Experimental Validation of Daylighting Simulation Methods for Complex Fenestration Systems

The objective of this paper is to assess the capability of existing lighting simulation methods to predict the performance of complex fenestration systems, which are becoming a commonly used component in buildings construction domain. A specific experimental protocol was conducted to collect reliable reference data based on illuminance measurements inside a black box with (and without) one complex glazing sample facing a measured external luminance distribution. Two types of simulation methods were tested and compared: The first is based on modeling the glazing sample in a ray-tracing simulation program and the second is based on use of the samples' BTDF data. The BTDF data sets were combined with the external luminance distribution to predict the flux distribution inside the room and the resulting illuminance values at the reference points. The comparison between the experimental reference data and the simulation results showed that the influence of the CFS could be predicted with good accuracy.