LIU Dalong, JIA Xiaowei, YANG Jingli, DONG Guoming
The accuracies of several outdoor environment simulation software packages were evaluated for urban radiation field using the city microclimate simulation tool ENVI-met, a human body thermal radiation evaluation software (radiation on the human body, RayMan) and a climate design tool (solar and longwave environmental irradiance geometry, SOLWEIG). First, the radiation distribution predictions in an urban environment were compared. Then, the effects of the surface and building enclosure characteristics were evaluated for the radiation field for long and short wave radiation and direct and reflected radiation. RayMan was found to very sensitive and fast, but output fewer radiation parameters. ENVI-met calculated the most radiation parameters and included the heat transfer from the long and short wave radiation between building surfaces. SOLWEIG can be used for large outdoor space simulations and calculated many radiation parameters, but had significant errors. Thus, these software packages can be used to analyze various influences of enclosures on direct and scattered radiation.