BEIJING INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, TERMINAL 3

Designed by Beijing Architectural Design and Research Institute and NFA (a joint venture of NACO, Foster and Partners and Arup), Terminal 3 of Beijing International Airport is composed of two sections—T3A (main building and concourse for domestic flights) and T3B (main building and concourse for international flights). With a total floor area of over 900,000 square metres and total curtain wall area of 330,000 square metres, T3 is the biggest standalone terminal building in the world. To achieve energy saving goals for such a massive structure is no easy task.

T3 depends solely on natural lighting during the day: The transparent glass curtain wall allows sunlight to penetrate, eliminating the need for artificial lighting during daytime; the 155 dragon scale-shaped skylights on the roof also introduce beams of light into the interior and the curvilinear roof deflects the light beams and creates an interesting play of light and shadow. The positioning of skylights was carefully calculated to ensure even distribution of sunlight. They are oriented towards southeast to introduce warm, soft sunlight in the morning and avoid strong direct sunshine in the afternoon. The glass curtain wall is designed at a 15-degree angle to reduce solar gain on the exterior wall, keeping the indoors cool while reducing energy consumption. Cantilevered eaves on the perimeter of the building also act as sunshades for the curtain wall. According to Shao Weiping, Executive Chief Architect of Beijing Architectural Design and Research Institute, one of the principal designers of this project, the main eaves are extended to 40–50 metres on the south elevation to effectively fend off direct sunlight. The general heat transfer coefficient of the glass curtain wall is kept at about k=1.9 W/m²k with heat bridge treatment on the aluminium alloy beams and insulation between glass panels.

Its ground transportation centre is covered with a green roof. The earth cover provides multiple benefits especially for northern China: It keeps the building warm in winter and cool in summer, thus reducing the building’s energy consumption; it also helps improve the local ecological environment and visually reduces the mass of the structure, giving the huge building a more human scale.

Advanced mechanical approach and technologies are incorporated in T3 to complement passive design methods in order to achieve maximum energy efficiency. T3’s intelligent lighting system—which automatically monitors and controls lights in different functional areas according to the time of the day, light sensor feedbacks and flight schedules—combined with energy-efficient luminaries, save over 10 percent of energy consumption, amounting to about 160kWh per year based on initial estimates. Light sensor controls are activated during passenger traffic peak hours, which means when natural lighting exceeds the set light strength, lights will be turned off automatically and vice versa. Movement sensors will kick in to replace light sensors at night when traffic is low; as people move along, lights in different areas will be turned on or off.

The air-conditioning system is equipped with air ventilator wheels with total thermal recovery that will cool and dehumidify fresh air in summer, and preheat and humidify fresh air in winter. The air-conditioning system uses recycled cold air. Zhu Jingyuan of China Civil Airport Construction Corporation explains: “Fresh air is not blown from top down; instead, cool air stays in the area where people move about, which not only saves energy but also functions as insulation.” T3 is also equipped with 26 environmentally designed smoking rooms. These rooms each has two ozone generators that suck in the smoke before it spreads, keeping the air fresh.

A district energy system enables efficient use of energy in this project: hot fumes released from gas turbines when generating electricity is used to produce mid-temperature, mid-pressure steam, which drives steam turbines to generate electricity. In summer, part of the steam will be used for cooling water for the air-conditioning system while in winter, the steam can be directly used for heating, with heat from the steam condensation being used for hot water supply. Approximately 44 percent of the gas will be turned into electricity; the system also uses little extra water. In addition, the gas turbines adopt low nitrogen oxide burning technology, keeping the emission under 25 parts per million.

To control emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere, Beijing Capital International Airport Company Limited invested close to RMB1.7 million to install an online monitoring system for the solid waste incineration plant’s flue gases and sewage purification plant. The system keeps close watch on the flue gases and sewage by-products, and sets off alarms when the amount of waste released exceeds the permissible level.

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