>, pp. 62-67, August 1985. Building Journal Hong Kong, <i>New Town Plaza—Texas-Size in Shatin</i>, pp. 78-82, December 1984. <i>PHOENICS/FLAIR User Guide—CHAM Report TR/312 Concentration, Heat and Momentum Ltd.</i>, United Kingdom, 1993. G. G. J. Achterbosch, P. P. G. de Jong, C. E. Krist-Spit, S. F. van der Meulen, and J. Verberne, <i>The Development of a Convenient Thermal Dynamic Building Model, Energy and Buildings, 8</i>, pp. 183-196, 1985. <i>DIFFEQ: Numerical Solutions of Differential Equations</i> (2nd Edition), MicroMath Scientific Software, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1991. K. J. Lomas and H. Eppel, Sensitivity Analysis Techniques for Building Thermal Simulation Programs, <i>Energy and Buildings, 19</i>, pp. 21-44, 1992.