Empirical and analytical study to mitigate heat infiltration in buildings using green materials

Abstract

newline newlineOne of the most important goals in building design is to provide thermal newlinecomfort to the occupants, while improving energy efficiency by minimising the newlineheat infiltration through the roof and walls of a building. Effective insulation of newlineroof and walls and appropriate selection of insulation materials are important in newlinedesigning energy efficient buildings. The objective of the present study is to newlineidentify and prepare cost effective insulation materials prepared with locally newlineavailable discarded materials. The experimental study was supplemented by an newlineanalytical model and the efficacy of the model vis a vis to the experimental newlinefindings is presented. newlineThe experimental setup to analyse heat infiltration through roof structure newlineconsists of four identical prototype rooms established with similar orientation newlineand specification at the roof of the Mechanical Engineering Department building newlineat St. Xavier s Catholic College of Engineering, Nagercoil, India (8.1700° N, newline77.4300° E). The three sides of the walls were covered with 0.229 m thick newlineconventional burnt clay brick while the fourth side wall was made with an newlineopenable wooden door. The roof structures were covered with reinforced cement newlineconcrete (RCC) of 150 mm thickness. Different configurations of over deck newlineinsulation were laid over each RCC roof structure to reduce the heat flux into the newlineroom. The roof-1 (R1) was kept bare without any insulation as a reference, while newlineroof-2 (R2) was covered with a mixture of broken burnt bricks and lime mortar newlinein the ratio of 3:1 (Conventional Indian practice) to a thickness of 50 mm. The newlineroof-3 was over decked with an internationally renowned insulating material, newlineextruded polystyrene (XPS), supplied by M/s. Owens Corning, USA of 50 mm newlinethickness. The roof-4 was covered with a material developed for this work in newlinecollaboration with M/s Japeva Engineering Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, India, where newlinediscarded waste rice husk was mixed with aerogel and slag cement to prepare newlinerice husk brick (RHB) with 50 mm thickness newline newline