Textured Glass Substrate for Building Façades
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional glass substrates with anti-solar reflective layers reflect solar radiation at angles other than normal incidence, causing glare and heat accumulation on surfaces below, and fail to efficiently return solar radiation to the sky, reducing albedo and posing safety concerns.
Innovation Solution
A glass substrate with a relief texture and a reflective layer applied to one of its main faces, where the geometry of the patterns ensures that incident solar rays are reflected back towards the sky, achieving high reflectivity in the solar infrared range while maintaining good visible light transmission, with specific spectral bands showing greater than 20% reflection and greater than 40% transmission.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If a reflective layer is applied to flat glass to reflect solar radiation, then energy reflection is improved, but reflected rays are directed towards the ground causing glare and heat accumulation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies a relief texture with curved or inclined surfaces to the glass substrate. This curvature redirects the reflected solar radiation towards the sky rather than towards the ground, eliminating glare and heat accumulation while maintaining energy reflection. The non-planar geometry changes the reflection direction without sacrificing the reflective property.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces a vertical dimension to the reflection by creating relief patterns that angle reflected rays upward towards the sky. This dimensional change in reflection direction transforms the harmful horizontal/downward reflection into a beneficial upward reflection, solving the glare problem while preserving energy reflection.
2Loss of energy
If the glass substrate is made highly reflective to reduce solar heat gain, then energy efficiency is improved, but visible light transmission is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the reflective property selectively through a relief texture that provides different optical functions at different locations. The relief structures are designed to reflect infrared radiation while allowing visible light to pass through, creating local quality differences that simultaneously achieve heat rejection and light transmission.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention combines the glass substrate with a relief texture structure and reflective layer to create a composite system. This composite structure integrates multiple functions: the glass provides transparency, the relief texture provides directional reflection, and the reflective layer enhances infrared reflection, achieving both energy efficiency and visible light transmission.
3Loss of energy
If a relief texture is added to redirect reflected rays towards the sky, then albedo is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a thin relief texture layer or coating applied to the glass substrate surface. This thin film approach achieves the albedo enhancement function without adding significant structural complexity or thickness, maintaining a relatively simple overall device structure while providing the desired optical functionality.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively directs reflected solar radiation back towards the sky, reducing glare and heat accumulation, while maintaining high visible light transmission and energy reflection, thus enhancing the albedo and safety by minimizing reflections towards pedestrians and buildings.
Implementation Method 1
a reflective layer, in particular anti-solar, being applied to the main face comprising said patterns... the substrate coated with the reflective layer preferably has a reflection greater than 20% and more preferably greater than 40% for any radiation in a spectral band of at least 50 nm width, said band being at the inside the solar spectrum domain
Implementation Method 2
The patterns have a geometry such that the reflected rays are sent back to the sky if the incident rays come from the sky... the texture causes the reflected ray to return to the same side as the incident ray relative to a horizontal plane normal to the glass substrate
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a glass substrate including a sheet of glass in which one of the main surfaces includes raised patterns, and a reflective layer applied to the main surface including said patterns, so that there is a plane H orthogonal to the substrate such that the assembly E of the points of the surface of the substrate, such that the angle theta between the normal local to the surface and the plane H is at least 25°, is more than 30 % of the developed area of the main surface of the substrate supporting the patterns. The glass substrate is intended for being mounted on the outer façades of buildings as glazing. The substrate reflects the sun rays toward the sky, since said substrate is vertical and the plane H is horizontal. Said property reduces the glare for people on the ground and helps improve the albedo of towns.