Thermal Comfort Studies of Residential Building Models in Vijayawada

Abstract

Brick masonry wall is the more common walling system being used in residential buildings. As the demand for housing is increasing, new construction materials are coming up in the market and being utilized in the construction. Solid concrete blocks (SCB) and autoclave aerated concrete (AAC) blocks are the two materials which are most commonly used in most of the construction sites apart from the clay bricks (CB). The thermal behaviour of the buildings with these materials needs to be studied. It is also necessary to reduce the heat inside the building to improve the human comfort. Effect of coating material over roof also needs to be studied. Living comfort inside any building mainly depends on the “thermal comfort”. Thermal comfort mainly involves the interior conditions of the rooms, i.e. mainly temperature and humidity, maintaining and distributing it evenly, and the quality of air (purity, humidity rate, healthiness). By providing a thermal insulation to all the surfaces combined with seasonal adoption of ventilation, thermal comfort can be achieved in different climate conditions. By keeping these points in a view, a thorough study was conducted to know the thermal variations in various house models by varying the wall type. Results indicated the superior thermal performance of the model with AAC block in comparison with the models made with solid concrete block and clay brick.