Energy & Buildings 306 (2024) 113956

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Experimental investigation of thermal performance of three configurations

evaporative cooling systems (ECS) using synthetic grass wet
media materials
Sultan Alfraidi a, *, Abdelhakim Mesloub a, Mohammad Alshenaifi a, Emad Noaime a, Atef Ahriz b,
R. Boukhanouf c
a
Department of Architectural Engineering, Ha’il University, Ha’il 2440, Saudi Arabia
b
Department of Architecture, Echahid Cheikh Larbi Tebessi University, Constantine Road, Tebessa 12000, Algeria
c
University of Nottingham, Department of Architecture and Built Environment, Nottingham, UK

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Space cooling of buildings using evaporative cooling is a passive strategy that can provide thermal comfort for
Evaporative cooling occupants and conserve energy. In this paper, an innovative evaporative cooling wet media material in the form
Experiment of synthetic grass fibre mat was introduced to evaluate experimentally its effectiveness in Direct Evaporative
Wet media
Cooling (DEC), Indirect Evaporative Cooling (IEC), and Dew point evaporative cooling (DPEC). A laboratory
Synthetic grass
evaporative cooling module was constructed and tested using a fully instrumented test rig and was subject to
Hot climate
environmentally controlled conditions of air temperature and relative humidity (RH) commensurate to those
prevailing in hot and dry climates like the Middle East. The wet bulb effectiveness and cooling capacity of
evaporative coolers equipped with the new wet media material were evaluated experimentally. The results show
that these evaporative coolers performance correlate well with current technology. For instance, the ambient air
temperature is reduced by as much as 12.9 ◦ C, 10.2 ◦ C, and 10.3 ◦ C for direct, indirect, and dew point modes,
respectively. It was also shown that DEC achieved effectiveness 20 % higher than indirect evaporative coolers.
The work demonstrated that the new wet media can be a viable alternative to organic and non-organic
counterparts.

1. Introduction
The decoupling of buildings indoor climate from the surrounding
environment to deliver essential thermal comfort for occupants con­
sumes substantial amounts of energy and is one of the major contribu­
tors to climate change [1]. Today, increasing demand for buildings in
many parts of the world has caused surges of electrical power demand
particularly for space air conditioning. This is aggravated by heavy
dependence on cheap and inefficient energy intensive mechanical air
conditioning systems for thermal comfort. Therefore, the current focus is
to develop thermal comfort solutions in buildings that can deliver net
zero emission of greenhouse gases and other pollutants including high
global warming potential refrigerants [2,3]. Current mechanical air
conditioning systems are expected to remain dominant while new and
more sustainable solutions are being identified and developed [4]. The
building sector worldwide contributes 40 % of the total primary energy
consumption and the equivalent of 33 % of the carbon emitted into the
environment [5]. Therefore, in many parts of the world there is renewed
awareness to address the high energy demands, through for example
integration of passive cooling techniques in sustainable architectural
designs [6].
Indeed, for many centuries, in regions of the world with hot and dry
climates, traditional cooling methods such as evaporative cooling were
exclusively used to keep buildings cool in summer temperatures. For
example, across countries in the Middle East evaporative cooling in
building using porous water jars in wind catchers was widely practiced
[7]. Moreover, evaporative cooling has the potential to maintain effec­
tively favourable comfort levels in modern buildings and dispense full
requirement of fresh air. Being low intensive energy process, evapora­
tive cooling can reduce peak electricity demand, save as much as 75 %
on energy consumption and reduce carbon emission by 44 % compared
to vapour-compression air-conditioning [8,9]. The drawback of

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: s.alfraidi@uoh.edu.sa (S. Alfraidi).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2024.113956
Received 24 September 2023; Received in revised form 22 January 2024; Accepted 24 January 2024
Available online 28 January 2024
0378-7788/© 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
S. Alfraidi et al. Energy & Buildings 306 (2024) 113956

Table 1 Table 2
Comparison between some air-conditioning systems [25–27]. Types and properties of evaporative coolers wet media materials [7,8,29].
System type VMC cooling Evaporative cooling Material type characteristics structure
Property
Organic fibres • made from shredded
COP 2 to 3 5 to 27 (Randomly organic matter fibres
Power consumption High Medium/Low packed wet have good water
Refrigerants CFCs, HFCs Water pads) absorption properties
Environmental Impact High Low low thermal
conductivity
high porosity
evaporative cooling, however, resides in cooling performance being (>50 %)
strongly dependant on the ambient conditions of temperature and hu­
midity, limiting the application scope of the technology [10–13].
Previous research has addressed the design and performance chal­
lenges of evaporative cooling system both analytically and experimen­
tally. For instance, Kumar and his team [14] investigated the
performance of an evaporative cooling unit for varying ambient condi­
tions. The authors found that the unit performs better under dynamic
conditions than static conditions. Da Veiga, Güths, and Da Silva [15]
presented and experimentally tested a model to forecast the effective­
ness of evaporative cooling as a method to limit excessive heat gain in
buildings’ roofs. In most tests, the model was able to forecast with high
precision the heat flux passing through the porous medium. Under
specific conditions, the performance of the wet porous media can exceed Cellulose (rigid • takes the form of
that of its dry counterpart. Kowalski and Kwiecie [16] investigated cardboard rigid or corrugated
box/kraft paper
evaporative cooling (EC) systems for an imaginary Polish industrial
paper) thermal properties
building using the TRNSYS 17 software in which it evaluated six systems can vary depending
in four Polish cities (Koszalin, Lublin, Suwalki and Wroclaw). By gen­ on the specific
eralising the results, EC systems may be able to conserve energy in material and packing
Poland’s climate. Lapisa and colleagues [17] discussed the layout of Offers enhanced
water evaporation
commercial building envelopes for low-rise structures. It presented a
Multi objective optimisation using the NSGA-II approach to determine
the ideal design parameters for passive cooling solutions such as cool
roofs and nighttime natural ventilation. Alshenaifi et al., [18] proposed
a creative setup with three air outlet disposition of a passive down­
draught evaporative cooling (PDEC) tower to be investigated numeri­
cally using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software; based on the
findings, the input velocity and temperature had a substantial impact on
the quality of the interior temperature. Furthermore, He, et al., [19]
discussed a solar-powered reel dehumidifying system for evaporative
cooling. Experimental tests showed that the system can decrease the
indoor temperature and maintain the relative humidity. Dhamneya,
Rajput and Singh [20] studied the performance of an evaporative
cooling window air conditioner. The proposed solution performs better,
saving 7.39 % of energy in April and 5.18 % in March. Boukhanouf et al.,
[21] proposed a heat pipe and porous ceramic tube regenerative evap­
orative cooler prototype. It described the cooler’s construction and lab
findings. Experimental results show that the cooler air supply temper­
ature can be 14 ◦ C lower than ambient air.
Standard • high strength, low
Moosavi, Zandi, and Bidi [22] explored the cooling performance of a randomly density, and thermal
naturally ventilated house with a solar chimney and hybrid evaporative packed metal conductivity
cooling. The hybrid evaporative cooling system and solar chimney fibre wet made from copper,
lowered the atrium centre zone’s air temperature by 0.7 ◦ C. Leroux pads aluminium, and steel
The porosities
et al., [23] presented an evaporative cooling system with a porous range from 30 to 95
evaporator wall. Using a mathematical model and an experimental % and depends on
setup, evaporator material properties and their effect on cooling system metal fibre length,
performance were determined. The calculated evaporator wall power fibre diameter, and
the density
ranges from 12 to 72 W/m2. Zhang et al., [24] examined the influence of
climatic factors on the evaporative cooling of porous building materials. Porous ceramic • Have high thermal
According to their findings, the factors that had the greatest influence on conductivity
Have large contact
the evaporative cooling process are the amount of solar radiation, the area and uniform
temperature of the air, the partial pressure of the water vapour, and the water distribution
speed of the wind. Durable and high
Many study have shown that Evaporative coolers offer higher overall water-retention ca­
pacity
energy efficiency than Vapour Mechanical Compression (MVC) system,
Porosity depends
particularly when deployed in favourable climatic conditions. The VMC
(continued on next page)

2
S. Alfraidi et al. Energy & Buildings 306 (2024) 113956

Table 2 (continued ) separately [10]. One of the key components of an evaporative cooling
Material type characteristics structure system is the wet media material, which is usually made of a porous
structure of large surface area. The thermal properties of these materials
on production tem­
peratures (at baking
are characterised by their affinity to absorb and hold liquid water; as
temperature of well as enable fast evaporation [21,28]. There are many types of ma­
1250 ◦ C, a bulk terials used as wet media in evaporative coolers including metals foams,
porosity of 47 % was organic and synthetic fibres, and porous ceramics. Research works into
reported)
these types of materials and their properties are summarised in Table 2.
This paper introduces synthetic grass as wet media material in the
systems are effective in temperature and humidity control and stable form of flat mat sheets, commonly used in sport fields, landscaping,
operation, but suffer from low Coefficient of Performance (COP) and playgrounds, etc. These synthetic grass sheets are manufactured from
sever adverse environmental impact, compared to evaporative coolers plastics such as Polyethylene (PE) or Polypropylene (PP) and are
as shown in Table 1 [25–27]. structurally stable under wet conditions, high ambient temperatures,
The concept of evaporative cooling involves a complex process of and UV exposure [30,31].
heat and mass transfer between a wet surface and an air stream flowing The Synthetic grass fibres are implanted in a back support mat,
immediately over it. The air stream, often warm fresh air supply, loses its which is also made of a combination of polypropylene and polyethylene.
sensible heat in exchange for increased moisture content gained from The back mat is coated with latex to hold the grass fibres in place and
water evaporating off the wet surface. The cool air can be supplied provide rigidity. The synthetic grass fibres are then cut to required
directly to buildings (DEC) to displace warm air or used to cool indi­ height [32]. Fig. 1 shows the form of grass mats, the backing material
rectly (IEC) through a heat exchanger air supply to buildings [7]. The and the type of grass fibre shapes.
main advantage of IEC is that it supplies air humidity can be controlled

Fig. 1. Sample synthetic grass sheet and fibre forms.

Fig. 2. Typical weather condition in city of Riyadh, KSA (a) Monthly Average and maximum air temperature (b) monthly mean RH.

3
S. Alfraidi et al.
Fig. 3. Schematic representation of the experimental method.
1.1. Research gap and contribution
The adoption of synthetic grass mats in evaporative cooling systems
can potentially contribute to increasing service-life span and minimising
the requirement for maintenance. Synthetic grass fibres are made in
various shapes to provide large wet surface area and air contact for
enhanced evaporation process, are readily available and at low pro­
duction cost. The synthetic grass mats can be installed in new or as
replacement in evaporative cooling systems. Unlike organic wet media
materials used in evaporative cooling systems, synthetic grass mat rolls
do not require water or fertilizers to cultivate and are recyclable [30].
This work aims to evaluate experimentally this novel wet media material
which is produced as a synthetic grass mat in three types of evaporative
coolers: Direct Evaporative Cooling (DEC), Indirect Evaporative Cooling
(IEC), and Dew point evaporative cooling (DPEC). A comparative per­
formance analysis, in terms of system effectiveness and cooling capacity,
with similar published data of evaporative coolers was also conducted.
1.2. Target climatic condition for evaporative cooling
A further contribution of this research is to support the development
and adoption of evaporative cooling systems as a sustainable solution to
thermal comfort in buildings in hot and dry climate such as the arid and
semi-arid regions of the world. These regions are characterised by
extreme conditions of long and hot summers with temperatures often
exceeding 40◦ C, and minimal precipitation. The average atmospheric
temperatures has also been noticeably increasing due to climate change
[33]. For example, many cities across the Middle East (Riyadh, Baghdad,
Kuwait, etc.) routinely experience intense heat, with temperatures oc­
casionally surpassing 50◦ C. Fig. 2 illustrate prevailing average and
maximum temperature and mean relative humidity in the city of Riyadh,
KSA [34], where the deployment of air conditioning in buildings due to
high temperature and low relative humidity (RH) lasts from April to
October.
2. Methodology
The energy performance of a laboratory prototype evaporative
cooler using synthetic grass fibres was evaluated under controlled
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Energy & Buildings 306 (2024) 113956
climatic conditions. The experimental work made use of an environ­
mental chamber, which enabled the precise control of the temperature
and relative humidity (RH) of the air introduced into the prototype. The
test conditions were set to span the wider outdoor temperature range
prevailing in hot dry climates such as that of Middle East. To establish
full performance of the synthetic grass media material, three configu­
ration of evaporative cooling systems were considered namely Direct
Evaporative Cooling (DEC), Indirect Evaporative Cooling (IEC), and
Dew Point Evaporative Cooling (DPEC). Fig. 3 gives an outline of the
research methodology used to evaluate the performance of the experi­
mental coolers.
2.1. Description of the evaporative cooling system configurations
Each of the three configurations of evaporative cooling systems
namely, Direct evaporative cooling (DEC), Indirect evaporative cooling
(IEC) and dew point evaporative cooling (DPEC) requires a different
mechanical arrangement and layout of the airflow channels. Fig. 4
shows a schematic arrangement of the airflow channels of the three
evaporative cooling systems.
2.1.1. Direct evaporative cooling (DEC)
In the DEC mode, the hot dry ambient air inlet is located at the top
opening of the tower that houses the synthetic grass media. The ambient
air flows through the free- passages in the wet media and fully brought
into contact with sprayed water at the top of the wet channel. The cool
and saturated air is then supplied to the test room, which is cooled
through displacement ventilation. The supply air temperature of this
system is limited to the wet bulb temperature. The excess water (i.e., not
evaporated) is collected in a sump below the wet channel and recircu­
lated by a water pump, as shown in Fig. 4 (a).
2.1.2. Indirect evaporative cooling (DEC)
For the IEC mode, the airflow through the cooler is arranged into two
separate channels, the wet and dry channel, which shares a heat transfer
surface area. The ambient air is drawn into the wet and dry channels at
two separate inlets. The ambient air admitted into the wet channel un­
dergoes cooling through direct evaporation and is rejected to outside as
warm and humid air. Concurrently, the ambient air drawn in through
S. Alfraidi et al.
Fig. 4. Arrangement of tested evaporative cooling systems.
the dry channel inlet is cooled by transferring its sensible heat to the cool
wet channel wall surface and is supplied into the test room for
displacement ventilation. This arrangement has the advantage of sup­
plying cooled air, without increasing its humidity. Like the DEC
arrangement, excess water leaving the wet channel is collected in the
sump and is recirculated by a water pump, as shown in Fig. 4 (b).
2.1.3. Dew point evaporative cooling (DPEC)
The mechanical arrangement of airflow in the DPEC mode is similar
to that of the IEC mode, as it employs separate dry and wet channels.
However, in the DPEC mode, approximately 50 % of the airflow from the
outlet of the dry channel is redirected into the wet channel for the
evaporation process as it comes into contact the wet synthetic grass
media. The remaining cool and dry air from the dry channel is supplied
to the test room for displacement ventilation. This allows the air sup­
plied into the test room to be cooled to a temperature approaching the
ambient air dew point temperature without increasing its moisture
content. To control the amount of cool and dry air supply to the test
room, a damper was placed at the inlet of the wet channel. Fig. 4(c)
shows the airflow arrangement of the DPEC mode.
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Energy & Buildings 306 (2024) 113956
2.2. Laboratory rig set up
The core of the evaporative cooling system is the synthetic grass wet
media module, as shown in Fig. 5 (a). The module is made of multiple
layers of grass mat backed by a thin aluminium plate for rigidity. The
synthetic grass mats were then stacked vertically and separated by an air
gap to allow airflow in between. Depending on the mode of operation of
the evaporative cooling, the channels formed by the synthetic grass mats
and the Aluminium back plate were arranged to allow for water and air
direct contact (DEC) or wet and dry channels being separated to allow
for indirect air cooling to take place, as explained previously. Table 3
summarises the main dimension of the core module.
The full test rig onto which the synthetic grass module is integrated
was then placed on a wheeled bench to be freely moveable into the
environmental chamber in the laboratory for testing under controlled
temperature and relative humidity conditions. Fig. 5 (b, c) shows the
back and front view of the test rig with the dummy cooled test room
connected to the cooler using a flexible duct.
Furthermore, the test rig was equipped with thermocouples to
measure airflow temperatures, anemometer to measure airflow veloc­
ities and hygrometer to measure air humidity at the inlets and outlets of
S. Alfraidi et al. Energy & Buildings 306 (2024) 113956

Fig. 5. Experimental set-up test rig a) synthetic grass fibres module (b) back view (c) front view.

the dry and wet channels. A data logging station was used to record
Table 3 measured parameters at fixed time intervals. A summary of the type of
Design parameters of the synthetic grass module. instrument and their specification used in the experiment is given in
Height Width Thickness Number of Separation Table 4.
(mm) (mm) (mm) layers gap
(-) (mm) 2.3. Performance indices
Synthetic grass 800 800 3 9 –
mat The measured operating parameters of the three evaporative coolers
Backing 200 200 1 5 –
were used to calculate the cooling performance in terms of cooling
aluminum
plate
effectiveness, potential cooling capacity and COP. These energy per­
Dry channel 100 5 – – 5 formance indices can be used to compare and identify the most effective
inlet/outlet cooling solutions for a given application. The cooling effectiveness of the
Wet channel 100 5 – – 3 system was evaluated using the wet bulb effectiveness which is the ratio
inlet/outlet
of the difference between ambient air temperature and the supply air
temperature to the difference between the ambient air temperature and
its corresponding wet-bulb temperature. The wet bulb effectiveness is
expressed by the following formula:

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S. Alfraidi et al. Energy & Buildings 306 (2024) 113956

Table 4 The COP is the ratio between the cooling capacity of a cooler and the
Type of instrument and data logging. power demand to operate the cooler, which in this case is represented by
Instrument type Description of use Illustration the power load of the water pump and air circulating fan. It can be
written as:
K-type thermocouples located in the centre of
Range: –75 to + the air flow passages to Qc
250◦ C measure the temperature COP = (3)
Pp + Pf
Accuracy: +/- 2.2◦
C
where, Qc (W) is the cooling capacity, Pw (W) and Pf (W) are the water
pump and fan power demand. However, in this study, the power de­
mand of the auxiliary equipment (the water pump and ventilation fan)
were not optimised, and the COP calculation doesn’t provide a precise
RS-232 humidity and Used to measure air representation of the energy performance of evaporative coolers.
temperature meters temperature and However, in this work, the power demand of the auxiliary equipment
Temperature range: humidity of the inlet and
0 to 60◦ C outlet of the dry and wet
(the water pump and ventilation fan) were not optimised and the COP
RH range: 0–95 % channel calculation doesn’t give an accurate picture of the evaporative coolers
Accuracy: ±3% RH energy performance.
and ± 0.8 ◦ C The final important parameters measured in this work is the water
consumption rate of the evaporative coolers. The water consumption
rate of an evaporative cooler depends on mainly on airflow rate in
contact with the wet surface and the inlet and outlet moisture content of
the air. This can be calculated by the following equation [25]:

Testo 405- V1 hotwire Testo 405- V1 is a V˙a ρa ( )

V̇ w = wa,out − wa,in (4)
anemometer portable hotwire ρw
Temperature anemometer used to
Range: 0 to 50◦ C measure the flow velocity
where, V̇ w is the water evaporation (consumption) rate, m3/s;V̇ a : air
Accuracy: ±0.5◦ C at the inlet and exit of the
and ± 0.3 m/s + 5 dry and wet channel flow rate in the wet channel, m3/s;ρa is the air density, kg/m3;ρw is water
% Measured value density, kg/m3;wa,out is the moisture content of the outlet air, kg/kgdry air ;
and wa,in is the moisture content of the inlet air, kg/kgdry air .

Data logger, data- Logs temperature 2.4. Experimental testing conditions

taker model DT500, readings from the
Series 2 thermocouples and
humidity at fixed time It is well established that evaporative cooling technology is more
interval and stored data is effective in hot and dry climates. Hence, the focus of this work was to
retrieved for analysis. evaluate the suitability of the evaporator cooling system for the climatic
conditions such as those prevailing in Middle East region. As such, the
energy performance of the cooling system was tested over a range of
controlled ambient air dry bulb temperatures (30◦ C, 35◦ C, and 40◦ C)
Centrifugal liquid Water circulating pump
and air relative humidities (25, 35, and 45 %). The small-scale testing of
Pump- Model C16-
C Charles Austen
the system focuses on displacement ventilation where air in the test
220–240 V, 0.25 A, room is constantly renewed and airflow rates appropriate for this mode
50 Hz of cooling were selected. For example, the maximum airflow velocity for
direct, indirect, and dew point evaporative cooling were 2.85, 1.65, and
1.85 m/s, respectively.
Similarly, the evaporative cooling effect consumes water through
Ventilation inline-fan Air circulating fan
Vent-axia 220–240 evaporation as it is brought in direct contact with air. The water is
V, 0.21 A, 50 Hz sprayed through nozzles on the grass fibres from the top of the wet
channels and any excess water is accumulated in the sump and contin­
uously recirculated. A water flow rate of 0.5 m3/minute was selected as
it provides maximum wettability of the synthetic grass fibres surface and
minimum requirement for water recirculation.
Tin − Ts
ε= (1)
Tin − Twb 3. Results and discussion

where; ε is the wet bulb effectiveness of cooler; Tin: the Inlet ambient dry
bulb temperature (◦ C), TS: the supply temperature (◦ C) and Twb: the inlet
wet-bulb temperature (◦ C). Similarly, the Cooling capacity, Qc, of the
evaporative cooler is expressed as follows:
Qc = ṁcp (Tin − Ts ) (2)
where, ṁ is the mass flow rate (kg/s), cp is the specific heat capacity of
air (J/kg⋅◦ C), Tin is the inlet dry bulb temperature (◦ C) and Ts is the
supply dry bulb temperature(◦ C). The other important performance
index is the coefficient of performance (COP) of the evaporative cooler.
3.1. Direct evaporative cooling (DEC) Configuration
In a direct evaporative cooling mode, the supply of air into occupied
space is channelled through a wet channel and cooled to near its mois­
ture saturation wet bulb temperature. This mode of operation may be
necessary when the ambient air is very dry and the addition of moisture
into the occupied space is required. The thermal performance of the
laboratory synthetic grass fibres in direct cooling mode was evaluated at
temperatures of 30, 35 and 40 ◦ C and at corresponding RH of 25, 35 and
45 % with inlet air velocity of 2.85 m/s. The supply air is drawn in into
the test room through the cooler wet channels.

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S. Alfraidi et al. Energy & Buildings 306 (2024) 113956

Fig. 6. Steady state DEC inlet and supply air temperature (RH: 30.9 %, airflow velocity: 2.85 m/s)).

Table 5
DEC mode operating parameters.
Velocity Inlet Air Mass flow rate RH Temp Temp Temp Temp RH Effectiveness COP Cooling capacity
Inlet Air Inlet Air Supply air DB Supply air WB Supply air DP Supply air

(m/s) (kg/s) (%) (◦ C) (◦ C) (◦ C) (◦ C) (%) (-) (-) (W)

2.85 0.027 30.9 40 27.1 25.3 19.61 90.6 0.877 3.20 339.57

was recorded for inlet air of 30◦ C. Therefore, the temperature drop of
the inlet air through the cooler improved as the ambient air temperature
increased. This represents an advantage of evaporative coolers over
mechanical vapour compression cooling systems.

3.1.3. Effect of inlet air temperature and RH on effectiveness

The effectiveness of the system was calculated using the wet bulb
effectiveness formula given in Equation (1). The effect of ambient air
temperature on the effectiveness of the DEC system was further evalu­
ated at different temperatures and RH. As illustrated in Fig. 8, the
effectiveness of the DEC cooling system increased as the inlet ambient
air temperature rose. The highest effectiveness peaked at 0.97, at inlet
temperatures of 40◦ C and 45 % RH, which is very close to the maximum
limit of 100 %. However, the effect of RH on the system effectiveness
was less pronounced, as increasing ambient air RH had the opposite
effect on the trend of cooling effectiveness.
Fig. 7. Supply air temperature drop (airflow velocity: 2.85 m/s).

3.1.4. Effect of inlet temperature and RH on cooling capacity

3.1.1. Cooling performance
Under steady state operating condition of ambient inlet air temper­
ature of 40◦ C and relative humidity of 30.9 %, the air temperature of
supplied air decreased to 27.1◦ C, a 12.9◦ C drop, as shown in Fig. 6.
The overall steady state cooling performance of the direct evapora­
tive cooler is summarised in Table 5. It is shown that the supply air
temperature decreased to within 2◦ C of the wet bulb temperature (25.3◦
C) and its RH approaches full saturation (90.6 %). In addition, the wet
bulb effectiveness and cooling capacity of the DEC was estimated to be
87.7 % and 339.57 W, respectively.
3.1.2. Effect of inlet air temperature and RH on air supply temperature
The measured temperature of the DEC, shown in Fig. 7, supports the
general understanding that the effectiveness of direct evaporative
cooling is favoured when ambient temperature is high, and RH is low. As
discussed previously, at steady state operation of ambient inlet air at
40℃ and 25 % RH, a temperature drop of 12.9 ◦ C was achieved; whereas
at the same temperature and RH of 45 %, the inlet air temperature
reduction was only 10◦ C. The lowest value temperature drop (of 5.7◦ C)
In this work, the cooling capacity of the DEC system was presented
relative to the synthetic grass fibres surface area. The effect of ambient
air temperature and RH on cooling capacity is presented in Fig. 9. This
shows that the cooling capacity increases with increasing ambient air
temperature. For example, for ambient air RH of 25 %, the cooling ca­
pacity increased by about 27 % (from 110.76 to 151.59 W/m2) when the
ambient air temperature increased from 30◦ C to 40◦ C. Equally, a
similar improved cooling capacity trend can be observed for ambient air
RH of 35 and 45 %.
However, the cooling capacity of the cooler declined as the ambient
air RH increased from 25 to 45 %. This is a result of a drop in temper­
ature difference between that of ambient air and cooled supply air. For
example, at ambient air temperature of 40◦ C, the cooling capacity
declined by about 20 % as RH of the inlet air rose from 25 to 45 %.
3.2. Indirect evaporative cooling (IEC) Configuration
In this arrangement, the hot dry inlet air was forced through the dry

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S. Alfraidi et al. Energy & Buildings 306 (2024) 113956

Fig. 8. Effectiveness of DEC (airflow velocity: 2.85 m/s).

Fig. 9. Cooling Capacity DEC (airflow velocity: 2.85 m/s).

channels into the occupied space. Equally, the ambient air was circu­
lated through the wet channel to perform water evaporation and cool
the air. The airflow in the dry channel is then cooling indirectly by
transferring heat through the thin aluminium support plate separating
the two channels. The optimisation of heat transfer process between the
two airflows was not the subject of this work.
3.2.1. Cooling performance
Fig. 10 show a selected steady state inlet and supply air temperature,
which shows the IEC cooler maintains a temperature difference of 10.2◦
C.
A summary of the measured steady state temperatures, calculated
effectiveness and cooling capacity is also presented in Table 6.
3.2.2. Effect of ambient air temperature and RH on supply air temperature
and cooling effectiveness
The temperature drop through the IEC at ambient air temperature of
30, 35 and 40 ◦ C and corresponding RH of 25, 35 and 45 % while the
airflow rate was maintained at 1.65 m/s are presented in Fig. 11.
Likewise, this shows the highest temperature drops are yielded at higher
ambient temperature and lower air RH. For instance, at ambient air
temperature of 40◦ C and 25 % RH, the airflow temperature decreased
by 10.2◦ C.
In addition, Fig. 11 shows the effect on the effectiveness of the IEC
system follows a similar trend in that high effectiveness was achieved at
high ambient inlet temperature and lower RH. For instance, the effec­
tiveness of the cooler increased from 0.56 to 0.85 for ambient inlet
temperature increase from 30◦ C to 45◦ C at constant RH of 45 % and
airflow velocity of 1.65 m/s.

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S. Alfraidi et al. Energy & Buildings 306 (2024) 113956

Fig. 10. Steady state IEC inlet and supply air temperature (airflow RH: 29.1 % and velocity: 1.65 m/s).

Table 6
Measured steady state performance parameters in the IEC Configuration
Velocity RH Temp Temp Temp Temp Temp Temp RH Calculated COP Calculated cooling
Inlet Dry Inlet Dry Supply Inlet Inlet Inlet wet Outlet wet Outlet wet effectiveness capacity
Air channel Channel DB WB DP channel channel channel

m/s % ◦
C ◦
C ◦
C ◦
C ◦
C ◦
C % (-) (-) W
1.65 29.1 40.5 30.3 25.4 19.09 40.5 32.1 87.7 0.67 1.47 155.4

Fig. 11. IEC cooler Effectiveness and air temperature drop (airflow velocity: 1.65 m/s).

3.2.3. Effect of ambient inlet temperature and RH on cooling capacity
The influence of ambient air temperature and RH on the cooling
capacity of the cooler is shown in Fig. 12. This shows that the cooling
capacity of the IEC increases with increasing ambient inlet-air temper­
ature. Conversely, the cooling capacity decreases with increasing air RH.
For instance, at inlet air RH of 25 %, the cooling capacity increased from
49.4 to 69.39 W/m2 as inlet air temperature increased from 30 to 40 ◦ C.
In contrast, at ambient inlet temperature of 30◦ C, the cooling capacity
decreased from 49.4 to 31.5 W/m2.
3.3. Dewpoint evaporative cooling operation mode
DPEC coolers have the advantage of supplying cooled air at tem­
perature below wet bulb temperature of ambient inlet air by sacrificing a
portion (up to 50 %) of the dry channel cool outlet air for doing the
evaporation work in the wet channel.
3.3.1. Cooling performance
Like in the previous cases, the steady state inlet and supply air
temperature of the DPEC was recorded, as shown in Fig. 13. The cooler
maintains an operating temperature difference of 10.3◦ C when the inlet

10
S. Alfraidi et al. Energy & Buildings 306 (2024) 113956

3.3.3. Effect of inlet air temperature and RH on effectiveness

The effect of inlet air temperature and RH on the effectiveness of the
cooling tower in DPEC mode is shown in Fig. 15. The wet bulb effec­
tiveness increases as the ambient air temperature increases. The highest
wet bulb effectiveness is 0.67 at an ambient air temperature of 40◦ C,
while the lowest value is 0.53 at 30◦ C. the effect ambient air RH
however does not show a clear correlation.

3.3.4. Effect of ambient inlet air temperature and RH on cooling capacity

Fig. 12. IEC cooler system Cooling capacity (airflow velocity: 1.65 m/s).
air temperature and RH are held at 41.8◦ C and 27.4 %, respectively.
Further details of measured operating parameters of the DPEC are
summarised in Table 7. This shows that supply air temperature (31.5◦ C)
is higher than the ambient air wet bulb temperature (25.5 ◦ C), which
indicates that the cooler did not achieve the sub wet bulb temperature
condition. Equally, the wet bulb effectiveness and cooling capacity were
0.67 and 174.4 W respectively. A full optimisation of the design to
operate in this mode would be required to improve its performance and
achieve cooling air temperature below the corresponding wet bulb
temperatures.
3.3.2. Effect of inlet air temperature and RH on supply air temperature
The effect of ambient air temperature and RH on the temperature of
the air supply is shown in Fig. 14. Similar trends to previous coolers
arrangements were observed in this case too. For example, inlet ambient
air temperature at 40◦ C and RH of 25, 35 and 45 % achieved a drop in
supply air temperature of 10.3, 9 and 7.6◦ C, respectively. Additionally,
at ambient RH of 25 % and temperature of 30, 35 and 40◦ C, the ambient
air temperatures decreased by 10.3, 9.8 and 7.9◦ C, respectively.
The measured cooling capacity of the DPEC arrangement is illus­
trated in Fig. 16. This shows that the cooling capacity increases as
ambient air temperature increases. The maximum cooling capacity was
achieved at 40◦ C and RH 25 %.
Likewise, it can be observed that the cooling capacity of the cooler
increased as the air RH decreased. For example, the cooling capacity
declined from 77.8 to 56.4 W as ambient air RH decreased from 45 % to
25 %.
3.4. Comparative performance and discussion
The experimental results compared the cooling capacity and supply
air temperature reduction of three evaporative cooler designs using
synthetic grass fibres as wet media, against published research by Musa
[35], Ibrahim [36], Ford et al., [37] and Boukhanouf et al., [38]. These
referenced works examined evaporative coolers with porous ceramic
panels, as shown in Fig. 17. The synthetic grass material used in this
work produced higher cooling capacities and supply air temperature
reduction in DEC cooling mode. However, in IEC and DPEC operating
mode, the cooling capacity and air temperature performance is slightly
lower than existing reported data.
A further relevant comparison is evaluating water consumption of
the synthetic grass wet media material and published work. Fig. 18
shows that the proposed material has high water consumption rate and
slightly lower effectiveness compared to previously reviewed works. The
high-water consumption rate is mainly due to low water retention of
synthetic grass fibres compared to low porosity ceramics or organic

Fig. 13. Steady state DPEC inlet and supply air temperature (RH: 27.4 % and airflow velocity: 1.85 m/s).

Table 7
Dewpoint evaporative cooling mode operating parameters.
Velocity RH Temp Temp Temp Temp Temp Temp RH Calculated COP Calculated cooling
Inlet Dry Inlet Dry Supply Inlet Inlet Inlet wet Outlet wet Outlet wet effectiveness capacity
Air channel Channel DB WB DP channel channel channel

m/s % ◦
C ◦
C ◦
C ◦
C ◦
C ◦
C % (-) W
1.85 27.4 40.8 31.5 25.5 19.22 31.5 33.3 86.1 0.67 1.65 174.4

11
S. Alfraidi et al. Energy & Buildings 306 (2024) 113956

Fig. 14. Supply air temperature reduction (air velocity: 1.85 m/s).

Fig. 15. Effectiveness of DPEC (airflow velocity: 1.85 m/s).

media. The synthetic grass fibres mats used in this work are designed for √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
( )2 ( )2 ( )
outdoor sport surface that allow fast drainage of rainwater. e Qc
=
eTin
+
eTs
+
ev 2
(6)
Qc Tin Ts v
3.5. Uncertainty analysis
where e is the thermocouple accuracy error, T is the measured temper­
The reliability of the presented experimental data was further ana­ ature, ev is the velocity reading accuracy error, and v is the measured
lysed considering the instruments and sensors individual precision and velocity.
combining them to estimate the overall uncertainty of the calculated key The results of the uncertainty calculation are given in Table 8. The
performance indices. This is critical for the consistency and reproduc­ results show that the relative uncertainty of effectiveness ranges from
ibility of measurements under identical conditions. The respective un­ 3.04 to 3.23 % indicating acceptable level of precision of the measured
certainty of the calculated effectiveness and cooling capacity can be results of the three evaporative coolers. The relative uncertainty of
expressed as [39]: calculating the cooling capacity was however slightly high ranging from
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ 10.76 to 18.30 %. This is greatly influenced by the accuracy (±0.3 m/s)
eεwb
( )2 ( )2 (
eTin eTs eTwb
)2 of the instrument used to measure the airflow velocity in the air ducts
= + + (5) and the difficulty in obtaining a uniform airflow in narrow ducts.
εwb Tin Ts Twb

12
S. Alfraidi et al.
Fig. 16. Cooling Capacity DPEC cooler system.
Fig. 17. Comparison of experimental results of capacity and temperature drop (ambient air temperature: 40◦ C and RH: 25%.
4. Research limitations
This work used experimentation to investigate the use of synthetic
grass fibres as wet media in evaporative coolers. The experimental re­
sults show overall the performance of this type of media material is
consistent and be used as a springboard for further research. One area is
to consider theoretical analysis and heat transfer optimisation of the
synthetic grass fibre structure, backing plate thickness and wet and dry
channels separation gap. Equally, the uncertainty analysis revealed that
the measured cooling capacity accuracy could be improved by using
more accurate anemometer in measuring the airflow velocity. Finally,
the energy consumption of auxiliary equipment such as fans and water
circuiting pump could be considered, and the overall coefficient per­
formance of the cooler be used as an additional performance index.
5. Conclusions
This research seeks to advance the design of evaporative cooling
13
Energy & Buildings 306 (2024) 113956
technology by investigating experimentally the performance of novel
wet media material in the form of synthetic grass mats. A purpose lab­
oratory test rig was built to test a synthetic grass fibre module in three
modes of operation: DEC, IDE and DPEC. The effectiveness and cooling
capacity the three arrangements were evaluated under controlled con­
ditions of temperature, humidity, and airflow rate. The experimental
results demonstrated consistency when compared to published work.
This work yielded several key insights that can be summarized as
follows:
• The synthetic grass fibres present a viable wet media material
alternative for evaporative cooling systems that can enhance service
life with maintenance.
• The three modes of operation of evaporative cooling achieved
effectiveness ranging from 0.67 to 0.87. Similarly, the measured
maximum temperature drop in the coolers ranges from 10.1◦ C to
12.9◦ C.
S. Alfraidi et al. Energy & Buildings 306 (2024) 113956

Fig. 18. Comparison results of water consumption and effectiveness (ambient air temperature: 35 ◦ C and RH: 35 %).

Table 8
Relative uncertainty calculation for the evaporative cooling modes.
Inlet Air Inlet Air Supply air DB Supply air WB Effectiveness Effectiveness relative Cooling Cooling capacity relative
Velocity Temp Temp Temp uncertainty capacity uncertainty

(m/s) (◦ C) (◦ C) (◦ C) (%) (%) (W) (%)

DEC 2.85 40 27.1 25.3 0.87 3.23 339.57 10.76

IEC 1.65 40.5 30.3 25.5 0.67 3.10 155.4 18.30
DPEC 1.85 41.8 31.5 25.5 0.67 3.04 174.4 16.34

• The correlation between decreasing supply air temperature as Data availability

ambient inlet air temperature increases demonstrates the principle of
evaporative cooling as an appropriate technology for hot and dry
climates.
• The evaporative cooling systems also achieved high cooling capac­
ities ranging from 155.4 to 339.57 W. However, the system cooling
capacity is reduced as air relative humidity increases, which suggest
that local climatic conditions are a critical parameter for the per­
formance of evaporative cooling systems.
• The experimental work showed that the Direct Evaporative Cooling
(DEC) mode achieved higher performance. For instance, the tem­
perature drop was nearly 20 % greater that Indirect Evaporative
Cooling (IEC) mode, albeit at the expense of increasing the air
moisture content.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Sultan Alfraidi: Writing – original draft, Methodology, Formal
analysis, Conceptualization. Abdelhakim Mesloub: Writing – review &
editing, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Resources, Visu­
alization. Mohammad Alshenaifi: Resources, Investigation, Data
curation. Emad Noaime: Resources, Investigation. Atef Ahriz: Re­
sources, Methodology, Data curation. R. Boukhanouf: Writing – orig­
inal draft, Writing – review & editing, Methodology, Validation,
Supervision, Conceptualization, Formal analysis.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data will be made available on request.
Acknowledgements
This research has been funded by Scientific Research Deanship at
University of Ha’il - Saudi Arabia through project number -RG-23 018-
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Downloaded on 3/12/2024 12:43:31

2022 Journal Performance Data for:

ENERGY AND BUILDINGS
ISSN EISSN
0378-7788 1872-6178

JCR ABBREVIATION ISO ABBREVIATION

ENERG BUILDINGS Energy Build.

Journal Information
EDITION
Science Citation Index
Expanded (SCIE)
CATEGORY
ENGINEERING, CIVIL - SCIE
ENERGY & FUELS - SCIE
CONSTRUCTION & BUILDING
TECHNOLOGY - SCIE

LANGUAGES REGION 1ST ELECTRONIC JCR YEAR

English SWITZERLAND 1997

Publisher Information
PUBLISHER ADDRESS PUBLICATION FREQUENCY
ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA PO BOX 564, 1001 LAUSANNE, 24 issues/year
SWITZERLAND

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Journal's Performance

Journal Impact Factor

The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is a journal-level metric calculated from data indexed in the Web of
Science Core Collection. It should be used with careful attention to the many factors that influence
citation rates, such as the volume of publication and citations characteristics of the subject area and
type of journal. The Journal Impact Factor can complement expert opinion and informed peer review.
In the case of academic evaluation for tenure, it is inappropriate to use a journal-level metric as a
proxy measure for individual researchers, institutions, or articles. Learn more

2022 JOURNAL IMPACT FACTOR 2022 JOURNAL IMPACT FACTOR WITHOUT SELF CITATIONS

6.7 5.9

Journal Impact Factor Trend 2022

Journal Citation Reports ™ 2-24 © 2024 Clarivate

 Journal Impact Factor is calculated using the following metrics

Citations in 2022 to items published in 2020 (5,665) -

2021 (5,797) 11,462
= = 6.7
Number of citable items in 2020 (705) + 2021 (1,000) 1,705

Journal Impact Factor without self cites is calculated using the following metrics

Citations in 2022 to items published in 2020 (5,665) +

2021 (5,797) - Self Citations in 2022 to items published
in 2020 (639) + 2021 (769) 11,462 -
1,408
= = 5.9
Number of citable items in 2020 (705) + 2021 (1,000) 1,705

Journal Citation Reports ™ 3-24 © 2024 Clarivate

Journal Impact Factor Contributing Items

Citable Items (1,705)

TITLE CITATION COUNT

Recent progress on urban overheating and heat island research. Integrated 90

assessment of the energy, environmental, vulnerability and health impact.
Synergies with the global climate change
Authors: Santamouris, M.
Volume: 207
Accession number: WOS:000508491900021
Document Type: Article

Review of 50 years of EU energy efficiency policies for buildings 72

Authors: Economidou, M.;Todeschi, V;Bertoldi, P.;D'Agostino, D.;Zangheri,
P.;Castellazzi, L.
Volume: 225
Accession number: WOS:000573302800003
Document Type: Review

A review of the -state-of-the-art in data -driven approaches for building energy 65

prediction
Authors: Sun, Ying;Haghighat, Fariborz;Fung, Benjamin C. M.
Volume: 221
Accession number: WOS:000542372900001
Document Type: Review

Fault detection and diagnosis of large-scale HVAC systems in buildings using 62

data-driven methods: A comprehensive review
Authors: Mirnaghi, Maryam Sadat;Haghighat, Fariborz
Volume: 229
Accession number: WOS:000582959200012
Document Type: Review

Enhanced thermophysical properties of organic PCM through shape 56

stabilization for thermal energy storage in buildings: A state of the art review
Authors: Rathore, Pushpendra Kumar Singh;Shukla, Shailendra Kumar
Volume: 236
Accession number: WOS:000634883100005
Document Type: Review

Showing 1-5 rows of 1,705 total (use export in the relevant section to download the full table)

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Journal Impact Factor Contributing Items

Citing Sources (1,008)

SOURCE NAME COUNT

ENERGY AND BUILDINGS 1,408

BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT 1,050

ENERGIES 703

JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING 508

BUILDINGS 501

ENERGY 444

SUSTAINABILITY 438

APPLIED ENERGY 291

SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SOCIETY 278

APPLIED THERMAL ENGINEERING 257

JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION 230

RENEWABLE & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY REVIEWS 216

ENERGY REPORTS 215

JOURNAL OF ENERGY STORAGE 169

RENEWABLE ENERGY 140

ENERGY CONVERSION AND MANAGEMENT 139

BUILDING SIMULATION 126

SUSTAINABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES AND ASSESSMENTS 110

APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL 107

CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING MATERIALS 84

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Journal Citation Indicator (JCI)
1.2
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citable items (articles & reviews) published by a journal over a recent three year period. The average
JCI in a category is 1. Journals with a JCI of 1.5 have 50% more citation impact than the average in
that category. It may be used alongside other metrics to help you evaluate journals. Learn more

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Total Citations
59,418
The total number of times that a journal has been cited by all journals included in the database in the
JCR year. Citations to journals listed in JCR are compiled annually from the JCR years combined
database, regardless of which JCR edition lists the journal.

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Citation Distribution
The Citation Distribution shows the frequency with which items published in the year or two years
prior were cited in the JCR data year (i.e., the component of the calculation of the JIF). The graph has
similar functionality as the JIF Trend graph, including hover-over data descriptions for each data
point, and an interactive legend where each data element's legend can be used as a toggle. You can
view Articles, Reviews, or Non-Citable (other) items to the JIF numerator. Learn more

ARTICLE CITATION MEDIAN REVIEW CITATION MEDIAN UNLINKED CITATIONS

5 14 146

0 times cited
ARTICLES REVIEWS OTHER

87 0 9

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Open Access (OA)

The data included in this tile summarizes the items published in the journal in the JCR data year and
in the previous two years. This three-year set of published items is used to provide descriptive
analysis of the content and community of the journal.Learn more

Items
TOTAL CITABLE % OF CITABLE OA

2,490 16.02%

CITABLE NON-CITABLE

GOLD OPEN ACCESS OTHER (NON-CITABLE ITEMS)

399 / 15.92% 16 / 0.64%

SUBSCRIPTION OR BRONZE
2,091 / 83.44%

Citations*
TOTAL CITABLE % OF CITABLE OA

12,552 15.31%

CITABLE NON-CITABLE

GOLD OPEN ACCESS OTHER (NON-CITABLE ITEMS)

1,922 / 15.05% 2 / 0.02%

SUBSCRIPTION OR BRONZE UNLINKED CITATIONS

10,630 / 83.24% 217 / 1.70%

* Citations in 2022 to items published in (2020-2022)

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Rank by Journal Impact factor
Journals within a category are sorted in descending order by Journal Impact Factor (JIF) resulting in
the Category Ranking below. A separate rank is shown for each category in which the journal is listed
in JCR. Data for the most recent year is presented at the top of the list, with other years shown in
reverse chronological order. Learn more

EDITION EDITION
Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE)
CATEGORY CATEGORY
CONSTRUCTION & BUILDING TECHNOLOGY ENERGY & FUELS
10/68 37/119
JCR JIF RANK QUART JIF PERCENTILE JCR JIF RANK QUART JIF PERCENTILE
YEAR ILE YEAR ILE
2022 10/68 Q1 86.0 2022 37/119 Q2 69.3
2021 8/68 Q1 88.97 2021 36/119 Q2 70.17
2020 9/67 Q1 87.31 2020 36/114 Q2 68.86
2019 7/63 Q1 89.68 2019 31/112 Q2 72.77
2018 7/63 Q1 89.68 2018 28/103 Q2 73.30
2017 5/62 Q1 92.74 2017 22/97 Q1 77.84
2016 5/61 Q1 92.62 2016 20/92 Q1 78.80
2015 6/61 Q1 90.98 2015 31/88 Q2 65.34
2014 5/59 Q1 92.37 2014 30/89 Q2 66.85
2013 6/58 Q1 90.52 2013 36/83 Q2 57.23
2012 4/57 Q1 93.86 2012 26/81 Q2 68.52
2011 6/56 Q1 90.18 2011 27/81 Q2 67.28
2010 4/53 Q1 93.40 2010 30/79 Q2 62.66
2009 6/49 Q1 88.78 2009 31/71 Q2 57.04
2008 3/38 Q1 93.42 2008 25/67 Q2 63.43
2007 7/34 Q1 80.88 2007 32/64 Q2 50.78
2006 6/33 Q1 83.33 2006 27/62 Q2 57.26
2005 6/31 Q1 82.26 2005 32/63 Q3 50.00
2004 5/31 Q1 85.48 2004 23/61 Q2 63.11
2003 9/29 Q2 70.69 2003 32/62 Q3 49.19
2002 10/29 Q2 67.24 2002 30/63 Q2 53.17
2001 13/27 Q2 53.70 2001 34/66 Q3 49.24
2000 11/28 Q2 62.50 2000 32/66 Q2 52.27
1999 19/26 Q3 28.85 1999 44/64 Q3 32.03
1998 9/25 Q2 66.00 1998 27/67 Q2 60.45
1997 14/20 Q3 32.50 1997 43/58 Q3 26.72

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EDITION
Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE)
CATEGORY
ENGINEERING, CIVIL
12/139
JCR JIF RANK QUART JIF PERCENTILE
YEAR ILE
2022 12/139 Q1 91.7
2021 8/138 Q1 94.57
2020 9/137 Q1 93.80
2019 5/134 Q1 96.64
2018 5/132 Q1 96.59
2017 3/128 Q1 98.05
2016 3/125 Q1 98.00
2015 6/126 Q1 95.63
2014 6/125 Q1 95.60
2013 9/124 Q1 93.15
2012 7/122 Q1 94.67
2011 7/118 Q1 94.49
2010 11/115 Q1 90.87
2009 13/106 Q1 88.21
2008 9/91 Q1 90.66
2007 23/89 Q2 74.72
2006 22/83 Q2 74.10
2005 34/80 Q2 58.13
2004 19/79 Q1 76.58
2003 27/73 Q2 63.70
2002 25/71 Q2 65.49
2001 29/63 Q2 54.76
2000 27/63 Q2 57.94
1999 42/62 Q3 33.06
1998 N/A N/A N/A
1997 N/A N/A N/A

Journal Citation Reports ™ 11-24 © 2024 Clarivate

Rank by Journal Citation Indicator (JCI)
Journals within a category are sorted in descending order by Journal Citation Indicator (JCI)
resulting in the Category Ranking below. A separate rank is shown for each category in which the
journal is listed in JCR. Data for the most recent year is presented at the top of the list, with other
years shown in reverse chronological order.Learn more

CATEGORY CATEGORY
CONSTRUCTION & BUILDING TECHNOLOGY ENERGY & FUELS
13/89 34/155
JCR JCI RANK QUART JCI PERCENTILE JCR JCI RANK QUART JCI PERCENTILE
YEAR ILE YEAR ILE
2022 13/89 Q1 85.96 2022 34/155 Q1 78.39
2021 12/89 Q1 87.08 2021 26/145 Q1 82.41
2020 13/87 Q1 85.63 2020 25/133 Q1 81.58
2019 9/87 Q1 90.23 2019 17/132 Q1 87.50
2018 8/85 Q1 91.18 2018 16/131 Q1 88.17
2017 8/82 Q1 90.85 2017 14/126 Q1 89.29

CATEGORY
ENGINEERING, CIVIL
25/179
JCR JCI RANK QUART JCI PERCENTILE
YEAR ILE
2022 25/179 Q1 86.31
2021 21/175 Q1 88.29
2020 21/172 Q1 88.08
2019 13/172 Q1 92.73
2018 10/170 Q1 94.41
2017 11/168 Q1 93.75

Journal Citation Reports ™ 12-24 © 2024 Clarivate

Citation network
Cited Half-life
6.2 years
The Cited Half-Life is the median age of the items in this journal that were cited in the JCR year. Half
of a journal's cited items were published more recently than the cited half-life.

TOTAL NUMBER OF CITES NON-SELF CITATIONS SELF CITATIONS

59,418 53,550 5,868

# OF CITES FROM CUMULATIVE # OF CITING

2022 % SOURCES

59,418 citations 100.00% 2,300 sources

1,309 citations 2.20% 248 sources

5,797 citations 11.96% 652 sources
5,665 citations 21.49% 725 sources
4,702 citations 29.41% 692 sources
5,466 citations 38.61% 777 sources
5,476 citations 47.82% 791 sources
5,490 citations 57.06% 784 sources
4,377 citations 64.43% 652 sources
4,075 citations 71.29% 648 sources
2,800 citations 76.00% 503 sources

Previous years:
14,261 citations

Journal Citation Reports ™ 13-24 © 2024 Clarivate

Citing titles in all years
ENERGY AND BUILDINGS
SOURCE NAME COUNT

All Others 857

1 ENERGY AND BUILDINGS 5,868

2 BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT 4,644

3 Energies 3,484

4 Buildings 2,563

5 Journal of Building Engineering 2,524

6 Sustainability 2,197

7 Energy 1,864

8 APPLIED ENERGY 1,413

9 RENEWABLE & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY REVIEWS 1,343

10 Sustainable Cities and Society 1,223

11 Journal of Energy Storage 1,110

12 APPLIED THERMAL ENGINEERING 1,090

13 Journal of Cleaner Production 1,081

14 Energy Reports 985

15 Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 718

16 Renewable Energy 655

17 Applied Sciences-Basel 641

18 ENERGY CONVERSION AND MANAGEMENT 610

19 Construction and Building Materials 569

20 Building Simulation 528

Showing 1 - 20 rows of 1318 total (use export in the relevant section to download the full table)

Journal Citation Reports ™ 14-24 © 2024 Clarivate

Citing Half-life
5.7 years
The Citing Half-Life is the median age of items in other publications cited by this journal in the JCR
year.

TOTAL NUMBER OF CITES NON-SELF CITATIONS SELF CITATIONS

45,059 39,191 5,868

# OF CITES FROM CUMULATIVE # OF CITED

2022 % SOURCES

45,059 citations 100.00% 11,748 sources

1,424 citations 3.16% 465 sources
5,247 citations 14.81% 1,387 sources
5,431 citations 26.86% 1,533 sources
4,205 citations 36.19% 1,311 sources
3,790 citations 44.60% 1,178 sources
3,466 citations 52.29% 1,069 sources
2,811 citations 58.53% 896 sources
2,451 citations 63.97% 815 sources
2,129 citations 68.70% 739 sources
1,622 citations 72.30% 683 sources
Previous years:
12,483 citations

Journal Citation Reports ™ 15-24 © 2024 Clarivate

Cited titles in all years
ENERGY AND BUILDINGS
SOURCE NAME COUNT

All Others 9,464

1 ENERGY AND BUILDINGS 5,868

2 BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT 2,694

3 APPLIED ENERGY 2,082

4 RENEWABLE & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY REVIEWS 1,243

5 Energy 1,218

6 APPLIED THERMAL ENGINEERING 772

7 Renewable Energy 660

8 Solar Energy 622

9 Energy Policy 603

10 Sustainable Cities and Society 590

11 ENERGY CONVERSION AND MANAGEMENT 571

12 Journal of Building Engineering 562

13 Energies 500

14 Journal of Cleaner Production 498

15 Building Simulation 311

16 Sustainability 306

17 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER 270

18 Construction and Building Materials 248

19 SOLAR ENERGY MATERIALS AND SOLAR CELLS 200

20 BUILDING RESEARCH AND INFORMATION 190

Showing 1 - 20 rows of 1147 total (use export in the relevant section to download the full table)

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Journal Citation Relationships
Cited Data
Top 20 journals citing ENERG BUILDINGS by number of citations

Journal Citation Reports ™ 17-24 © 2024 Clarivate

Citing Data
Top 20 journals cited by ENERG BUILDINGS by number of citations

Journal Citation Reports ™ 18-24 © 2024 Clarivate

Content metrics
Source data
This tile shows the breakdown of document types published by the journal. Citable Items are Articles
and Reviews. For the purposes of calculating JIF, a JCR year considers the publications of that
journal in the two prior years. Learn more

785 total citable items

ARTICLES REVIEWS COMBINED (C) OTHER PERCENTAGE

DOCUMENT
TYPES (O)

NUMBER IN JCR 749 36 785 6 99%

YEAR 2022 (A)

NUMBER OF 40,430 4,536 44,966 93 100%

REFERENCES (B)

RATIO (B/A) 54.0 126.0 57.3 15.5

Average JIF Percentile

The Average Journal Impact Factor Percentile takes the sum of the JIF Percentile rank for each
category under consideration, then calculates the average of those values. Learn more

ALL CATEGORIES AVERAGE EDITION

82.3 Science Citation Index Expanded

ENERGY & FUELS

69.3
CONSTRUCTION & BUILDING
TECHNOLOGY

86.0
ENGINEERING, CIVIL

91.7

Journal Citation Reports ™ 19-24 © 2024 Clarivate

Contributions by Organizations
Organizations that have contributed the most papers to the journal in the most recent three-year
period. Learn more

RANK ORGANIZATION COUNT

1 TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY 109

2 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF 90

ENERGY (DOE)

3 TONGJI UNIVERSITY 58

4 XI'AN UNIVERSITY OF ARCHITECTURE 55

& TECHNOLOGY

5 CHONGQING UNIVERSITY 54

6 HUNAN UNIVERSITY 52

7 TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF DENMARK 47

8 TIANJIN UNIVERSITY 45

Showing 1 - 8 rows of 1975 total (use export in the relevant section to download the full table)

Contributions by country/region
Countries or Regions that have contributed the most papers to the journal in the most recent three-
year period. Learn more

RANK COUNTRY/REGION COUNT

1 CHINA MAINLAND 921

2 USA 342

3 England 191

4 Canada 158

5 Italy 156

6 Spain 117

7 Australia 106

8 GERMANY (FED REP GER) 105

Showing 1 - 8 rows of 88 total (use export in the relevant section to download the full table)

Journal Citation Reports ™ 20-24 © 2024 Clarivate

Additional metrics
Eigenfactor score
0.03526
The Eigenfactor Score is a reflection of the density of the network of citations around the journal
using 5 years of cited content as cited by the Current Year. It considers both the number of citations
and the source of those citations, so that highly cited sources will influence the network more than
less cited sources. The Eigenfactor calculation does not include journal self-citations. Learn more

Normalized Eigenfactor
7.67443
The Normalized Eigenfactor Score is the Eigenfactor score normalized, by rescaling the total number
of journals in the JCR each year, so that the average journal has a score of 1. Journals can then be
compared and influence measured by their score relative to 1. Learn more

Journal Citation Reports ™ 21-24 © 2024 Clarivate

Article influence score
0.980
The Article Influence Score normalizes the Eigenfactor Score according to the cumulative size of the
cited journal across the prior five years. The mean Article Influence Score for each article is 1.00. A
score greater than 1.00 indicates that each article in the journal has above-average influence. Learn
more

Journal Citation Reports ™ 22-24 © 2024 Clarivate

5 year Impact Factor
6.6
The 5-year Impact Factor is the average number of times articles from the journal published in the
past five years have been cited in the JCR year. It is calculated by dividing the number of citations in
the JCR year by the total number of articles published in the five previous years.

5 year Impact Factor calculation

Citations in 2022 to items published in [2017-2021]

(27,106) 27,106
= = 6.6
Number of citable items in [2017-2021] (4,095) 4,095

Journal Citation Reports ™ 23-24 © 2024 Clarivate

Immediacy Index
1.7
The Immediacy Index is the count of citations in the current year to the journal that reference content
in this same year. Journals that have a consistently high Immediacy Index attract citations rapidly.
Learn more

Immediacy Index calculation

Cites in 2022 to items published in [2022]

1,309
= = 1.7
Number of items published in [2022] 785

Journal Citation Reports ™ 24-24 © 2024 Clarivate