ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 622

4.4 Solid concrete block walls with iron sheet/thatched roof
Solid concrete block walls had a comparable performance with adobe and brick walls. According to the results, the thermal performance of solid concrete block walls was slightly better than
adobe and brick walls with iron sheet roofing system and slightly worse than adobe walls with
thatched roof. Similar to other walling methods, solid concrete block walls with iron sheet roof
failed in all three TM52 thermal comfort criteria; however, thermal performance of the building
improved considerably with the thatched roof. For the iron sheet roof, the building was thermally
uncomfortable during 7% of the occupied periods and We exceeded the acceptable limit for 45
days. Moreover, there were two hours during which ΔT exceeded the 4 K limit. For the thatched
roof construction, the building passed criteria 1 and 3 but failed criterion 2 by five days during
which We exceeded the acceptable limit. Figure 6 summarises the results of simulations for solid
concrete block walls with iron sheet and thatched roofs.

Figure 6: Thermal comfort condition for solid concrete block walls with iron sheet (top) and thatched
roofs (bottom).
4.5 Stabilised soil block walls with iron sheet/thatched roof
Stabilised soil blocks had a similar performance to solid concrete blocks, adobe and brick walls.
Similar to all other walling methods/materials, thatched roof had a considerably better performance compared to iron sheet roof. For the iron sheet roof, the buildings was found to be for 7.5%
of the occupied periods uncomfortable (criterion 1). We was also above the acceptable limit of 6
for 45 days. Regarding criterion 3, ΔT also exceeded the 4 K limit for two days. Criteria 1, 2 and 3
were respectively reduced to 0.8%, 5 days and 0 days for stabilised soil block walls with thatched
roof meaning that the building passed criteria 1 and 3 but failed to meet the requirements for
criterion 2. Figure 7 compares the thermal comfort conditions for stabilised soil block walls with
thatched and iron sheet roofs.

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ZEMCH 2015 | International Conference | Bari - Lecce, Italy