BUILDING SOLAR EXPOSURE SIMULATION IN THE NORTH WESTERN PART OF ROMANIA.

The simulation of the exterior meteorological conditions and its action upon the buildings, is a challenge for which the engineering software developers try to create the right software tools. COMSOL is one of the most complete and complex analysis software package available nowadays on the market. This software package is based on many modules which come to help researchers in a great variety of physics and chemistry fields. Starting with version 4.3, the module which simulates and solves heat transfer problems, has a new function: solar radiation simulation. Through this new function, architects, engineers and researchers, are now able to simulate the action of the solar radiation. In our paper, this function is used to simulate the solar radiation exposure of a one storey high building, positioned from the geographical point of view in the North Western part of Romania. The study was done for a typical summer day and it shows, in a graphical and easy to understand way, which are the most exposed areas of the building to the solar radiation. This way, we can identify the interior zones in which the problem of thermal accumulation due to solar radiation, are most likely to disturb the interior comfort parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]