Transparent honeycombs are a type of transparent insulation material (TIM) offering significant benefits in terms of solar energy engineering and energy saving in buildings. Two of the most important characteristics of transparent honeycombs are their solar transmittance for solar radiation and heat loss coefficient for long wave thermal radiation. This paper presents a calculating model for solar transmittance for ideal transparent honeycombs and real transparent honeycombs. Theoretical calculations are compared to measured transmittance of square-celled polycarbonate honeycomb panels with a high degree of correlation. The solar transmittance of real transparent honeycombs is found to be strongly dependent on honeycomb cell hydraulic diameter and specular transmissivity of the honeycomb wall for a solar beam incident at angle φ.

Topics:
Honeycomb structures, Solar energy, Transparency, Heat losses, Insulation, Solar radiation, Structures, Thermal radiation, Waves
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Copyright © 2003
 by ASME
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