Method to quantify the effect of apartment housing design parameters on outdoor thermal comfort in summer

This study aims to provide basic data for green building projects with respect to the thermal environment of the architecture-urban level scale in combination with outdoor thermal environment problems and the heat island phenomenon using numerical simulation. The study models were selected typical flat and tower apartment residential housing in Korea: 54 cases were defined using an orthogonal array table based on experimental design. These cases are analyzed to quantify the outdoor thermal comfort (mean radiation temperature distribution) and heat island potential (HIP) change throughout a day according to several design variables (building type, site planning type, facade direction, and landscape ratio). A three-dimensional numerical simulation of all surface temperatures is performed. The results are analyzed statistically using multivariate analysis of variance. It was quantitatively characterize the effects of the design parameters on the outdoor thermal environment of the apartment housing. An evaluation index of the design parameters is proposed. A designer can apply the proposed index in the design process and in feedback for green apartment housing projects. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.