Thermal Behavior of Double Skin Facade in Terms of Energy Consumption in the Climate of North of Iran-Rasht

Industrialization and increasing demand for the consumption of fossil fuels cause that energy becomes a strategic factor. Energy crisis and the emergence of modern architecture led designers to pay more attention to the important task of building's envelope. Building skins play an important role in building thermal behavior and reduce energy consumption. If Double Skin Facades properly designed it can improve thermal comfort conditions and can reduce energy consumption. DSF's efficiency in each region highly depends on the climate. The number of DSFs is few especially in Moderate and humid climate of north of Iran, but there is an increasing tendency to use them. This study seeks to prove this hypothesis: It seems by changing the size of cavity between Double Skin Facades, it can achieve a favorable temperature for indoor thermal comfort. For this purpose a theoretical framework based on literature studies as a first step. Theoretical thermal performance of DSF was studied before it was applied on designed building by using thermal simulation software then absorption of direct and indirect solar gain in the building simulated in ECOTECT and various states were examined. For the assessments the number of hours of employee's comfort, direct and indirect solar gains and hourly temperature of floors in the building designed using DSF were calculated. Suitable width of air voids has been studied in this research too. It was found that designed building with DSF-Shaft box type with 75 cm cavity width is more suitable for the climate of Rasht.