Performance Analysis of the Form and Height of Central Skylight of Commercial Buildings in Cold and Dry Climate of Mashhad City

In recent decades, atriums have been installed in public buildings to optimize energy consumption and provide thermal comfort, and therefore have always been of interest to mechanical engineers, architects and designers. Atrium also created different microclimates with different thermal layers in its lower space, which affected the cooling load and thermal comfort inside the building.Therefore,the purpose of this research, is to find the most suitable form and height of atrium for reducing energy consumption and heat stratification in commercial buildings of Mashhad city with cold and dry climate.

This research has used fluent software and Mathematical equations. Initially, Almase Shargh commercial building in Mashhad with central atrium in a spherical form of 5 m height was selected and after field measurements and data recording by dataloggers, the common atrium forms (spherical, prismatic, parabolic and flat at 3 m, 5 m, 7 m and 10 m) were replaced and in order to measure the heat stratification, the Mathematical formulas was used.

According to field observations and data measurements, the fifth floor and attic of the indoor skylight due to the influence of sunlight and lack of air conditioning, are critical areas of heat stratification and are out of range of thermal comfort throughout the year. Therefore, the amount of energy consumption during the year to provide thermal comfort in these floors is high, which can be reduced by reducing the levels of light-absorbing interior walls and using materials with high thermal capacity.

The results show that the flat form with a height of 3 meters, due to the reduction of light levels in the interior wall and the temperature difference between the floors is the most appropriate form of atrium for reducing energy consumption and cooling load up to 7% and reducing heat stratification in commercial complex in cold and dry climate of Mashhad city.