Summer performance, comfort, and heat stress in structural timber buildings under moderate weather conditions

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the Summer performance, comfort, and heat stress in structural timber buildings. The research utilises building simulation as a tool to investigate the performance of the case study buildings under non-extreme weather conditions. Design/methodology/approach The research explores three UK sites using the test reference year (TRY) weather files for the current and future weather conditions. The study focuses on the Summer performance and heat stress in non-extreme weather conditions; therefore, the Design Summer Year (DSY) weather files are not used for the simulations. The simulation data are calibrated and validated using the measured data from the field study. Findings The results revealed the mean predicted temperatures varied from 20.2–20.8°C for the 2000s. The mean temperatures for the 2030s ranged from 23.1 to 24.2°C. Higher temperatures are predicted at the buildings in the Southeast site than the Midlands and the Northwest sites. The results revealed that there is no significant improvement in the thermal environment when the floor area and the floor-to-ceiling height are increased. However, the study showed that the integration of different design interventions can improve the future performance and resilience of the buildings in various weather conditions. Research limitations/implications By applying the wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) and the Universal Thermal Comfort Index (UTCI) mathematical models to calculate the heat stress at the buildings, the study proposes the WBGT of 20.0°C and the UTCI of 24.1°C as possible heat stress indicators for occupants of the buildings in the 2030s. Practical implications On the one hand, the results revealed the maximum temperatures in some of the case study buildings exceed the comfort threshold (28°C). On the other hand, the study showed that occupants of the buildings are not prone to extreme Summertime overheating and heat stress under moderate weather conditions. However, different outcomes may be predicted if DSY weather files for the selected sites are considered. Originality/value This study is the first reported work to explore building simulation and mathematical equations to investigate Summer performance, comfort and heat stress indexes in timber buildings under moderate weather conditions in different regional sites in the UK.

Indoor comfort and adaptation in low-income and middle-income residential buildings in a Nigerian city during a dry season

“…Social housing developed by the government (public), government and private development (public-private-partnership) and private developers. 6. A case study that has not been investigated 7.…”

Field measurements of comfort, seasonal performance and cold stress in cross-laminated timber (CLT) school buildings

“…By comparing the mean WBGT values reported in this paper in the Fall and Winter with the existing papers on stress indexes in CLT educational buildings (Adekunle, 2018a), timber buildings (Adekunle and Nikolopoulou, 2019;Adekunle, 2019), other buildings like industrial workplaces (Kralikova et al, 2014) and construction sites (Yi and Chan, 2017), lower WBGT indexes were found in the current research (in particular, Winter) than the values found in the existing papers. On the one hand, the findings from the existing papers revealed the possibility of people to be vulnerable to heat stress when the WBGT model is applied to the thermal environment.…”

“…In Equation ( 1), T is defined as temperature, f is the relative humidity, and T D is the dew-point. The equation has been widely used in many studies (Adekunle, 2019):…”

Thermal analysis of concrete slabs with insulating materials using ANSYS

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