Numerical investigations on the thermal performance of adaptive ETFE foil cushions

Abstract It has become increasingly popular among designers and engineers to use ETFE pneumatic foil constructions as an alternative to glass in state of the art building envelopes, due to the low weight, high transparency, mechanical resistance and self-cleaning features of ETFE. However, it is still unclear how the thermal performance of the ETFE cushions can be assessed comprehensively and what are the effects on building thermal performance. This study investigated the thermal performance of a developed prototype ETFE cushion through both experimental measurement and numerical simulation. The numerical model has been validated by results from experimental tests using a large climatic chamber. The thermal resistance of the developed ETFE cushion at various environmental conditions (different indoor and outdoor temperature conditions) and also different inclination angles were studied. Empirical correlations generated based on simulations could be used for future building energy simulation.