Article
Thermoelectric Facades: Simulation of Heating and Cooling Potential for Novel Intelligent Facades
Proceedings of the Facade World Congress 2020
(2020)
Abstract
This article discusses design, prototype development and a simulation study of novel types of facade systems, which integrate thermoelectric (TE) materials. TEs are smart materials that have the ability to produce a temperature gradient when electricity is applied, exploiting the Peltier effect, or to generate a voltage when exposed to a temperature gradient, utilizing the Seebeck effect. TEs can be used for heating, cooling, or power generation. In this research, heating and cooling potentials of these novel systems were explored for commercial office space. Initially, two low fidelity prototypes were designed, constructed and experimentally tested to investigate heating and cooling potentials. Results, which have been previously published, indicated that these novel facade systems would operate well in heating and cooling modes under varying exterior environmental conditions. In this study, the research was extended to include simulations and modeling. A typical commercial office space was used in the simulation study to investigate heating and cooling capabilities of thermoelectric facades. In the simulation model, a single office space was modeled with an exterior wall consisting of a thermoelectric facade, and interior walls as adiabatic partition walls. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were conducted for different scenarios, using SOLIDWORKS software program, varying the exterior environmental conditions (0°F, 30°F, 60°F and 90°F) and percentage of wall coverage with thermoelectric components (5%, 10%, 15% and 20%). Simulations were conducted to calculate temperature distribution within the interior space for these different scenarios, and to determine heating and cooling outputs. This paper reviews the results in detail.
Keywords
- Smart facades,
- active facades,
- thermolectric materials,
- heating and cooling,
- simulations,
- Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
Disciplines
Publication Date
2020
Citation Information
Ajla Aksamija, Zlatan Aksamija, Mahsa Farid Mohajer, Meenakshi Upadhyaya, et al.. "Thermoelectric Facades: Simulation of Heating and Cooling Potential for Novel Intelligent Facades" Proceedings of the Facade World Congress 2020 (2020) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/ajla_aksamija/192/