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Abstract
The passive cooling effects of a courtyard of a small building were determined numerically, employing an energy-analysis software
developed for that purpose. The passive cooling features considered were the shading effects of courtyard walls and two large trees
(of various shapes) planted immediately next to the south wall of the building, the presence of a pool, a lawn and flowers in the yard,
and the wind shading effects of the walls and trees. It was found that these features alone cannot maintain thermal comfort during
the hot summer hours in Tehran, but reduce the cooling energy requirements of the building to some extent. They have an adverse
effect of increasing the heating energy requirements of the building slightly. The same savings in cooling energy needs of the building
can be obtained through many features such as wall and roof insulation, double-glazed windows, Persian Blinds, and special sealing
tapes to reduce infiltration. They all save on heating energy requirements as well.
r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
0360-1323/$ - see front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2004.04.014
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90 H. Safarzadeh, M.N. Bahadori / Building and Environment 40 (2005) 89–104
measures incorporated in it, and make energy con- sions, located just in the middle of the yard, a garden
sumption measurements of the building, and compare with 90 m2 area and walkways with 30 m2 area. Flowers
these results with those obtained from the computer and shrubs are planted in the garden, and the walkways
simulation. are covered with bricks. Two tall trees are planted near
We plan to construct a building with a courtyard, the south wall of the building.
employing all the energy conservation features men- The building was initially designed as a small
tioned above. This building to be called Green Building residence, but it was later modified to be used as a
is to utilize solar energy to meet all its energy needs. small office space for passive heating and cooling studies
The Green Building was designed and its cooling at the university. Figs. 1 and 2 show the plan and a cross
energy requirements with and without the conservation section of the building. Photovoltaic panels, to meet
measures and the passive cooling features of the the electrical energy needs of the building, are shown
courtyard were estimated, employing the energy-analy- in Fig. 2.
sis software developed for this purpose. The results of The energy conservation measures employed in the
this energy analysis are reported in this paper. The Green Building are:
actual construction of the Green Building is to start
shortly in Tehran, near the Campus of Sharif University Insulation of the external walls and roof on the
of Technology. outside.
Insulation of the building perimeter.
Special sealants to reduce the size of the cracks in the
windows and doors.
2. Description of the building Double-glazed windows.
Externally-mounted blinds, called Persian Blinds, to
The building under consideration is a one-storey cover the windows during the days in summer and
building, 15 m long in east–west direction, and 8 m wide. during the nights in winter.
It has a basement of equal dimensions to be used as a Curtains to cover the windows and the exposed walls
lecture hall. It has a courtyard, 15 10 m in dimensions, during summer days and winter nights. These curtains
located in the south side of the building. The courtyard are to be high enough to touch the ceiling on top and
is equipped with a pool of water, 7:5 4 m in dimen- the floor on the bottom.
Fig. 2. A north–south cross section of the Main Building. Solar panels and a wind tower can be seen in this figure.
The passive cooling of the courtyard consists of the normal energy analysis capabilities, the software was
following features: expected to perform the following tasks:
The shading effects of the walls of the courtyard on 1. Estimate the dimensions of the shadows cast by
the ground and on the south-facing wall and windows the courtyard walls and trees on the courtyard floor
of the building. and on the south-facing wall and windows of the
The shading effects of the trees on the ground building.
and on the south-facing walls and windows of the 2. Estimate the evaporation and the cooling effect of the
building. pool and the temperature of the soil directly under it.
The effects of the pool, the lawn, shrubs and flowers 3. Estimate the evaporation from the soil surface of the
in lowering the courtyard ground temperature. garden, and determine its effects on the ground
The wind-shading effects of the courtyard walls and temperature regime of the courtyard.
trees on the infiltration rate of air through the 4. Determine the wind-shading effects of the courtyard
building. walls and trees on the building walls, and estimate the
infiltration rates with variable wind directions.
The savings in the cooling energy needs of the
building due to the passive cooling features of the
courtyard were determined and were compared with 3.1. Consideration of thermal- and flow-networks for the
those of the energy conservation measures (such as wall building
and roof insulation, double-glazed windows, etc.) which
were incorporated in the building design. We considered a thermal network for the heat flow
and a flow network for the airflow through the building
[5]. In these networks we considered various nodes in the
building. The heat flow between any two nodes may be
3. Development of an energy-analysis software
expressed by
There are a number of computer softwares available Q_ ¼ DT=Rth ð1Þ
commercially for the energy analysis of buildings. To
provide a detailed analysis of the thermal performance and the airflow between any two nodes by
of the courtyard, it was necessary to develop a special
software with the desired capabilities. In addition to the V_ ¼ Dp=Rfl : ð2Þ
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92 H. Safarzadeh, M.N. Bahadori / Building and Environment 40 (2005) 89–104
heat generated by people and the equipment in the room For node ðSÞ, representing inside surface of the south
is Q_ i;lat ¼ m
_ v h0i , where h0i is the enthalpy of the generated wall in Fig. 7, we have the following relation:
vapor. T5 Ts
For solar radiation reaching a south window, we have ks;w As;w þ hc;s;w As;w ðT i T s Þ
D0s;w
the following relation:
þ hr;s;wc As;w ðT c T s Þ þ hr;s;wf As;w ðT f T s Þ
I s Ags ¼ I ref ;s;gs Ags þ I abs;s;gs Ags þ I sol;s Ags ; ð7Þ X
þ hr;s;wwi ðT wi T s Þ þ Q_ i;rads
where I refers to the solar radiation intensity, A the area i
and subscripts s for the south-facing window, gs for the D0s;w dT s
glazing, ref for that portion of solar radiation reflected, ¼ rs;w As;w C s;w : ð12Þ
2 dt
and abs to that portion absorbed by the glass. In this
In this equation Q_ i;rads represents that portion of the
equation I sol;s Ags ¼ Q_ sol;s represents the total solar
heat generated by the people and equipment in the room
radiation which passes through south-facing glass and
which is in the form of thermal radiation that is received
enters the room.
by node S. Similar relations were written for the doors
For the node representing the south-facing glazing,
and other walls of the building.
we can write the following equation (see Fig. 6):
Q_ abs;s;gs hr;gssky Ags ðT gs T sky Þ 3.3. Heat transfer through ground in courtyard and the
hr;gsgrd Ags ðT gs T grd Þ hr;gsc Ags ðT gs T c Þ basement
X
hr;gsf Ags ðT gs T f Þ hr;gswi Ags ðT gs T wi Þ To determine the heat transfer through the ground,
i
we considered a portion of the soil 10 m away from each
dT gs
hc Ags ðT gs T i Þ ¼ rgs Ags Dgs C gs ; ð8Þ of the building walls and 10 m deep, and assumed that
dt the building has heat transfer with this portion of the
where hr is the radiative heat transfer coefficient, r the soil [6]. That is, considering that the building has a floor
density, D the thickness ad C the specific heat of the of 15 8 m, the dimensions of the soil considered was
glazing. Subscripts sky and grd refer to the sky and the 35 28 m with a depth of 10 m. Furthermore, we
ground, respectively, and w to a wall, door or window in assumed that there was no heat transfer at the
the room that the south-facing glazing can have boundaries of this soil with the surrounding ground
radiative heat exchange with. [6]. Fig. 10 shows a vertical cross section of the ground
The equivalent sky temperature may be determined in east–west direction. This figure also shows the nodes
from [7]: (represented by dots) considered in the ground, and
their spacing from each other. In this figure node A is at
T sky ¼ T o ð0:8 þ 0:004T dp Þ0:25 ; ð9Þ the ground level and node B is directly under node A at
where T o and T sky are in degrees Kelvin, and the dew
point temperature T dp is in degrees Celsius.
For node (1) or the external surface of the south-
facing wall in Fig. 7, we have the following equation:
I abs;s;w As;w hr;s;wsky As;w ðT 1 T sky Þ
hr;s;wgrd As;w ðT 1 T grd Þ
ðT 1 T 2 Þ A
ho;s;w As;w ðT 1 T o Þ ks;w As;w
D0s;w
2.75
D0s;w dT 1
¼ rs;w As;w C s;w ; ð10Þ
2 dt B
10 m
z1
(i,j+1)
10 m
(k,l-1)
z2
4m
(k-1,l) B(k,l) (k+1,l)
z3
7.5 m 10 m
(k,l+1)
Node A
x1 x2
Fig. 11. A horizontal cross section at a depth of 1.1 m from the ground Fig. 13. A vertical cross section of the soil, showing the nodes A and B
showing the nodes for 1/4 of the soil around the building. and their surrounding nodes.
Shaded Area / Ac
A3 ¼ ðy1 þ y2 Þðz1 =2Þ; ð17Þ 0.6
Time = 09:00
Time = 10:00
Time = 11:00
Time = 12:00
July 15
January15 - Spherical Trees
Fig. 17. The contours of the two spherical trees on the south wall of
the building and the courtyard floor on July 15 and January 15,
assuming that the trees have kept their leaves during this month.
January 15 hours as well. Figs. 18 and 19 are similar to Fig. 17, but
are drawn for two cylindrical and conical trees,
respectively.
Fig. 20 shows the portion of the south-facing wall of
the building shaded by two trees of cylindrical, spherical
and conical shapes. Fig. 21 shows the portion of the
courtyard floor shaded by two trees of cylindrical,
spherical and conical shapes.
It should be added that in determining the shadows of
the trees on January 15 we have assumed that these trees
Fig. 16. A cross section of the building showing the presence of
have kept their leaves in this month. For the energy
spherical or cylindrical or conical trees which may be planted to its
south side. The solar beams are drawn for solar noon on July 15 and analysis of the building, however, it was assumed that
January 15, assuming that the trees have kept their leaves during this the trees have no leaves, and cast no shadows during the
month. heating months.
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98 H. Safarzadeh, M.N. Bahadori / Building and Environment 40 (2005) 89–104
Time = 09:00
Time = 10:00 Time = 09:00
Time = 11:00 Time = 10:00
Time = 12:00 Time = 11:00
Time = 12:00
January 15 - Cylindrical Trees
January 15 - Conical Trees
Fig. 18. The contours of the two cylindrical trees on the south wall of
the building and the courtyard floor on July 15 and January 15, Fig. 19. The contours of the two conical trees on the south wall of the
assuming that the trees have kept their leaves during this month. building and the courtyard floor on July 15 and January 15, assuming
that the trees have kept their leaves during this month.
3.5. Determination of the heat transfer coefficients For the external walls [9],
July 15 July 15
1 1
Cylindrical Cylindrical
Spherical 0.8 Spherical
0.8
Conical Conical
Shaded Area / Ac
Shaded Area / Ac
0.6 0.6
0.4 0.4
0.2 0.2
0 0
8 9 10 11 12 8 9 10 11 12
Time (hr) Time (hr)
January 15 January 15
1 1
Cylindrical Cylindrical
0.8 Spherical 0.8
Spherical
Conical Conical
Shaded Area / Ac
Shaded Area / Ac
0.6 0.6
0.4 0.4
0.2 0.2
0 0
8 9 10 11 12 8 9 10 11 12
Time (hr) Time (hr)
Fig. 20. The portion of the area of the south wall of the building Fig. 21. The portion of the area of the courtyard shaded by the trees
shaded by the presence of trees planted to its south side on July 15 and planted just next to the building on July 15 and January 15, assuming
January 15, assuming that the trees have kept their leaves during this that the trees have kept their leaves during this month. Area of the
month. Area of the south wall is As ¼ 54:75 m2 . courtyard is Ac ¼ 150 m2 .
For the roof [7], For vertical enclosures (for example the spaces
ho ¼ 2:8 þ 3V o : ð24Þ between the inside walls and the curtain in front of
them, or the space between the windows and the Persian
For the internal walls [9], Blinds, mounted adjacent to them on the outside) the
following equation was used to determine the natural
hc ¼ 1:31DT 0:33 : ð25Þ convection heat transfer coefficient [7]:
"
For the ceiling which is at a lower temperature than ka 3790:2 6599:2
the room air [9], hc ¼ 1 þ 1:44 1 1
D Ra Ra
hc ¼ 1:52DT 0:33 ð26Þ 0:333 ! #
Ra
þ 1 ; ð28Þ
and when it is at a higher temperature than the room air 22525:4
[9],
0:25
DT where ka is thermal conductivity of air in W/m K, D the
hc ¼ 0:59 ; ð27Þ gap in m, and Ra is the Raliegh Number, defined by
L
gDTD3
where L is a characteristic length, equal to the ratio of Ra ¼ 1 ; ð29Þ
2
the area of the surface to 12 of its perimeter. 2 ðT 1 þ T 2 ÞPra
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100 H. Safarzadeh, M.N. Bahadori / Building and Environment 40 (2005) 89–104
where g is the acceleration of gravity in m=s2 , Pr the flowing through the building reduces to
Prandtl number and a is the thermal diffusivity of the air X
V_ j ¼ 0: ð35Þ
in the gap and T 1 and T 2 are temperatures of the
j
surfaces 1 and 2, respectively. The (*) in the above
equation signifies that if the value of that parenthesis Using Eqs. (34) and (35), and knowing the wind
becomes negative, a value of zero should be selected direction and the values of the wind pressure coeffi-
for it [7]. cients, we then determined the rate of air flowing
through the building [6].
3.6. Determination of air flow rate through the building 3.7. Estimation of the hourly ambient air temperature and
due to wind effects solar radiation
Fig. 9 shows the flow network of the building, where For a more accurate estimation of the energy needs of
air may flow through the cracks or openings in the walls the building, we need to employ the weather data
of the building. The airflow through any opening ðjÞ was provided in the files called typical meteorological year
determined from [10]: (TMY). Such files are not available for Tehran, or other
pj pi cities in Iran. In the absence of TMY files, we employed
V_ j ¼ ; ð30Þ the following relations without much error [11]:
Rij
For the hourly ambient air temperature, we used
where pj indicates the wind pressure, pi the inside air 1
pressure (in excess of the atmospheric pressure) and Rij T T ¼ _ 15Þ;
At cos oðt ð36Þ
2
is the resistance for air flowing from an opening ðjÞ to
_ ¼ 2p=24 and T and At are given by
where o
the inside. The wind pressure pj (which is in excess of the
atmospheric pressure) is defined by 1
T¼ ðT x þ T n Þ; ð37Þ
1 2
pj ¼ C pj r V 2; ð31Þ
2 o o At ¼ ðT x T n Þ: ð38Þ
where ro is the density of the outside air and C pj is the In these equations T x is the mean daily maximum and
wind pressure coefficient on the wall containing the T n the mean daily minimum temperatures recorded by
opening ðjÞ. The values of C pj were determined the Weather Bureau for different months of the year for
experimentally in a boundary-layer wind tunnel. In such many cities. For the hourly solar radiation we used the
an experiment the wind pressure coefficients were following relations [7]:
determined for the building, considering the walls of I h ¼ kT I oh ; ð39Þ
the courtyard and the presence of trees adjacent to the
building [6]. I dh ¼ I h I bh ; ð40Þ
The airflow resistance Rij was obtained from [10]:
h i1=2 360N
1 I oh ¼ I sc 1 þ 0:33 cos cos yz ; ð41Þ
2 ro ðpj pi Þ 365
Rij ¼ ; ð32Þ
Aj C dj
_ 12ÞK T ;
kT ¼ ½a þ b cos oðt ð42Þ
2
where Aj is the area of crack on wall ðjÞ (in m ) and C dj a ¼ 0:409 þ 0:5016 sinðos 60Þ; ð43Þ
is called the discharge coefficient. In the above equations
ro is in kg=m3 , and p is in Pa. b ¼ 0:6607 þ 0:4767 sinðos 60Þ; ð44Þ
Defining a wind pressure coefficient according to
1 I dh =I h ¼ 1 0:249kT for kT o0:35; ð45Þ
pi ¼ C pi r V2 ð33Þ
2 o o I dh =I h ¼ 1:557 1:84kT for 0:35okT o0:75; ð46Þ
for the inside air, then by combination of the above
I dh =I h ¼ 0:177 for kT 40:75: ð47Þ
equations the flow rate of air through the opening ðjÞ
was determined by In these equations K T is the mean monthly daily
" # clearness index, kT the hourly clearness index, I oh the
C pj C pi extraterrestrial solar radiation intensity on a horizontal
V_ j ¼ Aj C dj V o pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi : ð34Þ
jC pj C pi j surface, I bh ; I dh and I h the beam, diffuse and the total
solar radiation intensity on a horizontal or the ground,
Neglecting the difference between the densities of the I sc ¼ 1353 W=m2 the solar constant, N the day number
outside and inside air, the mass balance of the air (N ¼ 1 for Jan. 1), yz the zenith angle and os is the
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Table 3
Annual cooling and heating energy needs of the main building with various energy conservation measures and passive cooling features of the
courtyard
14. For the portion of the courtyard covered with a Tehran, considering various large trees and moist
lawn, shrubs and flowers, it was assumed that the ground under them. Air temperature and relative
soil received diffuse solar radiation, had thermal humidity as wall the solar radiation were measured
radiation exchange with the grass at the ambient air under these trees).
temperature, and had heat transfer by convection
and evaporation.
15. In this case the combined effects of the pool of water 6. Conclusions
(item 13) and the garden (item 14) are considered.
16. This is an extreme case, assuming that the main Referring to Table 3 we can compare the savings in
building was located in a garden and was sur- cooling energy needs of the building resulted from the
rounded in all four sides with trees, grass, shrubs use of courtyard with the savings associated with the
and flowers. In this case it was assumed that from energy conservation measures incorporated in the design
May to October the trees were full of leaves, and of the building. We can draw the following conclusions:
were shading the building walls and windows, and
the ground surrounding it. It was further assumed 1. The courtyard considered reduced the cooling energy
that the ground surface received only diffuse needs of building by a relatively small amount. It had
radiation, had radiation exchange with the tree adverse effects on the heating energy needs of the
leaves at the ambient air temperature, and had building, increasing the heating requirements slightly.
convection and evaporation exchange with the 2. Energy conservation measures, such as insulation,
surrounding air. It was further assumed that because double-glazed windows, Persian Blinds and sealing
of the evaporation from the leaves, the ambient air tapes, saved as much on the cooling energy require-
temperature was 5
C lower than its normal values ments as various courtyard features, and at the same
during the months of May through September, and time reduced the heating energy needs of the building.
was 3
C lower during the months of April and 3. Under an extreme condition of the building to be
October. During the other months the ambient air completely surrounded by trees, shrubs and flowers,
temperature had its normal values; trees had no we had 50.5% savings on the cooling energy needs of
leaves and provided no shading for the building and the building. In such a case the heating energy
the ground. During these months, however, the requirements of the building increased by 10.9%. On
ground was covered with grass and was kept moist the other hand, with the use of insulation, double-
at all times. (It should be added that the assumption glazed windows and Persian Blinds one could have a
of lower air temperatures in the garden were based saving of 47.4% in cooling energy needs and another
on the field measurements made in several parks in saving of 76.8% in the heating. With the employment
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