WIKI DEFINITION

Incident Solar Radiation

Incident solar radiation (insolation) refers to the amount of energy falling on a flat surface. It is not affected in any way by
the surface properties of materials or by any internal refractive effects as it is concerned only with the radiation actually
striking the surface. Material properties only affect what happens next - the amount of solar radiation absorbed and/or
transmitted by the surface.
The total insolation (Gincident) at any instant is therefore affected only by:

The angle of incidence of the solar radiation (A);

The current shaded fraction of the surface by surrounding geometry (Fshad), and;

The fraction of diffuse sky radiation actually visible from the surface (Fsky);

These factors affect the direct (Gdirect) and diffuse sky (Gdiffuse) radiation components differently, such that:

For more information on this, refer to the Solar Radiation Components topic.

DIRECT ANGLE OF INCIDENCE

When radiation from the sun strikes the surface of an object from directly front-on, the energy density per unit area will be
much higher than if the radiation struck from a much greater angle. This effect can be calculated using the cosine law,
where the radiant energy from the sun is simply multiplied by the cosine of the incidence angle.
The incidence angle is always calculated relative to the surface normal of each plane. Radiant energy density is at its
maximum at normal incidence when the incidence angle approaches 0. It is at its minimum at grazing incidence when the
incidence angle approaches 90.

Figure 1 - The effect of incidence angle, illustrating the cos law.

In the examples shown above, when the radiation strikes at 75 it imparts only 26% of its energy to the surface. At 15 it
imparts 96% of its energy. Obviously at 0 it would impart 100% and at 90 it would impart 0% as it no longer actually
strikes the surface.
This is a relatively simple calculation for the direct beam component as it can be considered as originating from a very
distant point source (the Sun) whose position at any date and time is known or can be quickly calculated (Szokolay,
2004). Thus incidence is determined by the 3-dimensional angle between the surface normal (a line from the centre of the

object directly outwards at 90 to the surface) and a line from the object centre running out towards the sun. This is
illustrated in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2 - The incidence angle is the 3-dimensional angle between the surface normal and the current Sun position.
This is an important concept as diurnal and seasonal changes in sun position will affect surfaces at various orientations
quite differently, especially at mid-latitudes. For example, if a vertical equator-facing window is compared to a flat roof, at
noon in winter the Sun is lower in the sky - thus closer to normal incidence for the window but closer to grazing incidence
for the roof. In summer when the Sun is much higher in the sky, at noon it is closer to grazing incidence on the window
and closer to normal incidence on the roof, as shown in Figure 3 below.

Figure 3 - As the daily Sun-path changes with season, incidence angles increase on vertical windows in summer whilst
reducing on a horizontal roof.
This is only a simple example, however it does illustrate that surfaces at different angles will be more sensitive to some
parts of the sky than others.

DIFFUSE ANGLES OF INCIDENCE

Unlike direct radiation, which comes from a very specific part of the sky, diffuse radiation arrives from the whole sky. As
shown in Figure 3, the angle of the surface will mean that, irrespective of the distribution of radiation over the sky dome,
some parts of the sky will contribute more than others simply due to incidence effects.
For a horizontal surface under a uniform sky, the diffuse radiation arriving from a segment at the zenith of the sky will
impart greater energy than a segment of equal area at the horizon. This is simply because the light from the zenith arrives
close to normal incidence on a horizontal surface whereas that from the horizon is closer to grazing incidence.

Whilst it is possible to generate a calculus equation for any given surface for the continuous integral of the diffuse
contribution from each part of the sky, it is usually much quicker to simply break the sky up into a large number of small
segments, and then calculate the sum of their individual effect. This is known as sky subdivision and is a widely used
technique as it has a range of other benefits which will also be explained.

DIFFUSE EFFECTS
Once the sky has been subdivided, the orientation and tilt angle of any surface can be used to determine which parts of
the sky it is actually exposed to. For example a vertical surface, no matter which way it faces, will only ever 'see' at best
one half of the sky dome - meaning that it will only ever receive a maximum of one half of the available diffuse component.
A horizontal surface that faces upwards, however, could see it all.
However for a horizontal surface, any light from the zenith of the sky arrives normal to that surface whilst light from the
horizon arrives at grazing incidence. For a vertical surface the reverse is true - light from the zenith arrives at grazing
incidence whilst light from the horizon arrives along its normal. This means that the area of the sky that contributes most
to any surface depends greatly on its tilt angle.
Figure 4 below shows a surface at different inclinations and its corresponding incidence angle effect mapped over a mask.
This is simply the cosine of the incidence angle the geometric centre of each sky segment makes with the surface normal.

Figure 4 - Different areas of the sky dome 'visible' to surfaces at various tilt angles, together with their corresponding
diffuse incidence masks.
Thus, for horizontal surfaces the zenith is of most significance whereas for vertical surfaces it is those sky segments
closer to the horizon and directly in front.

ABSORBED AND TRANSMITTED RADIATION

Once the amount of instantaneous radiation incident on a surface has been calculated, it is possible to determine how
much of that radiation is absorbed or transmitted through any model surface. This depends on the material properties
assigned to the surface. This is, of course, where things get complex because there is a wide range of 'interpretation'
within the industry as to the exact meaning of different terms for material property that affect absorption and transmission and some of these values even inter-relate.
Absorbed solar radiation (Gabsorbed) is affected by the solar absorption value assigned to a material (Fabs), and its
transparency value (Ftrans). The transmitted component is affected by the transparency of the material (Ftrans) as well as, for
windows, their shading coefficient (SC) and the effects of refraction (Frefract), such that:

For window/glazing materials the transmitted radiation is given as:

For opaque materials (those without a defined shading coefficient or refractive index):

The refraction based on a glass material's refractive index is given by:

The basic properties that affect absorption and transmission in ECOTECT can be set in the

Material Properties

dialog for each material in the library, and are described as follows.
SOLAR ABSORPTION AND COLOUR
The amount of solar radiation that is absorbed by any surface is assumed to be all that isn't reflected or transmitted. For
an opaque surface, its reflectivity is really a function of its surface colour. A highly gloss surface will reflect just as much
solar radiation as a matte surface if their colours are exactly the same - its just that the matte surface will reflect diffusely
in all different directions whilst the gloss will reflect the majority of light in a specular direction. The specularity value of a
material is therefore not important unless considering the amount of radiation reflected from that surface onto other parts
of the model.
In reality, colours are defined by a complex continuous spectrum in which some frequencies are absorbed more than
others. However, colour specification in computer software is mostly done using only red, green and blue (RGB)
components. Whilst these three values are sufficient for our eyes to perceive almost any colour, the relative energy value
of solar radiation varies significantly with frequency.
It should also be noted that solar radiation comprises frequencies both above and below the frequency range we perceive
as light. Therefore colour alone is not sufficient to fully define this property. As a result, ECOTECT allows you to assign
opaque materials a solar absorption parameter with a value between zero and one. However, most people usually only
know the colour of the material they are creating, so ECOTECT also monitors changes to each material's external colour
and offers to calculate an updated solar radiation based on the new setting. Obviously this is not as accurate as entering
the solar absorption value obtained from the manufacturer, however if you use a darker colour, this will affect the amount
of solar absorption so you will be prompted to update.
To calculate the absorption value from the assigned colour, in which each RGB component is given as a value from 0 to
255, ECOTECT uses the following formula as described for daylight spectral response in the Radiance Technical Manual
(Ward, 1994):

For opaque materials, ECOTECT simply uses the solar absorption value as a modifier for the incident radiation. For
window/glazing materials, which do not have such a property, the absorption value is derived from the assigned external
glass colour and is applied to that radiation which is not reflected or transmitted.
This gets a little trickier for transparent materials that are not WINDOW elements. As transparency is defined as the
relative amount of light/radiation actually passing through an object, ECOTECT assumes that this is given by the
manufacturer as relative to the amount of incident radiation (as this is the easiest and most obvious to measure). Thus, if
a material is assigned a transparency of 0.5, then 50% of the incident radiation is assumed to pass through. This means
that the assigned solar absorption value cannot be greater than (1 - transparency), otherwise a warning is displayed.

TRANSPARENCY AND SHADING COEFFICIENT

Another issue sometimes encountered in ECOTECT is the ability to define both a transparency and a solar heat gain
coefficient value for a WINDOW material. Traditionally the solar heat gain coefficient is to solar radiation what the
transparency value is to light. One difference is that the solar heat gain coefficient can also be used to account for the
effects of external and internal shading, but not usually in a dynamic way.
However, to maintain consistency between WINDOW and other elements, both values affect the transmission of light
through windows in ECOTECT's calculation functions. In fact, both are completely inter-changeable and cumulative. Thus,
if you specify both a transparency and shading coefficient of 0.5, the total transmission will actually be 25% (0.5 x 0.5 =
0.25).
There were a number of reasons for doing this:

The first was that users were altering WINDOW transparency values and not seeing any change in the solar
radiation - which caused much confusion to those new to the software.

Second was the need to maintain consistency - if transparency affects solar absorption in a WALL or ROOF
element, then it should also affect transmission in a WINDOW element.

Thirdly, as they are cumulative, having the two values offers a way of applying dynamic shading to a window by
using blanket coefficients derived from a more complex shading mask study. Alternatively, the transparency of
the WINDOW material could be manipulated with a script to simulate dynamic shading without losing the solar
heat gain coefficient data for that particular glazing configuration.

REFRACTIVE INDEX
Refraction is an effect that occurs at the interface between transparent materials of different densities, such as air and
glass. The bending of light and solar radiation that results from refraction is due to the longer time it takes the waves to
move through the denser of the two materials. It is dependent on two factors: the incident angle and the refractive index of
each material. The main effect of refraction is to significantly increase the effective surface reflectivity at angles close to
grazing incidence.

The refractive index property applies only to WINDOW materials and the transparent covers of SOLAR COLLECTORS.
The higher its value, the greater the effect. ECOTECT ignores values less than 1.0 as this represents an air-to-air
interface at which there is no refraction.
It is important to note that this effect is very different from the reflectivity of a shiny opaque surface. For opaque surfaces,
shininess is a manifestation of the degree of specularity - which in turn means how much of the reflected light travels in a
specular direction (exitAngle = -entryAngle when measured about the surface normal). Reflectivity actually depends only
on the colour of the surface. Two surfaces with exactly the same colour, but one matte and the other gloss, will reflect
exactly the same amount of light - its just that the matte surface reflects it diffusely in all different directions.

SPECULARITY
The specularity value of a material is given in the range 0-1 and defines the concentration of reflected light/radiation in the
specular direction. A mirror has a very high specularity, which means that the majority of the energy from a focused beam
of light would be reflected at an angle equal to the incidence angle on its surface, but mirrored around its surface normal.
If that same beam fell on a surface covered with talcum powder, the myriad of tiny individual grains would reflect parts of
the beam in all different directions. Being very white the same amount of light would be reflected from the powder surface
as from the mirror, but the reflection would be diffuse, spread out at all angles such that the patch of the beam incidence
on the surface was visible from anywhere around it not just in the specular reflection angle.

Figure 5: The effect of different material specularity values.

Thus for short-wave radiation transfer, the reflectance of a material is multiplied by its surface specularity in order to
calculate the effects of reflected radiation.

EMISSIVITY
The emissivity value of a material is given in the range 0-1 and describes its ability to absorb and emit long-wave
radiation. This occurs at much lower frequencies that light, usually referring to the infra-red radiation from objects at
terrestrial temperatures (below 100C). As a result, emissivity values are important in thermal calculations when

considering long-wave radiant exchange between surfaces, but do not play a significant role in ECOTECT's solar
incidence calculations.

REFERENCES

1.

Geoffrey G. Roy et al, 1995, The Development of Modelling Strategies for Whole Sky Spectrums under Real
Conditions for International Use, University of Sydney and Murdoch University, (view as PDF).