Abstract
Among different types of roofs for residential buildings, flat roofs are found to be the most common in the Middle East. Flat roofs are an ancient form mostly used in arid climates and allow the roof space to be used by habitants. However, leaving the rooftop of a high or low building without any treatment against weather fluctuation causes thermal discomfort of the habitants beneath. Rooftops without any other treatment are widely applied in residential building, although habitants strive to find a proper solution based on multiple criteria. This study investigated different alternatives of treatments for flat rooftops in residential buildings against multiple criteria from the case study area of Amman in Jordan. DesignBuilder software for environmental analysis is employed to define the effective rooftop treatment according to the best thermal comfort. It is chosen as it has advantages over other software. This study uses the environmental simulation of five alternative rooftop types in hot arid climate. The five alternatives are rooftop with shed, green rooftop, rooftop with compact insulation, rooftop with tile, and rooftop without any treatment. The criteria used to show the interior spaces thermal comfort by assessment of the thermal performance, heating load, and cooling load in each alternative. Results show that green rooftop achieved the best thermal performance in the interior spaces for the total of heating and cooling loads, but unfortunately the cost of construction and maintenance is too high. However, the second alternative was rooftop with compact insulation with less construction cost, then rooftop with tile. The rooftop with shed showed the highest thermal efficiency only in summer.
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Amro, D.K., Ammar, S.M.S. (2020). Assessment of Habitants’ Thermal Comfort Through Different Treatments of Flat Rooftops in Residential Buildings. In: Sayigh, A. (eds) Renewable Energy and Sustainable Buildings. Innovative Renewable Energy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18488-9_47
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18488-9_47
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