Amirkabir Journal of Mechanical Engineering

Amirkabir Journal of Mechanical Engineering

Study of the Effect of Thermal Mass Variations on Thermal Comfort of Buildings in Iran’s Climates Using the Köppen–Geiger method

Document Type : Research Article

Authors
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Skills (NUS), Tehran, Iran
Abstract
In this study, the effect of thermal mass and direct passive solar energy gain on providing thermal comfort conditions for designing residential buildings for different climatic conditions in Iran has been investigated and evaluated. The climate zone of Iran is divided into 9 climates based on the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. BWh, BSk, BSh and CSa climates are important climatic groups of Iran, each of which covers a large part of the country, and the other climates BWk, Cfa, CSb, Dsa and Dsb cover a smaller area of Iran. The environmental index parameters in these 9 climates include temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, metabolic rate (Met) and envelope insulation (Clo), which are used in the standard Asher 55 method and in the PMV comfort model. By importing the climate parameter file of the selected cities into the Climate Consultant software, the output results including thermal mass, direct passive solar energy gain and comfort conditions were obtained. The results showed that the BWh and SFa climates have the highest and lowest effects on improving passive thermal comfort in summer and direct passive solar energy in winter, respectively. Also, the thermal mass parameter has no effect in CFa, CSb and DSb climates. Finally, natural ventilation methods and the effect of thermal mass in different climates were suggested to improve comfort conditions.
Keywords
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