Case Studies in Construction Materials 18 (2023) e01969

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Case Studies in Construction Materials

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Case study

Developing light transmitting concrete for energy saving

in buildings
Danial Navabi c, Zahra Amini c, Alireza Rahmati c, Mansooreh Tahbaz c,
Talib E. Butt a, Sarvenaz Sharifi c, Amir Mosavi b, d, *
a
Department of Mechanical and Construction Engineering, North Umbria University, Newcastle, UK
b
Faculty of Civil Engineering, TU-Dresden, Dresden, Germany
c
School of Architecture and Urbanism, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
d
John von Neumann Faculty of Informatics, Obuda University, 1034 Budapest, Hungary

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Energy consumption is constantly increasing all around the world, and one of the substantial
Light transmitting concrete energy consumption fields is the electricity required for lighting in buildings. There are various
Light transmittance approaches to tackle this problem, among which the use of transparent facades is the common
Lighting simulation
method to reduce electrical energy consumption in modern buildings such as museums; However,
Energy consumption
Electricity saving
these solutions have many problems, such as space security, heat gains during summer, and glare;
Mathematics The main problems related to transparent facades are energy loss through light transmitting
Construction seams and visual discomfort. Hence, it is necessary to develop a new method that can pass natural
light to enhance visual comfort without damaging the thermal insulation of the building’s
exterior walls. One solution that can be given to this issue is using light transmitting concrete. In
this study, five high-performance light transmitting concrete samples, including the different
amounts of optical fiber were made, and their performances in terms of daylight and electricity
saving have been analyzed based on simulation with Diva for Rhino software. For a better
comparison between different studies, the analysis was done based on the reference office, which
had been used in previous relevant studies. As a result, the reference office was modeled in 6
cities (Tehran, Houston, Phoenix, San Francisco, Vancouver, & Chicago). It was found that using
this material along with using lighting sensors resulted in 45.7%, 31.5%, and 38.8% electricity
saving for offices in Tehran, Vancouver, and Phoenix, respectively, and also can increase UDI
(Useful Daylight Illuminance) by about 39% in Tehran.

1. Introduction

Daylight has a substantial impact on the architecture of buildings [1]; psychological and economical benefits are two primary
reasons for the priority of daylight over artificial light [2]. Research show that good daylighting develops the overall attitude,
well-being, and satisfaction of building occupants [3], and this can be the reason for the growing use of wide openings and transparent
facades in modern buildings, causing light to enter space and establish a visual connection with the outside [4]; However, using
windows or transparent facades depends on various factors and mostly is limited [5] because of reasons such as space security, visual

* Correspondence to: Obuda University, Hungary.

E-mail address: amir.mosavi@uni-obuda.hu (A. Mosavi).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cscm.2023.e01969
Received 30 December 2022; Received in revised form 14 February 2023; Accepted 1 March 2023
Available online 2 March 2023
2214-5095/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
D. Navabi et al. Case Studies in Construction Materials 18 (2023) e01969

vision, winter heat loss or summer heat gain that influences building energy efficiency[6,7],. Although windows are good options for
natural daylighting and provide good views, they can also increase visual and thermal discomfort as well as eye glare in indoor en­
vironments [8]. In this field, visual comfort is an important issue to consider. Furthermore, Wide research illustrates that glazing
facades or conventional windows account for around 40% of a building’s total energy usage [9]. In many spaces with large windows,
people often suffer from eye glare and thermal discomforts, and they have to use internal and external curtains or sunshades [10].
Hence, a modern and new method that can transmit light to enhance visual comfort without decreasing the thermal performance and
security of the building is required [11]. According to the mentioned issues, a necessity for a new approach has been aroused. Many
studies have been done in this way, and their results demonstrated that using new materials in façade designs can improve occupants’
overall well-being and performance while reducing eye glare and visual discomforts [12]. Thus, the invention of LTC is an excellent
solution for transmitting light inside structures. LiTraCon is an abbreviation for "light transmitting concrete". Áron Losonczi invented
this material in 2001 [13]; its components are concrete and optical fiber [14], which glassy and organic fiber make up the majority of
optical fiber types [15]. Also, waste tempered glass (WTG) in light transmitting can be used as the aggregate for creating light
transmitting concrete[16]. LiTraCon is a good alternative for conventional building wall materials such as brick, AAC block, or other
opaque materials. Using this material for building envelopes and internal walls not only can meet the expected structural role but also
can allow the inside of a building to benefit from daylight. This kind of concrete has attracted enormous interest in modern architecture
and the global market [17]. Capital Bank of Amman is one case for using LiTraCon as a building envelope [18], and theaters, museums,
and offices are also proper spaces to fulfill this idea [19]. Due to the artistic value of this new material, it is a good option for decorating
spaces such as galleries and restaurants[20]. In addition, places such as museums and galleries, which need indirect natural light
without infrared waves, also can take advantage of this innovative material.
The main application of light transmitting concrete is for daylit hours. The purpose of using this material is to provide light for
spaces where the use of windows to take advantage of direct sunlight is impossible (because of the using type or surrounding envi­
ronment or security problems) [21]; this is an innovative material, and still, there isn’t sufficient data about its application, and it is in
early years of its development [22]. Using transmitting concrete blocks for internal partitions can provide part of the needed light for
some inner parts of a building, and also incorporating these blocks in staircases, as well as internal walls, can be helpful during power
cuts at night [23]. With the aim of using light transmitting concrete in order to take advantage of daylight and reduce the electrical
energy consumption related to artificial lighting, it will have a decorative aspect at night.
Nevertheless, what is most important about this material is the measurement of the optimal amount of light transmission. Recent
research has shown that the optimal level of natural light influences psychological and biological activities [24]. For example, in
workplaces that do not receive the optimum level of natural light, and artificial light is used to compensate for daylight, the efficiency
of employees is much lower, and they experience more tension. A creative option is dynamic lighting which can point to this problem
through the potential impacts of lighting properties such as illuminance and color temperature [25]. Typically, artificial office lighting
is steady in color temperature and brightness, while natural light changes during the day because of the location of the sun and weather
conditions [26]. Begemann et al. [7] demonstrate that preferences for artificial light change by time of the day, weather type, and
brightness (they reported substantial interpersonal variability). In other words, through dynamic lighting, the color temperature and
illuminance would change inside a building throughout the day as a result of a predetermined protocol in order to support and boost
the natural rhythm of employees’ alertness. In a conducted experiment with higher wall luminance, the attractiveness and illumination
of the room increased significantly, while the participants reported no effects on the arousal, pleasure, or dominance measurements of
feeling evaluations [27]. Furthermore, no effects were found on task performance that required convergent problem-solving; however,
the wall luminance affected the participants’ subjective awareness. They were able to maintain emotional awareness in the highest
wall luminance, though their awareness declined over time in the medium and lowest wall luminance conditions [28]. The study’s
findings suggest that, in addition to the quantity of light that reaches the eye, the intensity of space luminance may have an effect on
users. This effect is often observed in studies that manipulate light intensity on the eyes of humans (and sometimes attributed to the
non-visual impacts). What is evident from the findings of these studies is that any space needs a certain amount of light to be attractive
to its users. Consequently, the amount of passing light through this type of material should be taken into consideration in order to have
a high-quality interior. In terms of the sum of light that passes through the light transmitting concrete, various studies have been
conducted so far. Li et al. [29] measured the quantity of transmitted light from translucent concrete with 3–6% optical fiber. Due to the
outcomes of the spectrometer test, he concluded that by adding the number of optical fibers in this material, the amount of passing
light would increase significantly. Following that, Kim et al. [30] created weightless translucent concrete using plastic rods rather than
optical fibers. The results of this research demonstrated that light transmittance has an inverse relationship with the pipe’s length. In
this research, the flexibility of rods was dramatically less than PMMA optical fibers. In other research, a novel light transmitting
cementitious composite (LTCC) was developed by substituting microencapsulated phase change material (MPCM) to diminish the
building energy utilization through transmitted light via the concrete [31]. In the following research, Huynh et el. [1] specified the
effect of temperature, light source distance, and fiber diameter on light transmittance of LTC [32]. Other simulations on the mea­
surement of light transmitting concrete were carried out with Autodesk Ecotect Analysis software [6,33,34], and it was found that
using light transmitting concrete can increase the room’s brightness by up to 30% because more light enters the room. Moreover, it was
reported that using this type of concrete can save up to 14% of energy consumption compared to conventional windows; and they can
be exhibited up to 12.4% artificial light transmittance, which would translate to a considerable increase in lighting efficiency of
commercial and residential buildings [31]. In this simulation, window and light transmitting concrete were assumed in one place with
the exact dimensions and conditions [29].

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2. Materials and methods

Despite the excellent properties of LTC, its high price because of its costly optical fibers has prevented the widespread commercial
use of this material [29]. Thus, economic analysis is essential for choosing cost-efficient. Literature review shows that there is a
deficiency in the analysis of the number of optical fibers and the level of passing light through concrete walls containing different
percentages of optical fibers in it [35]. Therefore, it is unclear how much light will pass through different light transmitting concrete in
various places such as galleries, offices, or other spaces walls (with 3–15% optical fibers continent) in different locations and how much
electrical energy will be saved. In the previous work [36] to achieve the cost-effective amount, high-performance light transmitting
concrete samples with five optical fiber contents (3%, 5%, 7%, 10%, and 15%) were created by combining novel matrix materials. In
this research, concretes with a higher amount of optical fiber were made compared to previous works, and the most optimal alternative
was selected. The selection of these percentages was based on percentages used in previous works [14,15,21,37–39]. Also, an increase
of 1.5 or 2 times was considered in order for the changes in the passing light through them would be more distinct and recognizable.
Moreover, limiting factors such as the high number of required optical fibers, and the reduction of the distance between the fibers
prevented the making of concrete with more than 15% fiber optics in it [36].
Different methods exist for adding optical fiber to concrete to make light transmitting concrete. Li et al. [39] wove optical fibers

Fig. 1. Fixing optical fibers in the mold.

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into a fabric with the help of cotton fibers and put them in a concrete mold. Fiber-concrete was an ideal layered composite that layers of
concrete were placed between them. Then, the blocks were cut and polished after demolding, and light transmitting concrete with
different sizes could be obtained. In this method, the distance between fibers varied between 3 mm and 6 mm; as a result, their density
is also varied in the concrete. In another research, the fibers were put together with the help of a silane coupling agent and 2 mm-thick
tapes, which were placed in a concrete mold to make light transmitting concrete. Henriques et al. [40] and Kim [41] put the fibers by
hand and regularly in the cut molds. In this method, the number of optical fibers and distribution in concrete is constant. In this
research, optical fibers were put in the mold by hand due to the high accuracy required in measuring the amount of used optical fiber,
the distance between them, and calculating transmitted light through them. Molds were designed in AutoCAD software and cut by laser
cutting. Fig. 1 represents the steps of fixing optical fibers in the mold. To remove samples from molds, we should cut the extra optical
fibers before separating mold walls [32].
After making the samples, light transmission performance was measured using a light box and a spectrometer to determine how five
different optical fiber contents performed in high-performance concrete samples. According to the results of these experiments, the
most effective type of light transmitting concrete was developed. However, limited research has been conducted to measure energy-
saving analysis for this type of light transmitting concrete. Therefore, there is a need to measure the impact of this type of concrete on
energy consumption and compare it with other samples as a material used in building envelopes, which is considered the main goal of
current research. The methodology of this research includes two main parts as follows. a) Sample Preparation (b Simulation of the
high-performance light transmitting concrete. In terms of sample preparation, according to the previous data [36], samples with the
ideal number of optical fibers were created. The compressive strength test revealed that the average compressive strength of the
samples was 49–70 MPa. This type of concrete is known as high-performance concrete, based on American Concrete Institute (ACI)
standard 363.2R-98 [42], and also the kind that passes light is known as High-Performance Light Transmitting Concrete (HPLTC) [43].
The following process was conducted to reach the goals of the current study. The high-performance light transmitting concrete
specimens (5 ×5 ×5 cm) with 3%, 5%, 7%, 10%, and 15% content PMMA optical fibers in it (Fig. 2) were prepared with Portland
cement (type2), fine aggregate (maximum size <0.6 mm), polycarboxylate superplasticizer, PMMA(Polymethylmethacrylate) optical
fibers with 1 mm in diameter, water, silica fume, and silica powder [30]. In this process, the concrete was spilled in a horizontal rotary
mixer and blended in the mixer for 10 min at a low speed, followed by high-speed mixing for 10 min. According to ASTM C192, all
samples were exposed to typical curing circumstances with 20 ± 2 ◦ C temperature and 95 ± 5% RH for 28 days [44].
The location of the fibers in the concrete is fixed (not arbitrary), and the distance between them can be measured after opening the
mold [40]. (See Fig. 3.).
The number of required fibers for making the samples, their total length in each sample, and the distance between them can be seen
in Table 1.
The Physical properties of PMMA optical fibers can be seen in Table 2. After opening the molds, the concrete surface was sanded up,
and the optical fibers loose ends were flush-leveled and polished.
Table 3 represents the content of PMMA optical fibers in the light transmitting concrete samples.

2.1. Test methods

The light transmitting values of samples were measured by using laboratory testing. Transmittance (T) is the fraction of incident
light that is transmitted. It’s the amount of light that “successfully” passes through the substance and comes out the other side. It is
defined as T = I/Io, where I is the transmitted light (“output”), and Io is the incident light (“input”) [39]. The sum of light transmitted
through the samples was measured by a spectrometer and lightbox test. These experimental methods were based on other research
methods [32,45]. In this research, the lightbox was simulated in Rhino software, and the results are shown in Table 4. These results are
used to simulate the light transmitting wall in the software. The spectrometer test showed that light transmitting concrete does not pass
infrared waves well [36].
According to the usage of the optical fibers as the main proportion of total volume in the HPLTC samples and the percentage of light
transmittance, the optimum sample in terms of performance and cost was calculated as the one containing 10% optical fibers in it,

Fig. 2. The HPLTC Specimens.

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Fig. 3. Determining the distance between optical fibers.

Table 1
Usage of PMMA optical fibers in samples.
The optical fiber content in samples (%) Sample dimensions (cm) Number of Fiber length (m) Distance between fibers (mm)
optical fibers

3 5×5×5 10 × 10 4.8 3.5

5 5×5×5 13 × 13 8 2.4
7 5×5×5 15 × 15 11.15 1.8
10 5×5×5 18 × 18 16 1.4
15 5×5×5 22 × 22 24 0.9

Table 2
Physical properties of PMMA optical fibers.
Product Level Diameter Attenuation Operating temperature Tensile strength (MPa)
(mm)

Polymethylmethacrylate Optical Fiber 1 < 240 -20–70 ◦ C 45.75

Table 3
The Content of the PMMA optical fibers in the HPLTC specimens.
Sample Code HPLTC-3 HPLTC-5 HPLTC-7 HPLTC-10 HPLTC-15

The optical fiber content in Specimens (%) 3 5 7 10 15

because it has higher light transmittance level than the sample which contain 7% optical fiber. Besides, the samples that contain 15%
optical fibers, the amount of passing light through them did not vary much from the sample that contains 10% fibers (their difference in
light transmittance is 24%, but their difference in the usage of optical fibers is 50%). To measure the precise financial impact of optic
fibers used in 3%, 5%, 7%, 10%, and 15% samples and the precise percentage of cost based on actual expenses, the amount of optical

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Table 4
The light transmittance of the HPLTC samples.
Sample Code HPLTC-3 HPLTC-5 HPLTC-7 HPLTC-10 HPLTC-15

Light Transmittance (%) 1.23 2.56 4.31 5.95 7.39

fibers in HPLTC unit (meter to cubic meter of concrete, m/m3) was measured by volume. The calculation procedure of the amount of
PMMA fibers is described as follows.

1. The volume of optical fibers with a diameter of 1 mm and a length of 1 m is:

0.0005 × 0.0005 × 3.14 × 1 = 0.000000785 m3
2. Three percent of the volume of a cube with dimensions of one meter is:
1 × 1 × 1 × 0.03 = 0.03 m3
3. The number of optical fibers is:

0.03m3
= 38217.
0.000000785m3
Therefore, to make a high-performance light transmitting concrete cube with dimensions of one meter and with the volume of 3%,
5%, 7%, 10%, &15% optical fiber in it, 38217, 63695, 89172, 127389, & 191083 optical fibers with a length of 1 m are needed,
respectively.
Optical fiber is a determining factor in the final price of light transmitting concrete [46], [36]. Therefore, it is efficient to use the
amount, which linearly changes the amount of light transmission. Based on the tests, it was found that the concrete containing 10%
optical fiber has a relatively linear relationship between these two parameters; and if more fiber is added, the light transmission level
will not increase by the equal correlation. Thus, the light transmission of concrete with 15% optical fiber is not 1.5 times more than that
of concrete with 10% optical fiber content, and which is not relatively productive. This issue may be due to damage to the fibers or the
uneven surface of all fibers because of their high number [33]. Therefore, based on the tests, ten percent of optical fiber was selected as
the optimal mode and cost-efficient sample. According to the data in Table 4 and the characteristics of the optimum sample of HPLTC,
this type of concrete was simulated in Diva software.

Fig. 4. Plan view of the reference office.

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2.2. Modeling the HPLTC

In this study, to investigate the effect of using HPLTC on building lighting, a simple model was simulated in Rhino software. This
model is a reference model, which was determined in the previous research. Christoph F. Reinhart et al. [47] defined a reference office
in order to have standard evaluations of lighting technologies. This reference office has a north-south stretch, and its southern wall was
considered to have an opening for assessing different lighting technologies [47], which in this study is made of HPLTC. The length of
this room is almost a third of its height, which can cause the assessment of the effects of different variants on daylighting can be done in
the best way. The southern side was considered to be made of light transmitting concrete. This model is like a shoebox that is deep
enough to have a better analysis of daylighting and electric lighting. In other words, this shoebox’s dimensions are enough to represent
space. The interior length, width, and height of this space are 8.2 m, 3.6 m, and 2.8 m, respectively [47]. In addition, another
advantage of the shoebox is that reading results and evaluating the effectiveness of particular parameters such as window-to-wall ratio
(WWR), type of interior walls, and their reflections or type of luminary are simple [11]. In the modeled reference office, reflect of walls,
ceiling, and floor materials are 0.5, 0.7, and 0.2, respectively. Reflect parameters of walls and floor are in accordance with Reinhart
et al. research [47], and ceiling reflectance is based on IES-LM-83. The transmittance of the southern side of the model is considerable
in Table 4. This reference office has no neighborhoods, and there is no obstruction in its surrounding. This office is located on the
middle floor of a building [47], and in this study, the analyzed office is in the middle of the central story, which has no window, and its
southern walls are made of HPLTC. Fig. 4.
Rhino 6 was used to model the base geometry, and DIVA for Rhino 4.0.1.12 was used to assess the effects of daylighting on the room
illumination as well as using electric lighting in combination with daylighting. DIVA performs annual and momentary analysis based
on the backward raytracing method with Radiance and DAYSIM daylighting analysis software. Radiance uses a Backward ray tracing
method, which is based on an inter-reflection calculation algorithm [48]. The reason for using Radiance refers to its ability to predict
interior illuminance. Many kinds of research have shown that Radiance is highly accurate in this calculation [4]. The radiance material
format was used to define HPLTC samples [49]. In this method, to simulate the HPLTC, material properties should be defined by
transmissivity (not transmittance) values, refractive index, and the RGB spectrum. These values are amounts between 0 and 1[1]. From
experimental results, the transmittance of HPLTC is obtained. This value is converted to transmissivity using this formula [50]:
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
2
tn = 0.8402528435+0.0072522239Tn
0.003626119Tn
− 0.9166530661
where “tn” is transmissivity and “Tn” is transmittance.
To continue the simulation, the index of refraction was also needed [48]. Due to the obtained results from the experimental test of
samples, the index of refraction was considered 1.52.
As mentioned before, for the daylight analysis of the reference office, the Radiance material format was used to define HPLTC
samples [49]. The material used for the wall is a GenericInteriorWall_50 which is a purely diffuse reflector with a standard grey wall
reflectivity of 50%. The material used for the ceiling is a typical ceiling, as suggested by IES-LM-83, and the floor material is a purely
diffuse reflector with a standard floor reflectivity of 20% (from the default Radiance Material Library). These materials are already
existed in “material.rad” file from DIVA’s library. Radiance uses EPW files (Energy Plus Weather file) for simulation. For a year, the
EPW files include 8760 hourly values of weather variables such as solar irradiance, humidity, wind speed, and temperature [49]. The
occupancy schedule in the modeled room is between 8 am and 6 pm with daylight saving time, and the total annual occupancy hours
are 3650. This schedule is based on climate-based daylighting metrics from IESNA’s new Lighting Measurement IES LM-83–12 [51].
Throughout occupation time, there would be occupants in the room, and they would be performing usual activities in galleries. To start
the simulation, Radiance parameters must be determined accurately so that the effect of using HPLTC can be assessed with reasonable
accuracy. These parameters are in agreement with Ling Zhang et al. [11] and [47] research that are shown in Table 5.

2.3. Daylighting analysis

Daylighting analysis was done to describe the difference between baseline (using an ordinary wall without any opening) and using
HPLTC. Useful daylight illuminance (UDI) [52] and mean daylight autonomy (DA) [52] indexes were used for daylight analysis. The
percentage of the space with an illuminance between 100 and 2000lux for greater than 50% of active occupant behavior is shown by
UDI, while Daylight autonomy is the percentage of annual work hours when daylighting can fulfill all or part of a building’s lighting
needs alone. Target illuminance was set to 300 lux. Also, Climate and sky conditions have an influential impact on daylighting and
energy performance of a building, so it is essential to select locations that can be a good representative of different conditions. Ac­
cording to the International Green Construction Code (IGCC) contiguous, the United States has been classified into three main sky
types. These categories are based on the annual mean sunshine percentage [4].
Based on this code and also ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers) climate zones,
six locations have been selected to study the impact of using HPLTC on daylighting and lighting energy conservation. These locations

Table 5
Radiance parameters.
ambient bounce 7.0
ambient division 1500
ambient accuracy 0.05
ambient resolution 300
ambient sampling 20.0

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are 2A-Houston, 2B-Phoenix, 3 C-San Francisco, 4A-Baltimore, 5A-Chicago, and 5 C-Vancouver [4]. As mentioned before, lighting
energy consumption is vital in the building industry, and using HPLTC in proper spaces may be a good solution. Useful daylight
illuminance (UDI) and daylight autonomy (DA) are grid base analyses, which means an analysis grid must be defined, and illumination
being calculated on these grids. For this purpose, a work plane with 0.78 m height from the floor and 322 analysis nodes with 0.45 m
distance from each other on this work plane have been defined to assess illumination in the modeled room (See Fig. 5). For each of the
HPLTC samples, mentioned climate-based analysis have been performed to assess the annual daylight condition in the modeled room.

2.4. Modeling the usage of electric lighting

Whereas in some cases, natural light meets the requirement of the room well, the need for artificial light has not entirely dis­
appeared (see Table 4 and Table 6), so using artificial light is indispensable. To determine the rough energy for illuminating this room,
the base geometry was modeled in DIALUXevo 8.1 software in which target illuminance, which means the optimal illuminance for our
users, was set to 300 lux. In DIALUX appropriate luminary was selected, and the optimal arrangement of the lamps was obtained.
Therefore, 8 lamps with nominal power of 20.9 watts were considered to use in the space for providing target illuminance. The
luminaire layout plan is shown in Fig. 6, and the luminaire properties are shown in Table 6.
After determining the optimal lamps and their arrangement, perpendicular illuminance on the predetermined work plane (0.78 m
height) was calculated. In this case, the predicted annual electric lighting energy use intensity was 20.89 kWh/m2. In other words,
when there was no natural light and all need of the space was provided using artificial lights, 20.89 kWh/m2 energy was used annually
for illuminating this room during working hours (when the space was occupied). These luminaires (as IES file) were added to the
reference office, which was already modeled in Rhino software.
To optimize energy use related to artificial lighting sensors were used on the work plane. Three types of sensor groups were
analyzed (see Fig. 8). Each sensor is exactly on the alignment line of the luminaire on the work plane. The sensor places and different
types of used sensors are shown in Fig. 7 with black dots.
For each type and city, the annual energy use intensity is obtained, and the growth percentage is calculated according to this
formula:
the new value − the original value
× 100
the original value

3. Results

Five specimens of HPLTC with 3%, 5%, 7%, 10%, & 15% volumetric PMMA optical fibers and different amounts of light trans­
mission have been modeled. The results and analysis of daylighting in the modeled space are presented in Table 6. All the features of
the five models are the same, while the southern wall material has changed; Besides, annual DA and UDI indicators have been used to
assess the current situation (without artificial light). The UDI value in Table 6 shows the percentage of points with illumination be­
tween 100 and 2000 lux with more than 50% of the occupied hours [53]. Table 7.
According to Table 6, by adding the number of optical fibers in the high-performance light transmitting concrete, the amount of
light in the room has increased significantly. Results show that by using a wall containing 15% optical fiber in it (7.37% light
transmission), the room UDI has increased 39% compared with using the regular wall.
For each case, an ILL file is obtained from DIVA simulations that contain illuminance of each point on the work plane in every
3650 h where occupants are in the room. From this file, the annual illuminance is assessed in four ranges. First, the points with
illumination between 0 and 150 lux; second, the point between 150 and 300 lux; third, the points between 300 and 3000 lux and
finally, the points with illumination more than 3000 lux. It is worth mentioning that Daylight illuminances in the range of 300 to
around 3000 lux are often perceived as a desirable tolerance [54]. For each range, the ratio of obtained hours to total annual hours is

Fig. 5. Modeled room with work plane in Rhino software.

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Table 6
Luminaire properties (from DIALUXevo report).
Luminaire Φ (Luminaire) [lm] Power [W] Luminous efficacy [lm/W]

8 ZUMTOBEL – 22169784 (4000 K PC) SLOIN A K SL L 1274 HE LDE SRE 2070 20.9 99.1
Total via all luminaires 16,560 167.2 99.0

Fig. 6. The luminaire layout plan.

Fig. 7. Environmental lighting sensors.

calculated. Results show that the majority of the time, the daylight illuminance in the room is between 0 and 150 lux.
Furthermore, from the calculations, the useful daylight illuminance, which means the ratio with the amount more than 0.5 (be­
tween amounts calculated from obtained hours to total annual hours for a whole year), is in the first range (0–150 lux). The light
transmitting concrete only transmits a limited amount of sunlight (7.39% light transmittance for 15% of the optical fiber content
Specimens). It’s worth mentioning that even in this case with natural light (without artificial light), 66% of points have UDI between
0 and 150 lux, and only 7% of them have a UDI between 300 and 3000 lux, and no point has UDI upper than 3000 lux.

3.1. Artificial lighting results

UDI results show that most of the analysis nodes’ illumination are under 300 lux, and there is still a need for artificial lighting. So,
for optimal artificial lighting, the sensors are originally designed for target illuminance based on initial calculations to provide target
illuminance. According to calculations derived from this room without light transmitting concrete (with the normal non transmitting
wall) when all the lights are on, the illuminance contour on the work plane is shown in Fig. 9, and the maximum illuminance is 397 lux.
The illumination has been analyzed on a work plane 0.78 m in height from the floor.
Results from DIALUX show that in the base model, the predicted annual electric lighting energy use intensity is about 20.86 kwh/
m2. As shown in Table 8, daylight conditions in different cities are somewhat different. For analyzing the effectiveness of lighting
control strategies, Tehran, Vancouver, and Phoenix were selected because, according to daylighting amounts, they can be good
representatives for selected climates and cities. According to Table 8, using three sensors for lighting control leads to 38%, 45.7%, and

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D. Navabi et al. Case Studies in Construction Materials 18 (2023) e01969

Fig. 8. Sensor types.

31.5% lighting electricity savings for Phoenix, Tehran, and Vancouver, respectively. Table 9.

4. Conclusion

In this study, HPLTC was presented as a novel material for building envelopes. Traditional light transmitting concrete or LiTraCon
is a novel approach to get the most out of sunlight and is a way to save non-renewable energy in different places. As a result, by linking
innovative matrix materials, HPLTC samples including five optical fiber contents (3%, 5%, 7%, 10%, and 15%) were produced, and
their optical performance was tested using two methods: spectrometer and lightbox. Results showed that most of the light transmitted
into the room has less than 150 lux illumination. So, it could be concluded that the best application for this material might be in office
buildings, galleries, and museums. Regarding daylighting and energy saving, after creating the high-performance light transmitting
material in the format of Radiance material, simulations were done with Diva in order to assess the performance of this material as
building envelopes. According to resulted data, it was found that using this material can increase useful daylight illuminance (UDI) in
the modeled room. UDI will increase from 0% for HPLTC − 3–39% for HPLTC − 15 in Tehran and from 0% to 32% in Vancouver; these
two cities have the highest and lowest percentage of changes, respectively. In-kind of artificial lighting, using lighting control sensors
has significant results on the intensity of annual electric lighting energy use. This approach can reduce energy consumption by about
45.7%, 31.5%, and 38.8% for Tehran, Vancouver, and Phoenix, respectively. This means that using the light transmitting concrete
sample that is economically optimal(10%HPLTC) can reduce electrical energy consumption by about 45.7% in an office building in a
country such as Tehran, in which the southern wall is made of HPLTC. It is worth mentioning, these percentages were obtained when
three groups of sensors were used for lighting control, one group was used near the wall that is made of HPLTC, another one for the
middle of the modeled room, and the last one for the rest of the room. Since in this research, the effect of using HPLTC on the annual
amount of electricity consumption has been investigated; it is suggested to conduct this investigation monthly or for different seasons
in future research. One of the most important issues that is the main topic of today’s research is the issue of resiliency and the pos­
sibility of adapting the building to possible changes, including the change of the use of a building. As a result, designing an envelope
that has an optimal feature(10%HPLTC) is a good challenge for future research. Besides that, since there is a need to reduce costs as
well as environmental impacts, further economic analysis alongside environmental assessment can be a serious issue for future
research. In terms of sensors that measure the amount of available light, it is worth mentioning that different sensors can be used with
countless advantages in the future, and perhaps better results can be achieved by combining different control strategies in later studies.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.

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 D. Navabi et al.
Table 7
Annual UDI < 100 − 2000LUX and DA (target illuminance:300lux) of high-performance light transmitting concrete.

HPLTC − 3 HPLTC − 5 HPLTC − 7 HPLTC − 10 HPLTC − 15

DA (%) UDI (%) DA (%) UDI (%)UDI< 100 − 2000lux DA (%) UDI (%)UDI< 100 − 2000lux UDI< 100 − 2000luxDA (%) UDI (%) DA (%) UDI (%)
11

Tehran 2 0 10 11 13 24 16 32 19 39
Houston 1 0 5 9 8 22 11 30 15 36
Phoenix 3 0 8 10 11 21 14 29 16 36
San Francisco 1 0 8 9 12 22 15 32 17 37
Vancouver 1 0 6 4 9 16 12 25 14 32
Chicago 1 0 6 9 10 22 14 32 17 37

Case Studies in Construction Materials 18 (2023) e01969

D. Navabi et al. Case Studies in Construction Materials 18 (2023) e01969

Fig. 9. Illumination contours in the modeled room (base model).

Table 8
Illuminations in the base model.
index Average (target) Min Max

Perpendicular illuminance (lux) 332 (≥300) 185 397

Table 9
Three types of lighting control.
base modela HPLTC-10b HPLTC-10c HPLTC-10d

Tehran predicted annual electric lighting energy use intensity (kwh/m2) 20.86 17.97 13.42 11.32
Vancouver predicted annual electric lighting energy use intensity (kwh/m2) 20.86 18.99 16.18 14.28
Phoenix predicted annual electric lighting energy use intensity (kwh/m2) 20.86 18.36 15.31 12.76
a
Sensors of lighting control are switched on/off with occupancy.
b
the room is controlled by using 1 sensor group. This sensor will switch on all luminaries when natural light in space is under 300 lux.
c
the room is controlled by using 2 sensor groups. Each one for half of the room. These sensors will switch on luminaries when natural light in space
is less than 300 lux.
d
the room is controlled using 3 sensor groups. One near the southern wall and in the first quarter of the room, one group for the second quarter of
the room, and another group for the rest of the room. In other words, the room is divided into 3 subspaces, and each subspace. These sensors will
switch on luminaries when natural light in space is less than 300 lux.

Data Availability

Data will be made available on request.

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