Effect of mutual radiative exchange between the surfaces of a street canyon on the building thermal energy demand

In this paper, a building energy simulation tool is exploited to study the impact of multiple radiative inter-reflections exchanges in an urban environment. The aim is to evaluate their influence on the thermal energy demand of buildings. A street canyon model validated in a previous work is used in TRNSYS to investigate the effects of the related urban radiative trapping. Due to multiple shortwave and longwave reflections, the actual radiation exchanged by the buildings facades is different if compared to a street canyon building, where only shadowing phenomena due to canyon geometry are considered. Buildings energy simulation commercial codes do not take in account inter-reflections inside urban canyons. The objective of this study is to evaluate how multiple shortwave and longwave reflections affect thermal energy demand (cooling and heating) of a street canyon building depending on its orientation, its transparent/opaque surfaces ratio and on the solar absorption factor of the envelope surfaces. Increases in cooling demand up to 50% and decreases in heating demand up to 20% are found.(c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.