ASME - GREEK SECTION, First Nat. Conf. on Recent Advances in Mech. Eng.
, September 17-20, 2001, Patras, Greece
Proceedings of First Nat. Conf. on Recent Advances in Mech. Eng.
COOLING SAVINGS IN BUILDINGS WITH VEGETATIVE CEILING
Michalis Gr. Vrachopoulos
TEI Chalkidos, Department of Mechanical Engin.,
Nirvana 29, 111 45 Patisia, Athens, Hellas.
Tel. & Fax: 01 8324020, e-mail: mvrachop@teihal.gr
Dionisios P. Margaris
University of Patras, Department of Mechanical and
Aeronautical Engineering, Fluid Mechanics Lab.,
26500 Patras, Hellas.
Tel. & Fax: 061 997202, e-mail: margaris@mech.upatras.gr
ABSTRACT
The cooling effect of the greenery roof is investigated
through computer simulations. The mathematical modeling is
described by the one-dimensional non-steady state heat
conduction equation for a multi-layer plane walls without and
with a green canopy. The proposed calculation model making
use of temperature measurements on full-scale models,
evaluates the cooling load as well as the energy benefit for the
last floor of a building that is covered by a green canopy.
KEYWORDS
Green roof, Cooling load, Computer simulation.
INTRODUCTION
Environmental problems related to urban areas that
produce large amounts and many kinds of wastes are some of
the current research topics. In big cities, which are energy
intensive units, a vicious circle is established because waste
heat from the air-conditioning units used to cool buildings
drives up the city temperature, which then requires larger
cooling load for buildings. Unfortunately, the almost worldwide
trend in building construction exhibits no provision of green
roof. Based on the gathering of population in large cities, the
usual practice for built-up areas leads to a characteristic
decrease of green, accrual of the average weight of the area
materials, development of strong solar energy reflections,
decrease of oxygen production and carbon dioxide
1
September 17-20, 2001, Patras, Greece
ANG1/P160
Andronicos E. Filios
University of Patras, Department of Mechanical and
Aeronautical Engineering, Fluid Mechanics Lab.,
26500 Patras, Hellas.
Tel. & Fax: 061 997202, e-mail: afilio@tee.gr
Evgenios Fenekos
University of Patras, Department of Mechanical and
Aeronautical Engineering, Fluid Mechanics Lab.,
26500 Patras, Hellas.
Tel. & Fax: 061 997202, e-mail: nioan@tee.gr
consumption. The main characteristic of the above is the
development of a suffocating climate in large cities, mainly in
summer with the corresponding increate of pollution
temperature reversion and creation of green house conditions.
It is a well-known fact that by evapotranspiration, large
amounts of solar radiation can be converted into latent heat that
prevents the temperature rise. One way to increase
evapotranspiration surface area in big cities is to cover the
ceiling of the buildings with vegetative greenery. Greenery
cover over a building has a cooling effect on the surroundings
and also reduces the cooling load for inside the buildings.
Preliminary experiments showed rather large cooling effects of
rooftop greenery by Theodosiou et al [1], Evmorfopoulou et al
[2], Harazono and Ikeda [3], and Ishihara and Chou [4].
Research on this subject was thoroughly reviewed by Meir
[5,7]. It was reported that in experimental measurements, the
savings produced by the various coverings varied widely due to
weather and vegetation differences, but the results were not
quantitatively analyzed. Simulation models have not yet been
developed to evaluate cooling requirements of buildings.
In the present paper, the thermal behavior of the last floor
of a building due to its cover with vegetative greenery is
investigated. In order to evaluate the green roof effect,
calculations are also conducted for an ordinary-bare roof. The
simulations utilize published measurements [1,2] for both types
of a full-scale roof. The measurements were conducted during a
 ASME - GREEK SECTION, First Nat. Conf. on Recent Advances in Mech. Eng., September 17-20, 2001, Patras, Greece

period of two months, July and September of 1998, in

Thessaloniki. The conducted preliminary simulations take q&j =
kj
Lj
[T j − T j+1 ] (4)
provision for the air-conditioning of the below space through
the specification of the indoor conditions that are Tdb = 26oC where kj is the thermal conductivity of the j-layer, Tj is the j-
and φ=50%.
layer’s mean temperature, Tj+1 is the (j+1)-layer’s mean
NOMENCLATURE temperature, Lj the thickness of the j-layer and q& the mean rate
a : Absorptivity
of heat flow.
c : Specific heat
The total rate of heat transferred across the top surface
ho : Heat transfer coefficient
would be
Ι(t) : Total solar radiation
k : Thermal conductivity [
q&= h o T o − T x n +1 ] (5)
q& : Heat flow rate where To and Tx n +1 the mean outdoor air temperatures and the
q& : Mean heat flow rate
top surface respectively.
Tdb : Dry bulb temperature The presence of a green canopy requires the replacement of
Τo(t) : Outdoor air dry bulb temperature the boundary condition provided by equ. (2). In that case the
Τ(t,x) : Temperature at the surface of a layer rate of heat flow across the green surface is
T
εΔR
:
:
Mean temperature
Correction term for long-wave radiation
[ ]
q og ( t , x g ) = h og To ( t ) − To' ( t ) + aI( t ) − ε∆R (6)
ρ : Density where To´ ( t ) is the air temperature underneath of the leaves area.
φ : Relative humidity

SIMULATION MODEL
The ceiling of a building with or without greenery cover
may be considered as a multi-layer plane walls that are in a
perfect thermal contact. The ordinary roof consists layers of
typical construction materials in contrary to the green roof
where additional layers are present along with the green canopy.
The latter is shown in Fig. 1. The volumetric heat balance in a
multi-layer plane walls is described by the one-dimensional
non-steady state heat conduction equation
∂T ∂  ∂T 
ρc = k  (1)
∂t ∂x  ∂x 
The solution of the above equation requires, a) the initial
temperature in the width of the plane, which is assumed
constant and b) the temperature in the boundaries in the time
domain. The top and bottom temperature is related to the heat Figure 1: Cross sectional view of the green roof
flow rate in the corresponding boundary, i.e. model.
q&o ( t , x n +1 ) = h o [To ( t ) − T ( t , x n +1 )]+ aI( t ) − ε∆R (2)
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
k The simulation model was applied in two full-scale roofs,
q&i ( t ,0) = 1 [Ti ( t ) − T ( t ,0)] (3) an ordinary roof and a green roof, which have been
L1
experimentally studied [1,2] without any provision for air-
where ho is the total heat transfer coefficient by convection and conditioning of the last floor of the building. The studied
radiation at the top and bottom surfaces, Τ(t,xn+1) is the top experimental models are located in the top of two perfectly
surface temperature, Τi(t) and Το(t) is the indoor and outdoor alike buildings having the same orientation. The layout of each
temperature respectively, Ι(t) is the total solar radiation incident roof regarding the materials, the thickness of each layer and the
on the outdoor wall surface, a denotes the solar radiation corresponding thermal characteristics are shown in Table 1. In
absorptance of the top surface and εΔR is a correction term for Ref. 1, detailed information for the layout of the green canopy
long-wave radiation [7]. is provided. The layer of soil was covered mainly by turf and in
For standing oscillation condition and a period of 24 hours, perimeter by ivy for a thicker layer of plant vegetation.
the mean rate of heat flow in each layer is

2
 ASME - GREEK SECTION, First Nat. Conf. on Recent Advances in Mech. Eng., September 17-20, 2001, Patras, Greece

Table 1: The layers and their thermal properties for the ordinary and the green roof.
Ordinary roof Green roof
k L/k k L/k
Layers L (m) L (m)
(W/mK) (m2K/W) (W/mK) (m2K/W)
1 Soil - - - 0,120 1,160 0,103
2 Filter holding soil - - - 0,003 0,300 0,010
3 Holystone - - - 0,060 0,500 0,120
4 Asphalt sail - - - 0,004 0,190 0,021
5 Asphalt film 0,007 0,190 0,037 0,007 0,190 0,037
6 Concrete aptitude 0,050 1,100 0,045 0,050 1,100 0,045
7 Insulation 0,050 0,041 1,220 0,050 0,041 1,220
8 Concrete 0,150 2,030 0,074 0,150 2,030 0,074
9 Plaster 0,015 0,870 0,017 0,015 0,870 0,017

12
Ordin ary roof
45 9
H eat flu x (W /m2 )
O ut door tempe rature Green ro of

Top surface t emp. for ordinary roof 6

40 Top surface t emp. for green roof 3

0
Temperatu re (oC )

-3
35
-6
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24
30 T ime ( ho u rs )

Figure 3: Simulated heat flux through the roofs.

25
90
O rdinary roof
20 80 G reen roof
H eat Flow ( Watt)

0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 70
T ime ( ho u r s)
60
Figure 2: Variation of the mean temperatures during a day in 50
July.
Applying the boundary conditions stated by the simulation 40
model, the estimation of the heat flow in both experimental
models was performed. In the first exercise test case no air- 30
conditioning was accounted for the below floor. The second 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24
exercise test case made provision for the air-conditioning of the
below floor setting Tdb= 26oC for the indoor temperature and T ime ( ho u rs)
φ=50% for the relative humidity. The values of the heat transfer
Figure 4: Heat flow rate for the concrete roof and the green
coefficients incorporated in equs. (4) and (5) for the two roof when the below floor is air conditioned at Tdb=26oC.
examined roofs are ho=44,04 W/m2K and hog=1,35 W/m2K.
The conducted temperature measurements allowed the ordinary and the green roof respectively are shown along with
calculation of the resulted heat flow rates, i.e. q&o ( t ,0) and the corresponding outdoor temperature. From the calculated
q&og ( t ,0) in the top and bottom surfaces of both roofs. The heat flow rates the averaged daily heat flows rates, i.e.
mean temperature profiles for a summer month are shown in q&and q&og , were estimated. In Figure 3, the simulated heat
Fig. 2. The temperature patterns on the top surface of the

3
 ASME - GREEK SECTION, First Nat. Conf. on Recent Advances in Mech. Eng., September 17-20, 2001, Patras, Greece
fluxes for the bare concrete roof and the green roof are shown.
The calculated patterns verify that the heat flow for the concrete
surface is mostly from the outside to inside, in contrary to the
soil surface where the negative sign of the heat flow indicates
that always is from inside to outside. The air-conditioning
requirement of the underneath floor modifies the heat flow
pattern as it is shown in Fig. 4. The differences of the heat flow
rates in both examined test cases do provide a figure of the
possible benefits in terms of the energy saving. The energy
saving is due to the decrease of the cooling loads of the below
floor due to the cooling effect of the green canopy. The
estimated percentage energy benefit due to reduction of the
cooling loads applying the green roof concept are shown in
Figs. 5 and 6. Figure 5 shows that the reduction of the cooling
loads in the non air-conditioned below floor results in a 50%
daily energy benefit. The required air-conditioning of the below
floor certainly reduces the expected energy benefit that is 22%
minimum to 35% maximum as it is shown in Fig. 6.
200
E ner gy saving perc. ( %)
150
100
50
0 VI, Vol. A, 3-5 November, Volos, Hellas, pp. 137-144.
0 3
Figure 5: Energy benefit due to the reduction of the cooling
load of a non air-conditioned floor covered with a green roof.
45
Ener gy saving p ercen tage (% )
40
35
30
25
20
15
0 3
Figure 6: Energy benefit due to the reduction of the cooling
load of an air-conditioned floor covered with a green roof.
CONCLUSIONS
Beyond of the environmental and aesthetic aspects, the
design of vegetative greenery on the roof of building
contributes due to the shadowing in the reduction of cooling
loads during the summer. The experimental data on two full-
scale models have been used as freezed parameters for the
conduction of computer simulations regarding the decrease of
cooling loads of the underneath floor with and without air-
conditioning. The cooling loads reduction is reasonable during
the rush hours and it is accompanied with an energy saving
equivalent to the 30%-35% of the roof loads of the last floor.
The predicted energy saving in conjunction to the reasonable
environmental benefits plead in a wide scale adoption of the
green roof concept. Designing green roof for reducing heat flux
through the roof in summer means the selection of plants with a
large foliage development in order to warrant a low radiation
transmission. Moreover it means the selection of light soils that
reduce the thermal conductivity as well as weight. However, the
lack of experimental and simulated values in the considered
roof models during the wintertime does not allow the
generalization, since the optimization of the green roof
performance just for summer seems to be inappropriate for the
opposite season of the year.
REFERENCES
[1] Theodosiou, Th., Amiras, P., and Economidis, Gr., 1999,
"The contribution of the planted roof to the cooling of a
building", Proc. of the National Renewable Energy Congress
[2] Evmorfopoulou, E., Kalaitzidou, N., and Tourtoura, D.,
6 9 12 15 18 21 24
1999, "The influence of the different types of planted roofs in
Tim e (h o ur s)
the thermal behavior of a building", Proc. of the National
Renewable Energy Congress VI, Vol. A, 3-5 November, Volos,
Hellas, pp. 145-151.
[3] Harazono, Y., and Ikeda, H., 1990, "The effect on an indoor
thermal environment with simple hydroponic cultivation on
rooftops", J. Agric. Met. Jpn 46, pp. 9–17.
[4] Ishihara, O., and Chou, S., 1992, "Experimental study on
environmentally lightening effect of soil and lawn vegetation on
the roof", Proc. of Annual Meeting of Japanese Society of Solar
Energy, pp. 255–258.
[5] Meier, A.K., 1990, "Measured cooling savings from
vegetative landscaping", Proc. American Council for an
Energy-Efficient Economy, Environment 4, pp. 133–143.
[6] Meier, A.K., 1991, "Strategic landscaping and air-
conditioning savings: literature review", Energy and Buildings
15–16, pp. 479–486.
[7] ASHRAE Fundamentals, 1985, American Society of
Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.
6 9 12 15 18 21 24
Tim e ( ho u r s)