Light Transmission by Overlaying and Moving Printed Foils
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Stani MANUKA LIGHT TRANSMISSION BY OVERLAYING AND MOVING PRINTED FOILS Master thesis submitted under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ir. Arch. Niels De Temmerman and the co-supervision of Prof. Dr. Ir. Valéry Ann Jacobs in order to be awarded the Master’s Degree in Architectural Engineering Academic year 2016-2017 2 Light Transmission By Overlaying And Moving Printed Foils STANI MANUKA Vrije Universiteit Brussel Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Elsene Master of Science in Architectural Engineering [email protected] August 2017 Keywords: Shading, ETFE, Light, Transmission, Pattern, Foils Abstract From the moment apertures were placed in buildings to let light in, glazing has always been the most widely used material to cover these apertures, ensuring that the inside of the building is protected from the outside environment, e.g. weather. In recent years however, another transparent material has been rising to the foreground with clear performance and economic improvements around these buildings. Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene, or ETFE, is a foil that offers significant environmental benefits, e.g. a high percentage of light transmission of all frequencies, reducing the need of artificial lighting, lightweight properties, significantly reducing the construction mass and the amount of required materials, and its importance in multiple research fields resulting in innovations like integrated photovoltaics, environmental control features and smart printing. The latter is the feature that ensures the innovation put forward in this thesis. Even though ETFE finds many of its benefits in its performance to sunlight, an important missing characteristic in many of its architectural applications, is the ability to shade. Currently, very few solutions that have been put forward seem to find some type of application in ETFE-integrating architecture. A new shading system for these types of buildings is thus presented that uses smart printing to apply a printed pattern with a low transmission value on two layers of ETFE. These layers are then laid on top of each other and are rotated and translated in relation to one another. The resulting pattern changes when movement is introduced, hence the ability to alter the light transmission of the system. To understand how the system’s movement affects its light transmission, formulas are put forward for two types of patterns. Using these, the total light transmission of the resulting pattern can be calculated at any rotation angle or translation distance, 3 and vice versa. To evaluate the formulas and put the theoretical framework to the test, computer simulations were done with these same patterns. The average illuminance values of a simulation room with an aperture that holds the new shading system are compared with the expected results from the formulas. They are found to be in line with each other which means that from two different approaches, the new system works. However, only its application in a real-life situation can make these results conclusive. 4 Contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 7 2 State of the Art ................................................................................................................................ 9 2.1 Pneumatics ............................................................................................................................ 10 2.2 The evolution of ETFE ........................................................................................................... 13 2.3 Future prediction for ETFE .................................................................................................... 17 2.4 Shading Systems.................................................................................................................... 19 2.5 Pattern-based applications other than shading ................................................................... 22 3 Light and shadow .......................................................................................................................... 25 3.1 Evaluating daylight through a determined number of factors ............................................. 25 3.2 Applicable factors ................................................................................................................. 27 4 ETFE properties ............................................................................................................................. 28 4.1 Light Transmission ................................................................................................................ 28 4.2 Sound Transmission .............................................................................................................. 29 4.3 Insulation .............................................................................................................................. 29 4.4 Solar Control ......................................................................................................................... 29 4.5 G Value .................................................................................................................................. 30 4.6 Life ......................................................................................................................................... 30 4.7 Environment.......................................................................................................................... 30 4.8 Overall performance in comparison with glass .................................................................... 31 5 Introduction to the new shading system ...................................................................................... 32 6 Shadow patterns ........................................................................................................................... 34 6.1 Different types of shadow patterns and how to assess them .............................................. 34 6.2 Eliminating shadow pattern disturbances ............................................................................ 37 7 Calculating light transmission and shadow distribution ............................................................... 39 7.1 Line Pattern ........................................................................................................................... 39 7.2 Radial Pattern ........................................................................................................................ 49 7.3 Transforming formulas into computer algorithms ............................................................... 51 5 8 Application and prototype ............................................................................................................ 58 8.1 Modular application .............................................................................................................. 58 8.2 Building the frame................................................................................................................. 59 8.3 A simplified prototype .......................................................................................................... 60 9 The communicative envelope ....................................................................................................... 62 10 Simulations ................................................................................................................................ 65 10.1 Set-up .................................................................................................................................... 65 10.2 Simulations and results ......................................................................................................... 66 11 Discussion and conclusion ........................................................................................................ 84 11.1 Discussion .............................................................................................................................. 84 11.2 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 86 12 Limitations and further research .............................................................................................. 88 12.1 Research limitations .............................................................................................................. 88 12.2 Further research ................................................................................................................... 89 13 Design of a brewery .................................................................................................................. 90 13.1 The workings of a brewery.................................................................................................... 90 13.2 The workings of the existing Brasserie de la Senne .............................................................. 93 13.3 The new Brasserie de la Senne ............................................................................................. 97 13.4 Link between research and design ..................................................................................... 114 13.5 Views from the out- and the inside of the building ............................................................ 117 14 Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................................