Impact of retro-reflective windowpanes on building energy demand and pedestrian thermal comfort under various neighborhood settlements

Reflective urban surfaces reduce the absorbed solar radiation and minimize the amplitude of surface temperatures of buildings and urban elements, acting as a passive cooling strategy of mitigating the intensity of urban overheating. However, their application on vertical surfaces increases the reflective component reaching the surrounding environment and modifies the energy received by pedestrians and adjacent surfaces. To address this limitation, a new generation of cool materials has been evoked, the retro-reflective materials, with the ability to reflect the incident solar radiation back towards its source despite the direction of incidence. This work presents a numerical implementation of a coupled microclimate-urban building energy model with the objective to concurrently assess the impact of retro-reflective glazing on building energy demand and outdoor thermal comfort.