Solar Energy Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 303-312, 1986 0038-092X/86 $3.00 + .

00
Printed in the U.S.A. © 1986 Pergamon Press Ltd.

ANALYTICAL MODEL, SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS,

AND ALGORITHM FOR TEMPERATURE SWINGS
IN DIRECT GAIN ROOMS

A. K. A T H I E N I T I S , t H. F. S U L L I V A N : ~ and K. G. T. HOLLANDS:~
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada,
N2L3GI
(Received 6 February 1985; revision received 21 August 1985; accepted 21 August 1985)

Abstract--An analytical method is presented for determining the temperature swings in direct gain
rooms for relatively clear days. Fundamental network concepts, such as the delta to star transformation
and the Norton theorem, are used to obtain the solution for a representative room temperature and
the storage mass front surface temperature, in the frequency domain. The storage mass is modelled
as a two-port element, analogous to a transmission line, and thus no discretization is required. Heat
sources representing the absorbed solar radiation and the ambient temperature source are modelled
analytically by Fourier series. The results of a sensitivity analysis are given, illustrating the flexibility
of the method in studying the effects of changing the values of room design variables and the daylength.
The daylength is shown to determine the relative magnitude of the harmonics of the solar radiation
absorbed in the room; the number of harmonics required in the analysis increases with decrease of
the daylength and of the amount of storage mass. Comparison of results with a lumped parameter
model shows a maximum difference of 12% in the storage mass surface temperature swings. It is useful
to know how frequently the room is likely to overheat under real weather conditions. Thus, an algorithm
implementing the method is also described, and it requires as input the daily clearness index and the
daily ambient temperature range.

l. INTRODUCTION porate the effect of change in daylength, an impor-

The primary objective of passive solar design is to
prevent frequent overheating of the building while
at the same time achieving high savings in its energy
consumption. Consequently, methods for predict-
ing the temperature swings in passive solar build-
ings play a major role in their design.
Several such methods are available for single
zone direct gain buildings[I-5]. They vary in ease
of use, in detail to which they model the heat trans-
fer, and the accuracy of their result. Detailed nu-
merical simulation methods generally offer the best
accuracy, but they are not usually suitable for de-
sign where many options must be considered. Fur-
ther, as pointed out by Sebald and Vered[4], the
building thermal networks contain more informa-
tion than can be extracted by simulation alone. Sim-
plified models, on the other hand, are easy to use,
but they may not provide all the information re-
quired and they may employ simple heat transfer
modelling assumptions, such as an isothermal (sin-
gle-node) storage mass[l], which may introduce
substantial errors. One popular simplified method
is the diurnal heat capacity (dhc) method developed
at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratories[2].
Based on a distributed (nonisothermal) model for
the storage mass, it determines the swings in room
air temperature for typical clear days.
Like other simplified methods, the dhc method
has several shortcomings. First, it does not incor-
t Postdoctoral fellow.
:~ Professor.
tant parameter, as this paper will show. Second, it
does not estimate how frequently the room is likely
to overheat, something of real concern to design-
ers[3]. Third, by determining only the room air tem-
perature swings, it frequently does not give the de-
signer sufficient information: thermal comfort is
also affected by the room surface temperatures, so
a weighted average of air temperature and surface
temperatures is to be preferred.
The present paper presents a method which is
an attempt to eliminate these shortcomings. Al-
though more difficult to program than most sim-
plified methods, the algorithm for the method is suf-
ficiently fast to be used by the designer. Of course,
once the algorithm has been programmed, it can be
readily implemented. The method recognizes the
need for minimizing the amount of weather data re-
quired as input: the weather inputs it requires are
the daily clearness index K r and the daily ambient
temperature range for each day of the heating sea-
SOft.
A key component in the development of the
method is the use of network theorems and fre-
quency domain techniques, the power of which has
up to now been largely unexploited in the passive
design methods.
2. THERMAL NETWORK AND SOLUTION
The model
The model is shown schematically in Fig. l(a).
The walls (all of which are external) are assumed
to be made up of an inner lining of storage mass
304 A. K. ATHIENITISet al.

I]
T.i-" .-r.o
To

INS U LAT ION

STORAGE
MASS
(a)

Uinf
TQi

go

[ °- 1o., o.o

Usa: Ashcs, Usw: Awhrw, Uaw: Awhcw,

UwI: Awhi, Uwo: Awho,
Uo= Aoho/(hoRlns +I)
(b)

Tai Uinf

Uo Ts ~Ueo Twi Two

s swi s~ ( )To

(c)

T$ % -,~t.
0~l _LL u~,~ 0.o
T
(d)
Fig. 1. (a) Room schematic, (b) thermal network, (c) after delta to star transformation, (d) simplified
network.
 Model, analysis and algorithm for temperature swings 305

material of uniform thermal transport properties, The elements of the storage mass cascade matrix
and an outer massless insulation, also of uniform are given by D = cosh ('¢x), B = sinh(~lx)/(k'¢) and
thermal transport properties. The thermal mass of C = (k~) sinh(~/x), and the heat fluxes q" and q'o
the window glazings is assumed to be negligible. are assumed positive if directed into the mass. The
The important temperatures are shown in Fig. l(a): quantity k is the storage mass thermal conductivity
the storage mass internal surface temperature T,, and ~ is equal to (s/a) l/z, s being the Laplace trans-
the (double-glazed) window internal glazing tem- form variable and a being the storage mass thermal
perature Two, the room air temperature Ta~, and the diffusivity. For frequency domain analysis, s is set
outdoor air temperature To. equal to jto, where j = ( - 1 ) 1/2 and to is the fre-
The assumed thermal network, shown in Fig. quency. Note that temperatures interior to the
l(b), contains several conductances. The equiva- walls, which are not of interest, are eliminated as
lent conductance Uinf due to infiltration heat loss variables, and that no discretization of the massive
links T~,-and To. convective conductances Usa and walls is required.
Uaw thermally link T~,.with T~ and T~i with Two, re-
spectively, while radiative conductance U~w links Transformations and frequency domain solution
T~ and T~i. Combined radiative and convective con- A delta to star transformation[9l permits the net-
ductances Uwi and U~o thermally link T~i with Two work of Fig. l(b) to be reduced to that of Fig. l(c).
and Two with To, respectively. As is customary, the This transformation has permitted a "natural" rep-
region outside the thermal mass has been replaced resentative room temperature Te,-to be obtained at
in Fig. l(b) by an equivalent conductance Uo in se- an important node; Tel is a weighted average of T,~,
ries with the sol-air temperature Teo associated with T~i and T~:
the external wall surface. The conductance Uo com-
bines the insulation resistance Rins and the external Te~ = ( U e ~ T ~ + Ue. Ta~ + U~sL)I
surface radiative-convective conductance (equal to
Aoho). The equations for the conductances are x (U~w + U~ + UeD, (2)
given in Fig. 1. All conductances are assumed to
be linear. While the model as just described as- where
sumes a uniformly distributed storage mass, by a
small extension it can model a situation where some Uew = Usw(1 + UoJUsa) + Ua,,,
of the walls (normally the ceiling) are nonmassive,
Ue~ = U~w(1 + UsalU,~) ÷ Usa,
by modelling them as conductances in parallel with
Uinf. U~ = U~(1 + Us,IUo~) + Us,.
The network also contains several sources. The
major source S~ is the solar radiation transmitted The temperature T~i can serve as a representative
through the window and absorbed by the storage "sensed" temperature because it should closely
mass. This energy is assumed to be uniformly ab- follow the effective temperature that would be felt
sorbed over the whole of the storage mass inside by an occupant who senses, through radiant ex-
surface. Sources Swi and S~o are the rates at which change, the temperatures of the room surfaces, and
solar radiation is absorbed (uniformly) by the inner through convective exchange the room air temper-
and outer glazings, respectively. ature. (As has been shown by Athienitis and Sul-
In the network approach adopted in this study livan[10], Te; closely follows the "operative tem-
the storage mass is treated as a three terminal, two- perature" defined by ASHRAE[ll]. That is, Te~
port component. Two of the terminals (nodes) are departs from the true sensed temperature by a fixed
the internal and external surfaces of the storage amount and thus both experience the same swing.)
mass and the third is the reference (ground) node. Two more simplifications are applied to obtain
Two-port network methods have been used for the simplified network in Fig. l(d). The first trans-
some time in modelling conduction through multi- forms the minor sources Swi and Swo to the equiv-
layered walls[6-8]. The terminal equations for two- alent source Sei given by
port components have been obtained once and for
all by analytical methods and tabulated[6, 9]. They Sei = Ue~(Sw,(hi + ho) + S~ohi)/
can be expressed in many forms, the most widely
used being the cascade form, which relates tem- × (hihoA~ + (hi + ho)U~w). (3)
perature and heat flux at one surface to those at the
Source Sei represents the portion of solar radiation
other surface. The cascade equations relating tem-
perature T, and heat flux q" at the room-side surface which is absorbed in the glazings and then trans-
of the single-layer storage mass (the cascade matrix ferred to the room interior by thermal radiation or
convection. After obtaining Sei, we can determine
for a multilayered wall is obtained by multiplying
the cascade matrices for consecutive layers) to the equivalent conductance Ueo coupling Tei and To
as
those (q',oand T,o) at its back surface are given by[6]
Ueo = 1/(1/Ue~ + l/Uw~ + 1/U.,o)
[qTi] = [ D DB][_qTi:] . (1)
+ I(I/U~, + I/U~.O. (4)
306 A. K. ATHIENITIS et al.
[If there is no mass on the ceiling, the ceiling is
modelled as a pure conductance in parallel with U~nf
and its conductance is added to U~,f in eqn (4).]
Both Se; and S~ are proportional to the solar irra-
diance of the window, so that S~i is expected to be
proportional to S~. It was found that Sei is typically
about 4% of the magnitude of Ss (for double glazing
and mid-latitudes in winter). As can be seen from
Fig. l(d), Se~ can be transformed to node s and
added to S~. Thus, we multiply S~ by the appro-
priate transformation factor so as to include the ef-
fect of Sei; this factor is equal to [I + ( S ~ / S , ) U , J
( U ~ + U~o)] (the ratio S d S ~ can be determined
from eqn (3) in the middle of the design period[3]).
Note that, if internal gains (absorbed by the room
air) were to be considered, then the associated
source would be treated in a manner similar to S~,
that is, it would be transformed from node ai to
node ei and would then be added to source S~,..
The final simplification results from the fact that
a linear subnetwork connected to a network at only
two terminals can be represented by its Norton
equivalent, consisting of a heat source and an ad-
mittance connected in parallel between the termi-
nals. In this way, the exterior wall is simplified to
its Norton equivalent. Since we are only interested
in the interior surface temperature T,, unimportant
nodes are eliminated by this transformation. These
two simplifications yield the network in Fig. l(d).
The determination of Y~v~l~(called the wall self-
admittance) and the equivalent source Qr., pro-
duced by the transformation, need some elabora-
tion. A first step obtains the total cascade matrix
by multiplying the cascade matrix for the storage
mass by that for Uo (note: Uo = Uo/Ao):
After multiplying, we temporarily set T~ = 0, to get
the Norton equivalent source as
Qr.s = - Ys~oT~o (6a)
where the transfer admittance Y~,o is given by
Y~o = - A J [ A ~ cosh('yx)/Uo + sinh(2tx)/(k~)]. (6b)
[The transfer admittance has been multiplied by the
mass surface area As (approximately equal to Ao)
to obtain its total value.] To obtain Yw,at, we tem-
porarily set Teo = 0 and obtain the admittance as
seen from the interior surface, yielding (after mul-
tiplying by As):
Ywan = As[(Uo/A~) + k'yE]/[(Uo/k'yA,)E + 1.] (7)
where E = tanh(-cx). As can be seen from Fig. l(d),
the transformation leaves only two terminal com-
ponents and only the nodes of interest remaining.
The solutions for Ts and T~ are obtained from a
heat balance at the two nodes (note that Sei is not
included in the heat balance as it has been trans-
formed to node s and added to Ss). The storage mass
surface temperature is found to be given by
T, = (S~ + Qr,~ + ULTo)IY~, (8)
where Y, is the room total admittance as seen from
the port formed by the reference and the Ts node,
given by
Ys = Ywall + UL,
where (9)
UL = 1/(1/U~ + l/Ueo).
The conductance UL represents the total loss con-
ductance between the storage mass interior surface
and the ambient temperature To.
The representative temperature is found to be
given by
Tel = (TF)eis(Ss + Qr.s) + (UeoTo)/Yei (10)
where
(TF),,., = l/((Ywall/U L + 1)Ueo), (11)
and
Y ~ - - U,o + Y w . . U < J ( Y w ~ + Ue,). (12)
The transfer function (TF)e,., determines the effect
of the primary source St, while Ye,-is the total room
admittance as seen from the port formed by the Te~
node and reference.
Source models
Steady-state periodic conditions will be assumed
in computing the swing (difference between maxi-
mum and minimum) in T~i or Ts over a particular
day. (This assumption is not inconsistent with what
has been done in the literature. A completely tran-
sient analysis is seldom performed in the simulation
of building heat transfer, there being no apparent
justification for assuming a certain set of initial con-
ditions; in using numerical methods such as in [5],
the simulation is usually repeated many times until
a periodic steady state response is obtained,) The
period is assumed to be one day, implying that the
day in question has been preceded by identical
days. Although deviations from the one-day peri-
odic assumption (e.g. previous day overcast and
current day clear) would cause errors in the mean
value of Te; for the day considered, the variation of
the waveform of Tei about its mean should not be
affected and therefore the difference between its
maximum and minimum points should be close to
the actual swing. Another option would have been
to include the effect of the previous day, i.e. to
assume a two-day periodicity; the present method
 Model, analysis and algorithm for temperature swings
can be readily generalized to include such a model.
Note that because of the one day periodic assump-
tion, weather input is needed only for the particular
day in question.
Fourier series models are required for the
sources S , T~o, and To, in order to obtain the time
domain solution for T, and Te~ under periodic con-
ditions. For equatorial facing windows (e.g. south
facing in northern hemisphere) the primary source
Ss can be closely modelled over the daytime as a
half sinusoid[3]. The constraints on the half sinu-
soid are chosen to satisfy two conditions: first that
it have an integrated energy equal to the actual solar
radiation Ha absorbed in the room over the day,
and second that it must start at sunrise and termi-
nate at sunset. Thus S~ for a single day is defined
by
S,=0, Itl>ts
and
S~ = (~rH,/4ts) cos(Trt/2tD, I t l < ts
where t is the time measured from solar noon (t is
negative in the morning, positive in the afternoon)
and t~ is the value of t at sunset. This expression
for Ss can be approximated by the following trun-
cated Fourier series:
N
Ss = qo + ~. q,, cos(t%t)
n=l
where
~% = 2~rn/td, qo = Halta and q~ = H , f , ,
f , being given by
f , = sin[Tr(ta + 4Gn)/(2ta)]
+ sin[~r(ta - 4tsn)/(2ta)].
As can be seen, the relative magnitude of the
harmonics is determined completely by the day-
length 2t,. The number of harmonics necessary to
model S~ was found to increase with decrease of
the daylength because of the more abrupt increase
of the absorbed radiation at sunrise, and its more
rapid decrease at sunset. F o r windows which are
not south facing, the Fourier coefficients can be
determined by direct numerical integration of the
instantaneous absorbed irradiation. Various meth-
ods can be used for determining the total daily ir-
radiation absorbed Ha. One is discussed in the al-
gorithm section.
The variation of the ambient temperature To was
modelled by a single sinusoid, with maximum at 3
p.m. and minimum at 3 a.m. (solar times). Thus, if
Tom is the daily average of To, and A To the daily
range of To then
307
To = Tom + (ATo/2) cos(~olt - ~r/4). (15)
The model does not distinguish between the dif-
fering orientations of exterior wall surfaces and
hence it is not possible to accurately model the ef-
fect of fluctuations in the solar radiation absorbed
by the wall exterior surfaces. A sensitivity analysis
given in a later section, showed that the effect of
this absorbed solar radiation on the temperature
swing is small, provided there is at least a medium
amount of insulation (about 5RSI) behind the mass.
Thus, the sol-air temperature Teo can be modelled
as equivalent to To.
Periodic solution
The time domain solution for the representative
temperature Te~ is obtained after substituting the
source models in eqn (10) and evaluating magni-
tudes and phase angles for the complex transfer
functions. Since we are only interested in fluctua-
tions, the mean source terms can be ignored. The
following solution is obtained for the variation of
(13) Tei about its m e a n T e i m :
Tei - Tel m -- (m To Ueo/(2 I Yeil I ))
X COS(t001t -- f~eil -- Tf/4)
+ (a1"ol Yseo, II (TW)ei, l]/2)
x cos(tolt + ~b~ + +s~ol - 7r/4)
N
(14)
+ ~ I (TF)ei~n I qncos(o~.t + +eisn), (16)
n=: |
where I (TFLi,~ I and + e ~ are, respectively, the
magnitude and phase of (TF)ei~ for o~ = O~n. Simi-
larly definitions apply for I Y~il I and ~be,, and [ Yseo~
] and ~b,eo~. For the variation of T, we obtain:
L - L,~ = ( A T o U d I 2 L , l)
x cos(t%l - +,l - ~r/4)
+ ( a L l r.eo, I/I 2r;, I)
x cos(t%l - qbsl + t~lseol -- ~r/4)
N
+ ' ~ (qn/1 Ysn l ) COS(tOnt - - qbsn). (17)
n--1
The swings in Ts and Tei can be determined by dif-
ferentiating the appropriate equation, finding the
two zeroes corresponding to the times at which the
maximum and minimum temperatures occur, and
then substituting these times back into the original
equation.
3. SENSITIVITYANALYSIS
The objectives of the sensitivity analysis were
to study the relative significance of fundamental de-
sign variables and to document the effects of var-
ious modelling assumptions. It consisted of two
parts. The first analyzed the transfer functions de-
pendence of the resistance g i n s , the mass thickness
308 A. K. ATHIENITISet al.
x, and the main heat loss conductance UL. The sec- Table 2. Variation of room admittance magnitude I Y~, ]
ond analyzed the temperature swings dependence (W/K)
on the above variables, plus the half-daylength t~. HARMONIC NO. n
Thus, studied were combinations of the four most
Rin s U L x I 2 3 4 5 6
important variables: x, UL, R~,~ and t~.
The assumed room data may be briefly de- L 985 1863 2595 3176 3631 3990
scribed. To facilitate comparison with the numer- H M Iq94 2300 2735 3045 3314 3570
H 1624 2154 2529 2878 3209 3513
ical simulation results of Maloney et al.[5], the L ......... ~ ...................................

present analysis was performed for the same room L 988 1867 2599 3181 3636 3997
as used by those workers. The dimensions of the H M Iq98 2306 2742 3052 3322 3577
H 1630 2162 2536 2886 3216 352"
south wall were 6.10 m wide by 2.44 m high, the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

north-south depth was 4.57 m, and the (south fac- L 1000 1895 2633 3213 3663 4017
ing, double-glazed) window area was 8.36 m 2. The H H M 1530 2325 2746 3048 3314 3566
H 16q8 2158 2527 2877 3208 3517
infiltration value used was 0.5 air changes per hour.
The heat transfer coefficients were as follows: h~s L 1003 1900 2638 3218 3667 q020
= h~w = 3 W K - l m -2, hi = 7.4 w K - I r a - 2 , a n d H H M 1536 2328 2748 3049 331~ 3568
H 1651 2158 2527 2877 3208 3517
h,~ = 5 W K-~ m -2. The uniformly distributed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

storage mass was concrete with k = 1.73 W K-1

m -2, p = 2242.58 kg m -3 and c = 840 J kg- 1 K - 1.
to the increase of 7. corresponding to a decrease of
Three values were used for each of the four sen-
the penetration depth (a/o~)1/2.
sitivity variables: a low (L), a medium (M), and a
Wall Transfer Admittance YseoJ. The magnitude
high value (H); all are given in Table 1. The basis
of the wall transfer admittance Yseo, (first harmonic)
for choosing the thickness values shown relates to
determines the magnitude of the (single harmonic)
the nondimensional thickness of the slab[8] for the
transformed source Qr.~ [eqn (6)] and thus the effect
fundamental harmonic (X0, which is equal to (col/
of the sol-air temperature. The variation of [ Yseol [
2a)V2x (also shown in Table 1). For concrete, X~
is shown in Table 3 as a function of both Rins and
becomes equal to 6.3x and it is the most important
x. As expected, [ Yseol [ is highest for low Ri.s and
quantity in determining Yw~, [eqn (7)] whose max-
low x. Both Ri,s and x are important in determining
imum magnitude is for approximately medium
[ Y~eot 1. Comparing these values of l Yseol I with the
thickness.
value of [ Y~, [ of Table 2 shows that Yseo is small
compared to Y,. Thus the effect of fluctuations in
Sensitivity o f transfer functions
the sol-air temperature on swings of Ts or T~gis ex-
The most important transfer functions are Y~and
pected to be small.
(TFL~ because they determine the effect of the pri-
Room admittance Ye~. A sensitivity analysis was
mary source S, on T, and Tei, respectively. A sen-
also performed for Yei [eqn (12)], whose magnitude
sitivity analysis is reported for Y, but not (TF)e,',;
I Y,~ [ for the first harmonic determines the effect
because the latter is mainly a function of the same
of the swing of the ambient temperature on Te~ [see
admittances as Y,, the results obtained for (TF)e~
eqn (16)]. As shown later, it is a relatively unim-
did not provide significantly different information.
portant transfer function since the contribution
Room Admittance Is. The room total admit-
which A To (range of To) makes to the variation in
tance Y, [eqn (9)] is the most important transfer
Ts is small. It was found that Yen is more sensitive
function since it determines the effect of the ab-
to changes in UL than is Y~; a change of UL from
sorbed solar radiation on the storage mass surface
low to high causes a maximum increase in [ Y~t [
temperature. The variation of I Y~, I as a function
of approximately 5% (in changing UL it was as-
of UL, Ri.~, and x for six harmonics is shown in
sumed that U~o changes but not Ue~; this is equiv-
Table 2. Examination of Table 2 shows a low sen-
alent to assuming that the main causes of changes
sitivity to UL: 27% increase in UL causes a less than
in UL are changes in the infiltration loss and in h~
1% increase in I II,, I. The effect of Rins on [ Y,, ]
and ho).
is also small, the maximum change being an in-
crease of about 2% when Rins changes from low to
Sensitivity o f mass surface temperature swings
high. Not unexpectedly, the mass thickness x is the
The variation of the mass surface temperature
most important parameter. The magnitude I Y,, I
Ts in the room results from the highly important
increases with the harmonic number n due primarily
Table 3. Variation of l gseol [ (W/K)
Table 1. Variables for sensitivity an~ysis
x X1 UL Rin s ts , - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
!

L 14 H
(m) (W/K) (m2X/W) (s)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

LOW(L) 0.08 0.50 27 1 lqO00 .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-0

NED(H) 0.14 0.88 37 5 20000 14 | 71 15 7.8

HIGH(H) 0.20 1.26 47 10 26000 H | 51 11 5.6
 Model, analysis and algorithm for temperature swings
heat storage and release process. Since superpo-
sition applies, the temperature swings in T~ caused
by each source could be studied separately.
Swings caused by absorbed solar radiation. An
important objective of this analysis was to study
how many harmonics are needed to model the effect
of S~. From eqn (17) the magnitude of each har-
monic of T~ is given by q,/I Y~, I. Thus, in order to
study the importance of higher harmonics of Ss, a
nondimensional sensitivity function sens(co) was
309
A To. Its effect will be compared to that of the fun-
damental harmonic q~ of the absorbed radiation, the
latter accounting for about 70% of the swing of Ts
caused by Ss. The ratio of the two effects if ULA T,,/
2q~. Assuming an extreme value for A To equal to
20 K, a value of UL of 40 W/K and for q, of 2000
W, the maximum value of this ratio is 0.2. This
means that the maximum effect of To on the total
swing of Ts is at most 14% of the contribution of
S s •

defined as the ratio of higher T, harmonics to the
fundamental:
sens(co) = (q,4 l L,, I)/(q,/ [ Y~, I).
The two variables essentially determining the sen-
sitivity function, are the daylength 2t~ and the stor-
age mass thickness. Table 4 shows the results for
low (L), medium (M) and high (H) value combi-
nations of the two variables. As can be seen, the
higher harmonics become more important for low
mass and low daylength. This observation is further
illustrated in Table 5, which shows how accurately
the temperature swing would be determined by only
using a few harmonics, as a function of the number
of harmonics used. For the other extreme case of
high mass and high t,, the fundamental harmonic
would be enough for determining the temperature
swings. The study indicates that between three to
five harmonics should be sufficient to ensure ac-
curacy of the swings of about 0.1 K.
Swings Due to Ambient and Sol-air Tempera-
tures. The ambient temperature To causes swings
of the room temperature by virtue of its variation
The effect of T~oon Ts can be studied by a similar
order of magnitude analysis. The ratio of the effect
of Teo on Ts to the effect of To on Ts can be shown
(18) to be equal to the ratio [ Yseo~ I/UL, which, for the
typical case of medium insulation and medium wall
thickness is less than 0.5. The difference between
the maximum and minimum values of Teo on a clear
day, is shown by Threlkeld[13] to be a maximum
of about 40 K for a horizontal surface (latitude =
42°N and surface absorptance = 0.9). Since only
the roof is horizontal, the fluctuation of Teo about
its mean would be at most between 25 K to 30 K,
of which 20 K would be contributed by To. Thus,
roughly speaking, on a clear day, the swings in Teo
will be roughly twice the swings in To. After cor-
recting by the factor I Yseo] ] /UL, we conclude that
the contribution of Teo to the swing in T~ will be
about the same as that of To, or about 14% of the
contribution of S~. Since the externally absorbed
solar radiation contributes only one half of the var-
iation in T~o, we conclude that the externally ab-
sorbed solar radiation provides a contribution to the
swings in T~ equal to at most about 7% of the con-
tribution of Ss. The contribution of the externally

Table 4. Sens(o,)(equation(18))
HARMONIC No. n
x ts 2 3 4 5 6
L 0.385 0.150 0.036 -0.012 -0.019
L ~4 0.260 0.024 -0.027 -0.009 0.008
H 0.126 -0.037 -0.O06 0.011 -0.002

L 0.480 0 . 2 2 1 0.058 -0.020 -0.033

M M 0.324 0.035 -0.043 -0.015 0.014
H 0.157 -0.054 -0.009 0 . 0 1 9 -0.004
L 0.557 0 . 2 5 8 0.066 -0.022 -0.036
H M 0.376 0.041 -0.049 -0.017 0.015
H 0.182 -0.063 -0.011 0.021 -0.004

Table 5. Swings of Ts (K) due to Ss (H~ = 83.6 MJ)

Number of Harmonics used
x ts 1 2 3 4 5 6

L L 3.50 4.21 q.23 4.23 4.26 4.32

H H 1.65 1.72 1.77 1.77 1.77 1.77
M L 2.29 2.92 3.07 3.05 3.07 3- 11
H M 2.06 2.37 2.36 2.42 2.q3 2.43
M H 1.77 1.85 1.91 1.92 1.93 1.93
310 A. K. ATHIENITISet al.
absorbed radiation can be shown to be even smaller mass. The present results are expected to be the
if the effect of the phase shift introduced by Y~eo is more accurate since the discretization process al-
considered. Thus, it is sufficient for this simplified ways introduces some error, which increases with
model to assume Teo equivalent to To and hence wall thickness. Figure 2 also gives a result of prac-
ignore the effect of the externally absorbed solar tical interest; it shows that to reduce swings it is
radiation. preferable to use more mass area and smaller thick-
ness per unit mass volume.
4. COMPARISONWITH NUMERICALSIMULATION
METHOD 5. ALGORITHM FOR SWINGS
In this section the swings of the storage mass The computer algorithm described in this section
surface temperature obtained with the present is designed to compute the frequency of occurrence
method are compared to those obtained by Maloney of swings of T~i or Ts exceeding a critical value,
et al.[5] using a finite difference numerical simu- using the equations given previously. Figure 3 gives
lation method. The same room and weather data as the flow chart for the algorithm called SWINGS.
used by Maloney et al. were used, the room data First, (real) conductances and (complex) admit-
being given in the previous section. Two cases are tances are calculated in steps 2 and 3. A subroutine
considered; the first has mass uniformly distributed A D M I T evaluates phases and magnitudes of the
in the room, and the second has no mass on the complex functions for as many harmonics as re-
ceiling, but otherwise uniformly distributed. quired. A required input to the algorithm is an array
Figure 2 presents the results in terms of the tem- Ho(Kr, nd) which contains the absorbed solar Jr-
perature swings of Ts. The results of Maloney et al.
were determined from their tabulated maximum and
minimum temperatures. As can be seen, the max- (READ BUILDING DATA AND
imum difference between the two methods is about G |HEAT TRANSFER COEFFICIENTS
],
12% for very thick walls and decreases to almost
® 1 CALCULATE CONDUCTANCES I
zero for walls of intermediate thickness. In both
models the storage mass surface was modelled as ® I CALLt ADMIT_I N : ; ADMIT
isothermal; however, Maloney et al. discretized the (F CALCULATES
(~i/READ OUTPUT OF OD,AY J ADMITTANCES
I ARRAYHe tKT,DAY No.) FOR N
HARMONICS
" t
(READ DAY No., KT, I
(~) [To,me, , To,role, (WEATHER FILE)
f
NO E,S K,>O~)
f YES
IF,NO ACTUALHo BY ,,NEAR [
@ INTERPOLATION OF HI {K T ,DAY No.}
t
(.9 4
_Z
3= 1
u3 I CALL BISECT TO FIND tree,,~ BISECT
INTERVAL LIMITS: t I =Osec FINDS
n" :3
~E f2:45200 sec ZERO
IaJ OF A
I- FUNCTION
] CALL BISECTTO FIND tmln t tdLtT
A = NO MASS ON CEILING (~ t I :4Z200, I2:86400 sec t
B = WITH MASS ON CEILING
PRESENT ANALYTICAL
RESULTS
--O-- FINITE DIFFERENCE
|'T/'IFuNCTIONI
(MALONEY et. el )
-. <sw,N0 , tCR,TICAL
:)
t YES
0 //I I I (~ I OUTPUT SWING;DAY No, KT,H e J
I0 20 50
MASS THICKNESS ( c m ) END OF WEATHER FILE ?,j~
Fig. 2. Comparison of analytical and finite difference re-
sults for the swing of Ts under steady state periodic con-
ditions (swing is the difference between maximum and
minimum Ts over a day). Fig. 3. SWINGS algorithm.
 Model, analysis and algorithm for temperature swings 311

radiation o v e r a day for values of K r of 0.5, 0.55, timation o f the n u m b e r of harmonics of the ab-
0.60, 0.75, 0.80 and 0.90 and values of the day num- sorbed solar radiation n e c e s s a r y for a certain
ber in steps o f 10 days (step 4). (Days with a rel- a c c u r a c y (five h a r m o n i c s for a c c u r a c y of 0.1 K). It
atively low K r do not need to be considered since was further s h o w n that the contribution of the ex-
overheating is unlikely to o c c u r on these days; a ternally absorbed solar radiation to the swings of
K r equal to 0.5 is generally chosen as the lower Ts should be less than 7% o f the contribution of the
limit.) Also required is a w e a t h e r file containing val- internally absorbed solar radiation. C o m p a r i s o n of
ues for the day number, K r , To . . . . and To,m~, cov- swings in Ts with a numerical method[5] indicated
eting the period o f interest. close a g r e e m e n t for walls of m e d i u m thickness and
We then march through the w e a t h e r data, read- a m a x i m u m difference of approximately 12% for
ing inputs for a day at a time, and if K r is greater thick walls (30 cm). Finally, an algorithm for esti-
than 0.5 determining the swing for the day (step 5). mating the f r e q u e n c y of o c c u r r e n c e of swings above
The actual Ha for the day is found by linear inter- a critical value was presented.
polation of the Ha array (step 6). The F o u r i e r com-
ponents of S~ are determined next. To find the max-
i m u m and m i n i m u m temperatures, eqn (16) or (17) NOMENCLATURE
have b e e n differentiated and set equal to zero. Sub-
area associated with node i, m2
routine B I S E C T finds these z e r o e s by the bisection AiC ==
specific heat capacity, J kg ~ K -
method. F o r a tolerance of 200 s (in finding the zer- h = heat transfer coefficient, W K ~ m 2
oes) about eight iterations are needed. The swing H = high value of variable in sensitivity analysis
is then found by substituting these values into eqn Ha = total daily solar radiation absorbed (in room) by
storage mass, J
(16) or (17). k =
thermal conductivity, W m ~ K-
F O R T R A N was used because its c o m p l e x var- KT = daily clearness index
iable capabilities facilitate calculation of transfer L = low value of variable in sensitivity analysis
functions. If B A S I C w e r e to be used, calculations M = medium value of variable in sensitivity analysis
would h a v e to be done separately for real and im- nd =
day number
heat flow, W
aginary parts. The transfer functions are evaluated qq =
heat flux, W/m 2
only o n c e for each r o o m construction, i.e. it is as- Qr.~ = equivalent (transformed) heat source at node s, W
sumed that the c o n d u c t a n c e s such as UL and U~,f Rins = insulation value (per unit area), RSI
are constant. This is a good assumption, as was St = solar radiation heat source at node i, W
shown in the sensitivity analysis, and it is compu- t= time, s (t = 0 at noon)
86 400 s
tationally v e r y efficient. Further, the factors f~ of td = sunset time, s
eqn (14) could be a s s u m e d constant o v e r a month, L = temperature of node i, K
if desired, because the daylength does not change u = conductance per unit area, W K J m ~
significantly o v e r a month. Results from simula- U = total conductance, W/K
tions with real w e a t h e r data for Canada are de- xy == storage mass thickness, m
admittance, W/K
scribed in [3].
Subscripts
6. C O N C L U S I O N ai = room air node
c = convective
A c o m p l e t e m e t h o d for estimating temperature ei = representative (effective) interior temperature
swings in a single-zone direct gain r o o m has been node
described. (A detailed multizone building model, eo = effective exterior (sol-air) node
i= interior
which can be used for steady periodic analysis and inf = infiltration
may also a c c o m o d a t e time-varying c o n d u c t a n c e s m = mean
such as night insulation, is described by Athienitis n = harmonic number
et al.[14, 15].) The use of fundamental network o = outside, ambient
r = radiative
t h e o r e m s for the f r e q u e n c y domain analysis of a
s = storage mass internal (room-side) surface
thermal network, m a d e up of both distributed and so = storage mass back surface
discrete c o m p o n e n t s , has b e e n demonstrated. w = window
The sensitivity analysis has shown the flexibility *** = subscripts on S, Qrand Tvariables indicate anode
of the m o d e l in studying the effects of fundamental
design parameters. Further, it has shown the im- Greek
portance o f the daylength as well as the relative ct = k/(cp), (thermal diffusivity), m2/s
significance of the important transfer functions. p = density, kg/m3
to = frequency, rad/s
N o t u n e x p e c t e d l y , it was found that the most im-
portant p a r a m e t e r is the a m o u n t o f mass present.
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