Journal of Building Engineering 4 (2015) 52 59

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Journal of Building Engineering

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Investigation of laminar natural convection heat transfer within

tubular daylighting devices for winter conditions
Tolga Pirasaci n
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey

a r t i c l e i n f o

ab s t ract

Article history:
Received 8 April 2015
Received in revised form
28 July 2015
Accepted 6 August 2015
Available online 10 August 2015

Recent developments in lighting and energy efciency such as Tubular Daylighting Devices (TDD) aim at
reducing energy consumption and providing homogeneous illumination in buildings. This ensures energy savings by reducing lighting energy consumption.
To prevent the increase of total energy consumption, the heat loss at the TDD should be taken into
consideration when using TDD. This paper presents an experimental and numerical study on the laminar
natural convection in TDD for winter conditions. The results show that the overall heat transfer coefcient of TDD can be decreased by using a separator plate in the TDD. Moreover, the overall heat transfer
coefcient changes signicantly with the position of the separator plate.
& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Daylight
Light-pipes
Tubular Daylighting Devices
Natural convection

1. Introduction
Today's life style forces some people to live in places
in- sufciently illuminated. Experimental studies show that
insufcient daylight may result
in
psychological and
physiological problems in humans while adversely affecting work
efciency [13].
Recent developments in lighting and energy efciency such as
optical daylighting systems aim at reducing energy consumption
and providing homogeneous illumination in buildings. One of
these strategies is the use of daylight transmission systems with
high efciency and low maintenance costs. By using these systems
sufcient lighting can be provided and electricity consumption of
lighting is reduced. Daylight transmission systems are used to
homogenize the illumination level, increase visual comfort and
achieve energy savings of the space [48].
One of these systems is the Tubular Daylighting Device (TDD).
TDD transmits the sunlight from skylight to the space by using a
reective channel giving satisfactory results for the areas of the
buildings where the sunlight cannot reach [911].
TDD (Fig. 1) are composed of ve main parts; dome, dome base,
roof base, reective channel and diffuser. In these systems the
acrylic dome is placed on the roof and transmits the sunlight to
the reective channel. The sunlight coming into the channel is
reected to the diffuser which provides natural lighting by distributing the sunlight homogeneously.
n

Fax: 90 312 2319810.

E-mail address: pirasaci@gazi.edu.tr
URL: http://w3.gazi.edu.tr/ pirasaci/

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2015.08.003
2352-7102/& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In the design on these systems the heat loss at the TDD should
be taken into consideration. Otherwise, the amount of energy required for heating may be greater than the lighting energy saved
and thus the building's total energy consumption may increase.
Although some overall heat transfer coefcient values are given
in product catalogs, no papers were found about the heat losses in
the TDD. As well as there being very few studies on the heat
transfer occurring in the dome skylight which is the closest in
geometry to the TDD in the literature.
One of these studies was conducted by McGowan et al. [12]
They investigated the thermal performance of pyramidal and
barrel vault skylights by conducting measurements and numerical
simulations using a commercial computational uid dynamics
(CFD) package. Another study was presented by Klems [13] in
which nighttime measurements of the net heat ow through
several types of skylights were presented and the measured Uvalues were compared with calculations using WINDOW4 and
THERM programs. In the studies presented by Laouadi et al.
[14,15] the laminar natural convection within concentric domed
cavities was investigated by using the numerical control volume
approach. Natural convection heat transfer in horizontal fully
hemispheric domed cavities with planar inner surfaces was
studied by Saber and Laouadi [16]. Their numerical model was
based on the nite- element method. Saber et al. [17] recently
studied using convective heat transfer in low-prole spherical
cavities with planar bottom surfaces by using a nite-element
method.
Literature survey shows that there is limited information about
the heat transfer in TDDs. In the present research the natural
convection heat transfer occurring TDDs was examined for winter

T. Pirasaci
T. Pirasaci
/ Journal
/ Journal
of Building
of Building
Engineering
Engineering
4 (2015)
4 (2015)
5259
5259

5
Nomenclature

wall 4, W

T. Pirasaci
T. Pirasaci
/ Journal
/ Journal
of Building
of Building
Engineering
Engineering
4 (2015)
4 (2015)
5259
5259

QB
A
ATDD
cp
D
k
L
P
Q TDD
QH
Q S.1
Q S.2
Q S.3
Q S.4

surface area, m2
cross sectional area of the TDD, m2
specic heat, kJ/kgK
diameter of the TDD, m
thermal conductivity, W/mK
thickness, m
pressure, Pa
total heat transfer rate, it W
measured electrical power supplied to the heaters, W
experimental conduction heat transfer rate from side
wall 1, W
experimental conduction heat transfer rate from side
wall 2, W
experimental conduction heat transfer rate from side
wall 3, W
experimental conduction heat transfer rate from side

Dome
Dome Base

Roof Base

Reflective
Channel

Diffuser
Fig. 1. Tubular daylighting device.

conditions. For this purpose, the test system was established and
the overall heat transfer coefcient was determined by testing
TDD. Then, numerical studies were performed, and thermal
transmittance coefcients of various TDD congurations were
calculated.

2. Experimental set-up and data reduction

Fig. 2 shows a schematic representation of the experimental
set-up which is composed of climatic chamber with refrigeration
unit, metering chamber, surround panel, heaters, controller and

Q S.P.
T
Tm.c.
Tc.c.
Tin
Tout
UTDD

experimental conduction heat transfer rate from base,

W
experimental conduction heat transfer rate from surround panel, W
temperature, K
metering chamber temperature, K
climatic chamber temperature, K
average temperature of the inner side of insulation, K
average temperature of the outer side of insulation, K
2
overall heat transfer coefcient, W/m K

Greek symbols

thermal expansion coefcient, 1/K

kinematic viscosity, m2/s
density, kg/m3

measurement systems.
The climatic chamber is an open base cabinet, and the refrigeration unit placed at the top of this cabinet. This chamber is
used for simulating winter outdoor conditions. For this purpose
indoor temperature of the chamber was stabilized at
18 C with
a refrigeration unit during the experiments. The dimensions of the
climatic chamber are 980 mm 980 mm 650 mm [inner dimensions (width depth length) ]. All chamber walls are constructed from 10 mm Plywood 50 mm Styrofoam 10 mm
Ply- wood plates.
The metering chamber is an open ceiling cabinet and used for
simulating winter indoor conditions. The dimensions of this
chamber are 980 mm 980 mm 650 mm [inner dimensions
(width depth length)]. All chamber walls are constructed from
10 mm Plywood 50 mm Styrofoam 10 mm
Plywood
plates. During the experiments chamber temperature was
stabilized at
21 C with a heating system. Heating system consisted of 2 heaters, 1 PID temperature controller and a watt-meter. Watt-meter
was used for the measurement of the supplied electric power to
these heaters.
The
surround panel is mounted and placed between
climatic and metering chambers. The dimensions of the surround
panel are
1100 mm
1100 mm
270 mm (width
depth
length) and
con- structed from 10 mm Plywood 5 50 mm Styrofoam
10 mm Plywood plates.
Ninety thermocouples were used for temperature measurements. All thermocouples were separately calibrated. Signals from
the thermocouples were collected, processed and stored with
computer connected seven ELIMKO 680 series universal data
loggers. Temperature readings were taken at several locations on
the bottom (8 inner side and 8 outer side of styrofoam insulation)
and side (8 inner side and 8 outer side of styrofoam insulation)
walls of the metering chamber and at several locations on the
surround panel (4 inner side and 4 outer side of styrofoam insulation). Indoor temperatures of chambers and ambient temperature were also measured.
The experiments were carried out when the ambient temperature is below 21 C. Initially all setup was at the thermal
equilibrium with the ambient air. After the heaters and refrigeration unit were turned on, the temperature of metering chamber
increases and the climatic chamber temperature decreases. The
increase in temperature of the metering chamber continues until
it reaches 21 C. At this temperature it was stabilized by using
a controller. Similarly the temperature of the climatic chamber
was

Refrigeration Unit
Plywood
-18oC

Styrofoam
Thermocouples

Tubular Daylighting
Device (TDD)
Surround Panel
Computer
o

Metering Chamber

Data logger

Heater

21 C

PID Temp.
Watt-meter
Controller

~
Fig. 2. Experimental setup.

stabilized at
18 C during the experiments. The experiments
were continued until steady-state conditions. It was observed that
experimental conditions reach a steady-state condition after approximately 46 h. After conditions had been steady for some time
and differences in temperatures between two intervals became
negligible (T < 0.1 C), all temperatures were collected and
stored. Using this data, heat transfer calculations were done as
follows.
The overall heat transfer coefcient UTDD was calculated from
the following equation:
U
TDD

Q T DD
ATDD (Tm . c . Tc . c).

(1)

3. Numerical formulation and solution procedure

The natural convective ow in the TDD is assumed to be twodimensional, axisymmetric (Fig. 3), laminar, incompressible, steady and all thermo
constant,
except approxfor uid
uid physical
density isproperties
treated byareusing
Boussinesq

where Q TDD is the total heat transfer rate, ATDD is the cross sectional area ( D2/4) of the TDD, D is the diameter of the TDD and
Tm.c. Tc.c. is the difference between metering and climatic chamber temperatures.
The total heat transfer rate (Q TDD ) from TDD was calculated
from an energy balance written for the metering chamber and
expressed as given below:
Q TDD = Q H. Q S.1 Q S.2 Q S.3 Q S.4 Q B. Q S . P.

uncertainty analysis was conducted on all measured quantities as

well as the quantities calculated from the measurement results.
Uncertainties were estimated according to the standard procedures reported in the literature see e.g. [1822]. Overall, the uncertainty in the overall heat transfer coefcient UTDD is around
7 6%.

(2)

where Q H is the measured electrical power supplied to the heaters, Q S.1, Q S.2 , Q S.3, Q S.4 , Q B. and Q S.P. are the conduction
heat
transfer rates from side walls, base wall and surround panel
respectively.
These conduction heat transfer rates were calculated from
Fourier's law (Eq. (3)) according to the measured surface tem-

density. The
imation. In addition the radiation heat transfer between surfaces is
not accounted for in this study. This approach has been successfully applied to natural ows in enclosed cavities [16,17].
Following
these assumptions, the conservation equations for the uid are
ur
uz
=0
+
r
z

(4)

1 P
uu
u u
( r r ) ( z r )

+
=
+(
r
z
r
(ur uz )

(uz uz )
+

r
(ur T)

(uz T)

k
2T

+
r 2

2u z

1
P
=

+(
z
2T

r 2

z2

(5)

2u z
+

z2

) + g (T T0 )

(6)

peratures and known material properties:

k Ai
Q = i (T
T )
i

Li

in

out i

cp r 2

z2

(7)

The conjugate steady conduction in the solid separator plate

(3)

where the subscript i is the surface index ( S.1, S.2, S.3, S.4, B. and
S. P ), k is the insulation thermal conductivity (for Styrofoam insulation 0.035 W/mK), A is the surface area, L is the insulation
thickness (0.05 m for sides and bottom, 0.25 m for surround panel
), Tin is the average temperature of the inner side of insulation
and
Tout is the average temperature of the outer side of insulation.
In order to determine the reliability of experimental results, an

body is coupled to the natural convection. In these regions the

conservation of energy is dened as
2T + 2T = 0
r 2 z2

(8)

No slip and the continuity of normal heat ux boundary conditions are applied at the uid/solid interfaces while no slip and
constant temperature boundary conditions applied at the outer

ur = uz= 0
T = Toutdoor

ur = 0
T
=0
r

4. Results and discussion

c
ur = uz= 0
q cond. = q conv.
Tsolid = Tfluid

ur = 0
T
=0
r

ur = uz= 0
T = Tindoor

second order upwind scheme was used for discretization of energy

and momentum equations and PRESTO algorithm was used for the
pressure correction. The velocitypressure coupling was established by using SIMPLE algorithm.
To get converged solution, iterations were continued until all
residuals were less than 1 106 and the total heat ux of all
borders were less than 1 103. Grid independence tests show
that for 13,139 and larger mesh numbers the numerical results did
not change anymore. Thus the analyses were performed for the
grid structure (Fig. 4) having 13,139 mesh number.

Fig. 3. Schematic representation of numerical model with boundary conditions

(a) symmetry (b) uid/solid interface (c) insulated wall (d) wall at constant
temperature.

4.1. Experimental results

Natural convection heat transfer in a TDD was investigated
experimentally for two congurations of TDD. In the rst conguration the standard TDD having 550 mm tube diameter (Fig. 5a )
was tested between 21 C and 18 C. In the second conguration
the acrylic separator plate (10 mm thick) was placed at the top of
the channel for separating the natural convection ow in the TDD.
The schematic illustration of this conguration is shown in Fig. 5b.
As a consequence of the above mentioned experimental conditions, the overall heat transfer coefcients, UTDD, were obtained
as 3.78 W/m2 K and 2.34 W/m2 K for congurations 1 and 2,
respectively.
Experimental results show that the heat transfer from TDD can
be decreased by using a separator plate.
4.2. Numerical results

Fig. 4. CFD meshing model.

surfaces. All applied boundary conditions are shown in detail at

Fig. 3.
Here ur and uz are the velocities at the r and z directions respectively, q is the heat ux and T is the temperature.
In this study numerical analysis was performed by using a
commercial CFD package FLUENT. All conservation equations (Eqs.
(4)(8)) were discretized using the control volume approach. The

In this study the natural convection heat transfer in the TDD

was analyzed numerically and the impact of the usage of separator
plate on the natural convection ow and heat transfer was
examined.
At the beginning of the numerical study analyses were performed for both of the TDD congurations 1 and 2 which were
investigated experimentally before. The study continued with the
cases in which the placement of separator plate was examined. In
Fig. 6 the placement of separator plate is shown schematically for
different congurations.
In all congurations the outer (dome and base zone) and the
inner (channel and diffuser zone) walls were kept at the constant
temperature of
18 C and 21 C, respectively. Under these conditions, the ow was stable and reached the steady state. After all
analyses were performed heat transfer rates from TDD and the
overall heat transfer coefcient UTDD were calculated and the optimum placement of separator plate was determined.
For the numerical model validation, the results obtained using
the numerical model were compared with the present experimental results for TDD congurations 1 and 2 (Table 1). Comparison of numerical and experimental UTDD values are listed in
Table 1.
As shown in Table 1 the numerical results agree very well with
the experimental results with an error of 2%. Moreover the
overall heat transfer coefcient in conguration 2 is 62% of that
in con- guration 1.
The comparison of the numerical results for congurations
1 and 2 is shown in Fig. 7.
In Fig. 7a and d the direction and the ratio of heat transfer is
given. It is seen from these gures that the heat is transferred from
indoor environment to the air in TDD over the channel and diffuser zones then it is transferred to the outdoor environment over
the dome and base zones. The ratios given here are the heat
transfer rates from zone walls (Q) to the total heat transfer rate

Dome
Zone
Configuration 2 ----Configuration 3 ----Configuration 4 -----

Base
Zone

Configuration 5 ----Configuration 6 -----

Insulated
Zone

Configuration 7 ----Configuration 8 ----Configuration 9 -----

Channel
Zone

Configuration 10 ----Configuration 11 ----Configuration 12 -----

Configuration 13 ---Diffuser
Zone

Fig. 6. Placement of the separator plate in the TDD for different congurations.

Table 1
Comparison of numerical and experimental UTDD values.
2

Conguration 1
Conguration 2

Fig. 5. Schematic illustration of tested TDD. (a) Conguration 1( b) Conguration2.

from conguration 1 (Q0). Total heat transfer can be calculated by

adding heat transfer rates of the channel and diffuser zones. This
results show that in both congurations the heat transferred from
channel zone is greater than diffuser zone as expected. Because
the diffuser is made of acrylic (k 0.2) whereas the channel is
made of aluminum (k 237) and the area of the channel zone is
greater than the diffuser zone. For outer (dome and base) zones
however, there is a difference between two congurations. In
conguration 1 the heat transferred from dome zone is greater
than base zone. But in conguration 2 the heat transferred from
base zone is greater than dome zone.
This difference can be explained by considering velocity and
temperature distributions (Fig. 7b, c, e, f) in TDD. It is seen from
these gures that in conguration 1 the air temperature gets
higher values near the channel and diffuser zones due to the heat

Experimental (W/m K)

Numerical (W/m K)

Error (%)

3.78
2.34

3.69
2.29

2
2

transfer from indoor environment. This causes the increase in

buoyancy force and results in the air ow in the upward direction
near the TDD wall. Meanwhile very low temperatures at the dome
wall cause secondary ow directed to the downward near the
dome wall. The mixture of these streams results in a relatively cold
stream having the temperature of 275 K. This stream moves
downward at the center of the TDD. This ow pattern causes low
temperatures ( 275 K) and higher heat uxes in the TDD. In
conguration 2, however, separator plate divides TDD into two
volumes. In lower volume the air temperature gets higher values
near the channel and diffuser zones due to the heat transfer from
indoor environment. This causes an increase in buoyancy force
which produces the air ow in the upward direction near the
TDD wall. When the ow reaches base zone wall and separator
plate, it losses heat and its temperature drops. The cold air
moves down- ward at the center of the TDD. The heat
conducted through the separator plate transferred to
the
outdoor environment by the ow in the upper volume. Due to
the low conductivity of acrylic separator plate and these ow
patterns the average temperature in
conguration 2 ( 286 K) is greater than the average temperature
in conguration 1.
The comparison of overall heat transfer coefcients (UTDD) for
different congurations is given in Fig. 8.
It is seen from the gure that the lowest overall heat transfer
coefcients (UTDD) obtained for the congurations in which the
separator plate is placed in insulated zone and the minimum value
of these coefcients is for conguration 6. In conguration 6 the

57%

Configuration 1

Dome
Zone

Base
Zone
43%
Insulated
Zone

Vel. (m/s)

Temp. (K)

Channel
Zone

63%

r
Diffuser
Zone

37%

24%

Configuration 2

Dome
Zone

Base
Zone
38%

Insulated
Zone
Channel
Zone
39%

r
23%

Diffuser
Zone
Fig. 7. Numerical results for congurations 1 and 2.

separator plate is placed at the top of the insulated zone. The

overall heat transfer coefcient in this conguration is 33% of that
of conguration 1. The numerical results for congurations 4, 6, 8,
9, 11, 13 are shown in Fig.
9.
In both of these congurations the heat transferred from
channel zone is greater than the one from the diffuser as similar
to conguration 1 and 2. For outer (dome and base) zones,
however, the heat transferred from dome zone is greater than
the one of base zone.
It is seen from Fig. 9b and c that for congurations 48 the air
temperature gets higher values near the channel and diffuser
zones due to the heat transfer from indoor environment. This
causes the increase in buoyancy force and results in the air ow
in the upward direction near the TDD wall. When the ow
reaches separator plate it losses heat and its temperature drops.
The cold air moves downward at the center of the TDD. The heat
conducted through the separator plate is transferred to the
outdoor en- vironment by the ow in the upper volume. In
conguration 6 the

velocities are lower than those of other cases. Due to the low
conductivity of acrylic separator plate and the ow patterns, the
bottom volume average temperature in this conguration is
greater than the average temperature in other congurations. Thus
this conguration has the lowest total heat transfer rate among
the other congurations. For congurations 913 however, the
upper volume ow pattern changes. In these congurations the
air temperature gets higher values near the channel zone due to
the heat transfer from indoor environment and near the
separator plate due to the conducted heat. This causes the
increase in buoyancy force and results the air ow in the
upward direction near the channel zone wall. Simultaneously
air cools near the dome and base zone walls due to the heat
transfer to the outdoor environment. This causes decrease in
buoyancy force and results in air ow in the downward
direction near the wall. These two streams mix thereabout
insulated zone and moves towards the center of the TDD. Due
to
these ow patterns total heat transfer rate increases
signicantly in these congurations.

The effect of heat transfer rates on the building thermal load

was determined by using simulation method given in Turkish
standard TS 825 [23]. In this method, conduction, convection and
ventilation heat losses, internal and solar heat gains were taken
into consideration. By using this method, monthly averaged heat
losses and gains were calculated and the annual heating energy
requirement of a building was determined. In this study a building
2

having 3025 m oor space was simulated as an example. The

wall, oor and ceiling properties of a building were taken from the
TS 825
( Ufloor = 0.7 W/m2 K,
Uceiling = 0.45 W/m2 K
and
2
Uwall = 0.7 W/m K). Simulations were performed for the following
cases:
) values for different congurations.
Fig. 8. Overall heat transfer coefcient (UTDD

Case-1: Building having no TDD.

Case-2: Building having 100 TDDs specied in conguration 1.
Case-3: Building having 100 TDDs specied in conguration 6.

a
70
Dome
Zone

Q/Q0 (%)

Base
Zone

60

Diffuser Zone
Channel Zone

Base Zone
Dome Zone

50
40
30

Channel
Zone

20
10

0
Diffuser
Zone

Conf.-4

Conf.-6

Conf.-8

Conf.-9

Conf.-11

Conf.-13

b
Temp.(K)

Conf.-4

Conf.-6

Conf.-8

Conf.-4

Conf.-6

Conf.-8

Conf.-9

Conf.-11

Conf.-13

Conf.-11

Conf.-13

Vel.(m/s)

Conf.-9

Fig. 9. Numerical results for congurations 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13. (a) Q/Q0 (b)Temperature (c) Velocity.

Table 2
Comparison of simulation results.
Annual heating energy requirement
(kWh)
Case-1 110,534.97
Case-2 114,540.74
Case-3 111,450.29

The deviation from case-1

(%)

3.62
0.83

The comparison of simulation results for the cases is listed in

Table 2.
It is seen from Table 2 that the annual heating energy requirements for case-2 and case-3 are 3.62% and 0.83% greater than
that of case-1, respectively.
4.3. Discussion
The aim of this study is to determine the effect of the usage of
TDDs (one of the structural members) on the building heat loads.
The main parameter for the determination of the heat load of the
structural member is the overall heat transfer coefcient. This
coefcient varies according to the structural member, the heat
transfer coefcient value of the various structural members is given in TS 825. However, there is no heat transfer coefcient
value for TDDs given in TS 825. This shortcoming has been the
starting point of the study.
In this paper a part of the work performed to determine the
overall heat transfer values of TDDs manufactured by Form Endustri Tesisleri A.S. is presented. At the beginning of the study
the natural convection heat transfer occurring into the TDD
having
55 cm diameter is examined experimentally. For this purpose, a
test system was established and the overall heat transfer
coefcient of TDD was determined by using this test system. The
experimental results show that the overall heat transfer
coefcient for a standard TDD (shown in conguration 1) has been
obtained as 3.78 W/m2 K. Then,
numerical studies were
performed and thermal transmit- tance coefcients of various
TDD congurations were calculated. It is seen from numerical
results for a standard TDD (shown in con- guration 1) that the
numerical results agree very well with the experimental results
with an error of 2%. Furthermore the data obtained using this
numerical model shows that the heat transfer in TDDs is
dependent on the ow pattern. In the next phase of the study,
modications were as investigated in order to reduce heat
transfer among them, the applicability of the easiest, and the
lowest cost is the insertion of a separator plate into TDD. At this
stage of the work, experimental and numerical studies were
performed for the TDD shown in conguration 2 in which the
separator plate is placed at the top of the channel. The results
show that the overall heat transfer coefcient in conguration 2
is 62% of that in con- guration 1. The effect of the placement of
a separator plate on heat transfer is another issue discussed in this
paper. It is seen from the numerical results that the minimum
overall heat transfer coefcients (UTDD = 1.22 W/m2 K) obtained for the conguration in
which
the separator plate is placed at the top of the insulated zone
(shown in conguration 6). In this case the overall heat transfer
coefcient is 33% to that of a standard TDD. The effect of these
overall heat transfer coefcients on the building thermal load
was analyzed by using simulation method given in Turkish
standard TS 825. The simulation results shows that the annual
heating energy require- ments for case-2 and case-3 are 3.62%
and 0.83% greater than that in case-1, respectively.
5. Conclusion

overall heat transfer coefcients obtained for TDDs are higher than
that for ceilings. Although the amount of this increase is too small
it can be minimized by appropriate modications made on the
TDDs. These modications include placing a separator plate into
TDD, insulating the outer surfaces of the tubes, and modifying the
This study indicates that the amount of energy required for
heating indoors increases by using TDDs due to the fact that

dome structure. In this study, only one of them (placing separator

plate into TDDs) is discussed for winter conditions. Results shows
that this modication signicantly decreases heat transfer from
TDDs. On the other hand; this study does not include summer
conditions, it can be said that the heat transfer also decreases in
summer by using a separator plate due to the same convection
mechanism. But in summer conditions solar radiation is very important and it must be considered in the analysis. More work is
needed to investigate the effect of other modications on the
thermal performance of TDDs and future works should include the
radiation effects and the summer conditions.

Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the Form Endustri Tesisleri A.S.
for their contribution to the foundation of the experimental setup
and providing the Tubular Daylighting Device product
information and specications.

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