Singapore measures radiation in 3D
Published: Monday, August 13, 2012
“The mean radiant temperature (Tmrt), which sums up all the short and long wave radiation fluxes (both direct and reflected) to which the human body is exposed, is one of the most important meteorological parameters governing human energy balance and the thermal comfort of man.” says Dr. Steve Kardinal Jusuf of the Centre for Sustainable Asian Cities (CSAC) at the National University of Singapore.
He further explains that; “There are several methodologies to measure the Tmrt. However, the most accurate way of determining the outdoor Tmrt is to measure the threedimensional short-wave and long-wave radiation fields, along with the angular factors, before calculating the Tmrt.”
To achieve this, Dr. Kardinal and his team have installed on the rooftop of the School of Design and Environment (SDE) at NUS an experimental setup of three CNR 4 net radiometers.
Each CNR 4 measures the four radiation components separately in a different orientation. One is mounted horizontally looking up and down, as usual. The two others are mounted on their sides, vertically. One looks North and South and the other looks East and West.
With this research into mean radiant temperature, CSAC will be able to develop and validate the global Tmrt equation for the tropics, which can subsequently be used to develop outdoor thermal comfort models.
The Centre for Sustainable Asian Cities serves as a platform to develop cutting-edge urban planning and design solutions as well as building technological innovations for high density environments that will be applicable not only to Singapore but also to many cities in Asia and other developing countries.