Thermal performance of different types of roof in a naturally

ventilated building in warm and humid climate of Vijayawada

• The building sector in India is the second largest consumer of electricity after industrial sector, consuming over 30% of total
electricity [1].
• Among various reasons, increased use of decentralized room based air conditioning units for thermal comfort is an
important reason contributing to this rapid increase in the electricity consumption [1].
 Importance of the study

• The building envelope is the most critical element to reduce discomfort in naturally ventilated building and energy use in air
conditioned building [1].
• Roof account for about 40 to 70% of the total heat gain in the building, depending upon the location [2,3].
• Unfortunately while designing a building the importance of roof is least considered, as a result the roof are cast with
Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) and left bare with no thermal treatment as shown in above figure.
 Case study location and climate

Figure:(a) map of Vijayawada showing the case studied location; (b) surrounding of studied building showing building
typology.
• Vijayawada is a city in the Indian state of Andra Pradesh. It is located at 16.52 North latitude, 80.62 East latitude and the
average elevation of the land is about 11m from the mean sea level [4].
• The climate of Vijayawada is very much dependent on the geographical location. The summers are hot & humid and the
winters are moderate. It fall under warm and humid climate according to National Building Code of India [5].
 Studied roof types

RCC roof Green roof PV panel roof Thermal mass roof Cool roof

Insulating roof Cool roof with insulation Double roof Double roof + Cool roof

Figure: Dismental 3D view of different roof types with the different materials.
 Methodology

Figure: (a) real image of the classroom studied; (b) 3d view of the classroom showing data logger position.

The study was conducted in five different stages:

(1) a naturally ventilated school building with conventional RCC roof was selected for the study.
(2) a classroom in the top floor was monitored during the active period using (temperature/humidity) data logger.
(3) simulation model of the same was created using Design Builder (dynamic simulation software).
(4) comparison of on-site reading and simulation data was done to validate the simulation model.
(5) different types of roof was tested in the validated simulation model to find its thermal performance.
 Results and findings

Figure: (a) comparison of actual and simulated results of indoor air temperature; (b) comparison of actual and simulated
results of outdoor air temperature.

As mentioned in methodology the actual and simulated results of the studied building is compared as shown in the above
figure.
It is seen that the actual and simulation results co-relates to each other with a root mean square difference (r2) value greater
than 0.8, which is accepted. After validation of the simulation model, the temperature and heat gain data of the whole year is
extracted from the simulation model.
Figure: Hourly average heat flow through different building elements for the month of May.

The hourly average heat flow for the active period (9am to 4pm) through different building elements for the hottest month of
the year (May) shows that the heat flow to the internal space from the roof is 80% & the window (solar gain + conduction heat
flow) is 20% and through the other building elements only heat loss is occurring in the active period.
Figure: Comparison of monthly average indoor temperature of different roof types and outdoor temperature.

The monthly average temperature of the whole year for different roof types as shown in above figure, keeping all other
parameters constant shows that the double roof + cool roof performs the best and RCC roof performance the worst, to reduce
indoor temperature throughout the year.
Table: Comparison of TDR and MTD of different roof types.

The hierarchy of performance of different roof types is shown in the above table, with Temperature Difference Ratio (TDR)
and Maximum Temperature Difference (MTD). It is worth mentioning that the lower the value of MTD and higher the value of
TDR the better the performance.
 Conclusion
• From the study it was found that the thermal performance of double roof + cool roof is the best in naturally ventilated
building in warm and humid climate. It is also observed that cool roof gives good results with minimum resource
consumption compare to other roof types.
• The hierarchy of thermal performance of different roof types is mentioned as follows: Double roof + Cool roof > Double
roof > Cool roof with insulation > Insulating roof > Cool roof > High thermal mass roof > Photo-voltaic roof > Green roof
> RCC roof.

Further study can be done comparing the cost of material used for different roof types and its embodied energy to get an overall
picture of the most suitable roof types for the warm and humid climate.

Thank You
 Reference
[1] Energy Conservation Building Code for residential building 2018.

[2] A.Madhumathi, S.Radhakrishnan, R.ShanthiPriya. Sustainable roofs for warm humid climates — A case study in
Residential Buildings in Madurai,Tamilnadu, India. 2013.

[3] K.C.K. Vijaykumar, P.S.S. Srinivasan, S. Dhandapani. A performance of hollow clay tile (HCT) laid reinforced cement
concrete (RCC) roof for tropical summer climates. Energy and Buildings 39 (2007) 886–892.

[4] https://www.mapofindia.com/vijayawada/geography.html

[5] National Building Code (NBC) 2016.National Building Code of India (NBC) 2016, Volume 2, Part 8 Building Services,
Section 1 Lighting and natural ventilation, Point 3 Orientation of building, Table 2 Classification of climate.