Analysing the impact of reflectance distributions and well geometries on vertical surface daylight levels in atria for overcast skies

This study investigated the impacts of different diffuse reflectance distributions and well geometries on vertical daylight factors and vertical internally reflected components in atria. Two forms of reflectance distribution patterns of wall surface were examined: horizontal and vertical reflectance band variation. The square atrium models studied have a broader WI range of 0.25–2.0, which represent shallow, medium and high atria. Radiance, a powerful package based on backward ray tracing technique, was used for the simulations of vertical daylight levels. The results show that different reflectance distributions of square atrium walls do have an impact on the vertical daylight factors and vertical internally reflected components under overcast sky condition. The impact relates to the orientation of the band with different reflectance distributions on the wall. Compared with the vertical band surface, the horizontal band surface has a much more complicated effect. The horizontal distributions of the reflectances significantly affects the vertical daylight levels at the locations more than 30% atrium height on the wall. For an atrium with a height more than 1/2 the width, the effect tends to increase with the increasing well index. The vertical distributions of the reflectance, nevertheless, do not substantially take effect on the vertical daylight levels in atria except for some special reflectance distribution patterns.