Modeling Shading and Inter-building Longwave Radiative Exchanges: Comparative Study Using BESTEST Case

The energy performance of a building and its environmental impact are strongly influenced by its interactions with surrounding buildings. Therefore, in order to evaluate its energy performance, it is necessary to study the inter-building longwave radiative exchanges and the shading effect from surrounding buildings. This study aims to evaluate the energy demand of BESTEST building using TRNSYS software including microclimatic interactions and shading of surrounding buildings. We studied the effect of shading and longwave radiative exchange between buildings for different cases. The study shows a significant difference of about 2.4 ℃ in summer between the outdoor temperatures of the facades (i.e., east facing wall) of the reference case building and the other cases and an increase/decrease of about 40% (for cooling) in the energy demand of the building. These results show how to take into consideration thermal interactions buildings in an urban context to help urban design and planning.