Abstract
The purpose of this study is to develop an algorithm that includes the effect of the physical surroundings in the evaluation of parametric exterior louver designs. The algorithm assesses the yearly thermal performance of an exterior louver design using the weather data from Typical Meteorological Year and the solar position from DIVA for Rhino. As the algorithm calculates direct solar gain of the given surface, it considers the effect of the physical elements around the site. The algorithm compares the hourly solar gain on the given surface under the effect of the louver design with Best Case Scenario. The Best-Case Scenario is a condition that maximizes solar heat gain in the heating season and that minimizes solar heat gain in the cooling season. The louver design gets a score that is the sum of the differences of hourly direct solar radiation with the best-case scenario. The paper presents a case study that uses the algorithm to evaluate the existing louvers of the two curtain wall office buildings in Seoul, Korea. It evaluates the existing louvers in two different settings; with the surrounding buildings and without the surrounding buildings. The result reveals that the inclusion of the physical surroundings create more accurate result and that the physical surroundings create different conditions even within the same surface. Therefore, the louver design should be custom-designed according to the different surrounding conditions.
