Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Materials Today: Proceedings

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr

Finite element analysis to enhance the efficiency of the secondary roof of

double skin roofs (DSRs)
M.D. Irfan Ali a,⇑, Natnale Sitotaw Asefa a, Neeraj Kumar Gupta a, Prathibha Ekanthaiah a, Natnael Bekele a,
Rajesh Kumar b, Deepak Kumar b, Swasti Saxena c
a
Adama Science & Technology University, Adama and 1888, Ethiopia
b
National Institute of Techlogy, Srinagar Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India
c
Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The significant side effect of rapid urbanization in developing cities is urban heat island (UHI), resulting in
Available online xxxx elevated ambient air temperatures. This causes a further increase in the indoor air temperature of a build-
ing bringing thermal discomfort to the inhabitants. It is a well-established fact that the significant electric
Keywords: consumption in buildings creates thermal comfort conditions for the inhabitants. Cool roofs are one of the
Double skin roofs promising passive technologies to curb the entry of heat flux into the buildings through ceilings, and a
Cool roofs double skin roof (DSR) is a cool roof technique in which an air channel inhibits the heat flux entry.
Green roofs
This paper presents an opinion to increase the efficiency of the secondary roof of a DSR by providing per-
Urban heat island effect
Finite element analysis
forations and fins (extended surfaces) to it by way of a simulation using Ansys software, a finite element
analysis software, and incorporating constant peak ambient boundary conditions on the roof for five
hours to obtain the temperature distribution. The simulated results show that such a secondary roof
design is 16.43 % more efficient in decreasing the temperature at its lower surface than the conventional
one.
Copyright Ó 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of 2022 International
Conference on Recent Advances in Engineering Materials.

1. Introduction Gagliano et al. [5] carried out computational fluid dynamics

Over 50 % of the world population lives in cities [1], and it is
estimated to increase to 66 % by 2050, according to the United
Nations Population Division [2]. This migration has led to rapid
urbanization, which annihilates the city environment in many
ways. One such significant way is the urban heat island effect,
where the ambient city temperature is relatively higher than the
neighbouring suburbs. The increase in city ambient temperature
adversely impacts the thermal comfort conditions of inhabitants
of a building, and a significant portion of electricity consumption
is utilized for air conditioning systems. Hence, many passive cool-
ing technologies like green roofs, cool roofs, cool reflective paints,
increasing evapotranspiration, etc., have been developed. Among
all, cool roofs with reflective coatings are the most promising [3].
DSR proves to be 6 % more efficient than the cool roofs [4].
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mohammad.irfan@astu.edu.et (M.D. Irfan Ali).
(CFD) analysis of ventilated roofs to determine air and heat fluxes’
thermal fluid behaviour in ventilated roofs using FLUENT software.
Their study showed that ventilated roofs could reduce the heat
fluxes up to 50 % during the summer season. Tong et al. [6] devel-
oped a CFD model based on circuit transformational theory and
investigated the influence of crucial roof parameters on the heat
flux transferred into a building interior. Lai et al. [7] undertook
experimental work on a DSR with different inter-plate spacing
and plates’ inclination angles. They reported that the optimal
inter-plate spacing was very close to the sum of both plates’
boundary layer thickness. Gómez et al. [8] proposed an analytical
model that could be used to determine roofs’ thermal performance
within a small margin of error. Omar et al. [9] did a CFD analysis of
a DSR. They reported that DSRs alone was 50 % more efficient in
curbing the heat flux entry and DSRs with insulation at the primary
roof’s inner surface were 85 % more efficient. Gullbrekken et al.
[10], in an extensive study on a full-scale ventilated wooden ceiling
to investigate the effect of temperature and wind velocity during

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2022.05.255
2214-7853/Copyright Ó 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of 2022 International Conference on Recent Advances in Engineering Materials.

Please cite this article as: M.D. Irfan Ali, N. Sitotaw Asefa, N. Kumar Gupta et al., Finite element analysis to enhance the efficiency of the secondary roof of
double skin roofs (DSRs), Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2022.05.255
M.D. Irfan Ali, N. Sitotaw Asefa, N. Kumar Gupta et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Nomenclature

T Time, s
Glossary Tcavity Air temperature in the cavity, K
Cp Specific heat, J/kgK Te Ambient temperature, K
D Width of the cavity, m Tse Exterior surface temperature of the secondary roof, K
E(t) Solar insolation, W/m2K Tsi Interior surface temperature of the secondary roof, K
K Thermal Coductivity. W/mK V Wind speed, m/s
hcavity Convective heat transfer coefficient in the cavity be-
tween ambient air and the top surface of the secondary Greek Symbols
roof, W/m2K a Absorption coefficient.
he Convective heat transfer coefficient between ambient q Density, kg/m3
air and the top surface of the secondary roof, W/m2K

spring, summer, and autumln seasons, reported eave-to-eave ven- @T

k ¼ he ðT e  T se Þ þ asecondaryroof Eðt Þ ð2Þ
tilations were effective even at a roof angle of 40 ⁰. @t
This paper proposes a new design of the secondary roof based
on finite elemental analysis by making perforations and attaching @T  
k ¼ hcav ity T cav ity  T si ð3Þ
circular fins. Fig. 1.A. shows the general assembly of a DSR; Fig. 1.B. @t
side view of the modified secondary roof of DSR, Fig. 1.C. the pro- Where, ’he’ is the convective heat transfer coefficient between
posed design of secondary skin of DSR which plays a vital role in ambient air and the top surface of the secondary roof (W/(m2
curbing heat flux. K)); ’hcavity’ is the convective heat transfer coefficient in the cavity
(W/(m2 K)); ’Te’ is the ambient air temperature (K); ’Tse’ is the exte-
2. Mathematical modelling rior surface temperature of the secondary roof (K); ’Tsi’ is the inte-
rior surface temperature of the secondary roof (K); ’Tcavity’ is the air
A three-dimensional transient heat conduction equation (Eq. temperature in the cavity; ’asecondary roof’ is the absorption coef-
(1)) governs the heat transfer rate in the secondary roof of the ficient of solar radiation; and ’E(t)’ is the solar radiation (W/(m2 K)).
DSR as follows: The ’he’ value [11] can be determined by Eq. (4), and ’hcavity’ [12]
! can be determined by Eq. (5) as follows:
@2T @2T @2T @T  
k þ þ ¼ qC p ð1Þ W
@x2 @y2 @z2 @t he ¼ 5:7 þ 3:8V ð4Þ
m2 K
Where ’ k’ is the thermal conductivity of the secondary roof (W/       
(m K)); ’ q ’ is density (kg/m3), and ’Cp’ is the specific heat (J/(kg W 1 0:44 0:025 0:025
hcav ity ¼ max 0:12d ; þ max 1:25;
K)). The radiative heat losses are neglected in this model; the m2 K 2 d d
boundary conditions above and below the secondary roof are given ð5Þ
by Eq. (2) and Eq.3, respectively:

Fig. 1. (A) Arrangement of DSR, (B) Side view of modified secondary roof of DSR with fins, and (C) Proposed design.

2
M.D. Irfan Ali, N. Sitotaw Asefa, N. Kumar Gupta et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Where, ’V’ is the velocity of ambient air (m/s); ’d’ is the hydrau- 3. Physical modelling
lic diameter, i.e., the width of the cavity (m).
The secondary roof of DSR of dimensions 3mX3mX0.5 m made
of structural steel was thermally analyzed in Ansys software based
on finite element analysis. The physical properties of the secondary
Table 1 skin are given in Table 1.
Physical properties of the secondary skin.
Following steps were used to obtain the simulated data from
Properties Value the Transient Thermal Analysis module of Ansys:
Density 7850 kg/m3
Coefficient Of thermal expansion 0.000012/OC  A physical model of the secondary roof with different configura-
Specific heat 434 J/kg °C tions (i.e., a conventional one, a perforated one, and perforated
Thermal conductivity 60.5 W/m °C
Resistivity 0.00000017 X m
with fins attached) was built in the Design Modeller module
with the required dimensions.

Fig. 2. Physical modeling and meshing of the secondary roof of DSR.

Fig. 3. Temperature distribution in a conventional secondary roof of DSR.

3
M.D. Irfan Ali, N. Sitotaw Asefa, N. Kumar Gupta et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

 The appropriate meshing of the problem domain was done, as form of a secondary roof and air cavity. The main component
shown in Fig. 2. of any DSR is its secondary roof, which provides the maximum
 Following boundary conditions were imposed: thermal resistance. This work presents a secondary roof’s effi-
a) constant E(t) = 800 W/(m2 K), heat flux on the top surface of cient design by adding two more extra thermal resistances to
the secondary skin, it in the form of perforations and circular fins. It is self-
b) constant E(t) = 100 W/(m2 K) on the edges of the secondary evident that for a given secondary roof, the global maximum
skin, and minimum temperatures occur at the top and bottom sur-
c) he = 15 W/(m2 K), faces. Hence, the more significant the reduction in the secondary
d) hcavity = 0.705 W/(m2 K), roof’s global minimum temperature, the more efficient it is to
e) Tcavity = 30 ⁰C, curb heat flowing into the room.
f) asecondary roof = 1, Fig. 3 shows the simulated result of a conventional secondary
g) d = 0.5 m and, skin, and the global minimum temperature is 39.189 OC. This
h) Tse = Tsi = 30 ⁰C = initial temperature of the secondary roof paper focuses explicitly on introducing techniques (adding perfo-
for the simulations. rations and fins) to reduce the secondary skin’s global minimum
 Five hours of simulations were run to obtain the conventional temperature.
secondary roof’s temperature distribution and the modified sec-
ondary roof.
4.1. Effect of the number of perforations

4. Results and discussions
The main idea behind a DSR is to provide extra thermal resis-
tance in series to flow of heat entering into a building in the
Table 2
Effect of perforations.
Number of perforations Global minimum temperature
2 38.893 °C
3 38.634 °C
4 38.16 °C
5 37.552 °C
Making perforations in the secondary roof of DSR is an effec-
tive way of curbing the room’s heat flux. To study the effect of
perforations, a 12 cm circular perforation was made in the sec-
ondary roof, and the number of perforations was varied from
two to five. Table 2 and Fig. 4 illustrate the effect of the number
of perforations on the secondary roof’s global minimum
temperature.
From Fig. 4, it can be inferred that two, three, and four perfora-
tions are having the same effect of reducing the global minimum
temperature, i.e., 3 % more efficient than the conventional sec-
ondary roof. However, five perforations on the secondary roof are
4 % efficient than the conventional one.

Fig. 4. Effect of the number of perforations on the secondary roof.

4
M.D. Irfan Ali, N. Sitotaw Asefa, N. Kumar Gupta et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

4.2. Effect of diameter size of perforations Table 3

Diameter of perforations Vs global minimum temperature.
The greater the size of perforation higher is the resistance to the Diameter size Global minimum temperature
flow of heat. Hence, the effect of the diameter of perforations was
4 cm 38.974 °C
analyzed on the secondary roof of DSR. Fig. 5 shows the variation of 6 cm 38.72 °C
the global minimum temperature of the secondary roof of DSR to 8 cm 38.547 °C
the perforations’ diameter. 10 cm 38.152 °C
From Table 3 and Fig. 5, it can be inferred that as the diameter size 12 cm 37.552 °C
16 cm 37.037 °C
of the perforations is increased, the global minimum temperature is
20 cm 36.657 °C
reduced. Five 16 cm perforation in the secondary roof makes it 5.49 % 25 cm 35.709 °C
more efficient than the conventional secondary roof. Whereas 20 cm
perforation is 6.46 %, and 25 cm perforation is 8.88 % more efficient
than the conventional one. However, a bigger size of perforation will
inversely affect the tensile strength of the roof. Table 4
Fin length Vs global minimum temperature.
4.3. Effect of fins Fin length Global minimum temperature
5 cm 36.682 °C
Fins (extended surfaces) at the lower convective zone always 10 cm 35.508 °C
help in increasing the heat transfer rate. The fin length also plays 20 cm 33.981 °C
a crucial role in heat transfer. A secondary roof with five perfora- 30 cm 32.748 °C
tions of 20 cm diameter was analyzed by varying the fins’ length
to understand the effect of fins in minimizing the secondary roof’s
global minimum temperature.
Table 4 and Fig. 6 show how the secondary roof’s global mini- (South Korea), and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia). Table 5 shows some
mum temperature varies with the fins’ change in length. From of their findings for the month of August from 12:00 to
Table 4 and Fig. 6, it can be inferred that a secondary roof with five 16:00 h.
perforations of 20 cm diameter and with fins having a length of Table 5 shows that for every drop in ambient temperature, a
30 cm is 16.43 % effective than the conventional one. significant amount of energy can be saved, approximately
100 W/hour. These findings highlight the importance of developing
4.4. Energy savings and cost analysis a sustainable design for double-skin roofs in order to save a signif-
icant amount of energy each year.
For four separate seasons, Jaehun Lim et al [13] conducted Steel metal roofing costs [14] between $5.50 and $8.00 per
an experimental study to validate the energy-saving effects of square foot, which is a bit pricey initially but is a one-time invest-
variable-speed air conditioners in two different cities: Seoul ment with low maintenance costs.

Fig. 5. Effect of the diameter size of perforations.

5
M.D. Irfan Ali, N. Sitotaw Asefa, N. Kumar Gupta et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 6. Effect of the fin lengths.

Table 5
In August, the temperature and cooling load in Seoul and Riyadh.

Seoul Riyadh
Temperature (OC) Cooling Load (W) Temperature (OC) Cooling Load (W)
26 3600 36 3800
27 3750 38 4100
28 3900 40 4200
29 3990 41 4300

5. Conclusion Acknowledgements

This paper proposes a new efficient design of the secondary roof The authors would like to thank Mechanical Engineering
of DSR. This design is numerically analyzed through finite element Departments of Adama Science and Technology University, and
simulation in Ansys software. The simulation results show that: Bonga University of Ethiopia for their unconditional support.

 Providing perforation in the secondary roof of a DSR is an excel-

lent way of mitigating the room’s heat flow. More number of
perforations more efficient is the secondary roof than the con-
ventional one.
 Five perforations of 25 cm diameter each are 8.88% more effi-
cient than the conventional one.
 Five perforations of 20 cm diameter each and with fins having a
length of 30 cm is 16.43 % effective than the conventional one.
 For every 1 °C decrease in temperature, a large quantity of
energy (about 100 W/hour) can be saved annually.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
References
[1] Å. Jansson, Reaching for a sustainable, resilient urban future using the lens of
ecosystem services, Ecol. Econ. 86 (2013) 285–291.
[2] A. Wandl, M. Magoni, Sustainable planning of peri-urban areas: introduction to
the special issue, Planning Pract. Res. 32 (1) (2017) 1–3.
[3] J. Yang, D.L. Mohan Kumar, A. Pyrgou, A. Chong, M. Santamouris, D. Kolokotsa,
S.E. Lee, Green and cool roofs’ urban heat island mitigation potential in tropical
climate, Sol. Energy 173 (2018) 597–609.
[4] K.T. Zingre, M.P. Wan, S.K. Wong, W.B.T. Toh, I.Y.L. Lee, Modelling of cool roof
performance for double-skin roofs in tropical climate, Energy 82 (2015) 813–
826.
[5] A. Gagliano, F. Patania, F. Nocera, A. Ferlito, A. Galesi, Thermal performance of
ventilated roofs during summer period, Energy Build. 49 (2012) 611–618.
[6] S. Tong, H. Li, An efficient model development and experimental study for the
heat transfer in naturally ventilated inclined roofs, Build. Environ. 81 (2014)
296–308.
[7] C.-M. Lai, J.Y. Huang, J.S. Chiou, Optimal spacing for double-skin roofs, Build.
Environ. 43 (10) (2008) 1749–1754.
[8] Gómez, V. Hugo Hernández, D. Morillón Gálvez, ‘‘Analytical model for double
skin roofs.” Applied thermal engineering 60, no. 1-2 (2013): 218-224.

6
M.D. Irfan Ali, N. Sitotaw Asefa, N. Kumar Gupta et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

[9] A.I. Omar, J. Virgone, E. Vergnault, D. David, A.I. Idriss, Energy saving potential Natnael Bekele Lecturer at Mechanical Engineering
with a double-skin roof ventilated by natural convection in djibouti, Energy Department, Adama Science and Technology University,
Procedia 140 (2017) 361–373. Ethiopia.
[10] L. Gullbrekken, T. Kvande, B. Time, Ventilated wooden roofs: Influence of local
weather conditions-measurements, Energy Procedia 132 (2017) 777–782.
[11] W.H. McAdams 3rd, ‘‘Heat Transmission McGraw-Hill New York.” (1954).
[12] Grumel, N. ‘‘Dossier’thermal regulation 2000’. Reconciling building and
environment; Dossier RT 2000. Reconcilier batiment et environnement.”
Clim Pratique (2001).
[13] J. Lim, M.S. Yoon, T. Al-Qahtani, Y. Nam, Feasibility study on variable-speed air
conditioner under hot climate based on real-scale experiment and energy
simulation, Energies 12 (8) (2019) 1489.
[14] https://www.remodelingcosts.org/category/metal-roofing-costs/.

MD Irfan Ali Lecturer at Department of Mechanical Rajesh Kumar Research Scholar at National Institute of
Engineering, Adama Science and Technology University, Techlogy, Srinagar Pauri Garhwal Uttarakhand, India
Ethiopia

Natnale Sitotaw Asefa Lecturer at Mechanical Engi- Deepak Kumar Research Scholar at National Institute of
neering Dept., Adama Science and Technology Univer- Techlogy, Srinagar Pauri Garhwal Uttarakhand, India
sity, Ethiopia

Neeraj Kumar Gupta Professor at Applied Chemistry Dr Swasti Saxena Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute
Department, Adama Science and Technology University, of technology, Surat
Ethiopia

Prathibha Ekanthaiah Asst. Prof. at Department of

Electrical Engineering, Adama Science and Technology
University, Ethiopia.