[esp-r] program about reflections on obstructions

[Gian Luca Brunetti]

Dear ESP-r users,
I have written a program that modifies the diffuse shading factors in 
the ESP-r's ".shda" files to take into account the effect of the direct 
and indirect reflections on solar obstructions.

I have uploaded the program, "modish.pl", on figshare: 
http://figshare.com/articles/modish_pl/1466767 . It is a Perl program 
operating through the shell.

It modifies the shading factors on the basis of irradiance ratios 
derived from the irradiances obtained from (a) a fictitious model having 
black surfaces and unmodified obstructions and (b)  a fictitious model 
having black surfaces and black obstructions. The irradiances are 
calculated through Radiance via e2r.

The approach does not aim to be suitable for ordinary situations, but 
for situations in which the necessity of taking into account reflections 
from obstructions is very high, like when solar reflectors having high 
view factors of the given surfaces are in play in summer outside the 
thermal zones. It is at least an attempt.

An explanation of how the program works is included in the comments at 
the beginning of it.

I would be glad if somebody feeling like trying the program and 
comparing the results produced by ESP-r +modish.pl and, and, for 
instance, EnergyPlus in problems characterized by the presence of 
substantial reflectors sent me a feedback about his/her impressions as 
regards the viability of this approach. I have not tried yet.

Thank you in advance for your attention.

Best regards

Gian Luca Brunetti

-- 
Gian Luca Brunetti
dr.arch.
DAStU
Politecnico di Milano
via Bonardi 3
20133 Milano
tel. (+39) 02 2399 5750
gianluca.brunetti at polimi.it