Building Science at UC Berkeley: Research

Therm/Window Program Development

Edward Arens, Department of Architecture
Charlie Huizenga, Center for Environmental Design Research

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

This project is undertaken in collaboration with the Windows and Daylighting Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Window is the industry standard computer simulation tool for calculating the optical and thermal properties of windows. Succeeding versions of Window have brought its user-base new technical capabilities, an improved user interface, and greater accuracy.

Visit the Window web site for more details.

During this funding period, work focused on the development of THERM, a MS Windows program which evaluates 2-D heat transfer effects through the solid elements of a window. THERM was created in order to minimize the input time required of users to define a window and to offer the capability to model exact geometries without user simplifications. THERM makes use of a flexible user-interface and structure so that it can be used to analyze a wide variety of two dimensional window and non-window heat transfer problems, such as a vertical section through a greenhouse window or a framing detail around a window. Numerical results such as U-factors are calculated and can also be displayed as isotherms, color flooded isotherms, heat flux vector plots, or color flooded lines of constant heat flux.

Visit the THERM web site for more details.