Thermal behavior in the traditional courtyard houses of Yemen
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Date
2007
Authors
Mansoor Mohammed, Abdulla Binthabet
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Abstract
The rapid increases in global air temperature, population, energy consumption and pollution have become vital issues of concern. These issues have compelled the government of Yemen to reduce energy consumption in all sectors especially in the residential sector. To reduce energy consumption requires the use of passive techniques and local material to control natural thermal behavior as was the case in traditionally designed buildings. The types of traditional houses in Yemen vary from region to region, depending on the available material, climate and passive technique of thermal control peculiar to each area. This research explores the passive techniques used by traditional houses in the hot and humid coastal regions of Hadhramout. The main characteristic traditional houses in this area are the use of mud courtyards. A survey was carried out in Hadhramout to determine resident’s attitudes about reducing energy consumption through the use of local material and passive techniques of thermal control. The study shows that most respondents felt that the use of natural thermal control technique and local materials in construction constituted one way of reducing energy consumption in Yemen. Through field studies in coastal Hadhramout, the study aims at investigating the effects of two different aspect ratios of courtyards in one house namely that of the shallow and the deep courtyard. The results show that in general there is lower air temperatures in the traditional houses compared to the external air temperature and in some cases the air temperature is within the thermal comfort zone of Hadhramout. Comparing the results of the air temperature within the courtyards indicate that, as the aspect ratio of the courtyard increases the air temperatures also increases. Data collections from field work were then compared with data generated from Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) used software FloVent. The results indicate good correlation of r²=0.85 between the simulation scale model (predicted) and the actual model in the fieldwork (measured). Statistical analyses on the percentage error between the measured and the predicted values in all cases yielded a score of -1.53%. From the fieldwork and computer simulation the courtyard is considered to be the most suitable cooling technique designed to alleviate the effects of the coastal climate of Hadhramout.
Description
Ph.D
Keywords
Housing, Building and Planning , Thermal behavior , Traditional courtyard houses , Yemen