Browsing by Author "Hernández Ramos, Juan Antonio"

The transparent materials used in building envelopes significantly contribute to heating and cooling loads of a building. The use of transparent materials requires to solve issues regarding heat gain, heat loss, and daylight. Water flow glazing (WFG), a disruptive technology, includes glazing as part of the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system. Water is transparent to visible wavelengths, but it captures most of the infrared solar radiation. As an alternative to fossil fuel-based HVAC systems, the absorbed energy can be transferred to the ground through borehole heat exchangers and dissipated as a means of free-cooling. Researchers of the Polytechnic University of Madrid have developed a software tool to calculate the energy balance while incorporating the dynamic properties of WFG. This article has studied the mathematical model of that tool and validated its ability to predict energy savings in buildings, taking spectral and thermal parameters of glazing catalogs, commercial software, and inputs from the measurements of the prototypes. The results found in this article showed that it is possible to predict the thermal behavior of WFG and the energy savings by comparing the thermal parameters of two prototypes. The energy absorbed by the water depends on the mass flow rate and the inlet and outlet temperatures.

El vidrio, como elemento fundamental en el diseño de la arquitectura, se enfrenta a los tradicionales problemas de excesivas ganancias energéticas en verano y pérdidas exageradas en invierno. El vidrio activo con agua en circulación proporciona el control de la carga térmica que incide sobre una fachada gracias a la circulación ascendente del agua a través de la cámara entre paños. El agua no solo absorbe la radiación infrarroja sino que reduce la temperatura del vidrio interior sin renunciar a su transparencia. Aporta asimismo inercia térmica al cerramiento y un gran potencial para absorber energía y trasladarla, haciendo de los vidrios activos una solución especialmente indicada en climas cálidos. Este texto expone las bases del comportamiento energético y posibilidades de esta tecnología, mostrando los resultados de simulaciones de una edificación que la implementa en su fachada sur.