A Model-Based Approach to Measuring the Effect of Shading on Outdoor Thermal Comfort

Abstract

Abstract-Building shading is a tried and true strategy for passive cooling to reduce energy consumption. But shading also affects the mobility system outside of buildings. This paper analyzes the effects of building shading on outdoor thermal comfort. It focuses on building height and density as the two design parameters of urban built form and uses weather data and passive shading simulation to derive a measure of the effect of walking outdoors. The model is specialized to regions of extreme heat and humidity, drawing weather data from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The methodological developments are then demonstrated on four urban design schemes: high-density, low-rise; low-density, high-rise; low-density, low-rise; and high-density, high-rise. The results show that the optimal urban system for hot and humid locations, in terms of improving outdoor thermal comfort, comes from increasing the height-to-width ratio of the built urban form.Index Terms-Shading effect, thermal comfort, thermal comfort index, urban design.

Outdoor Thermal Comfort Study on a District Level as Part of the Housing Programs in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

“…Baca and Tsai focused on analyzing the impact of the building shading on the OTC in Abu Dhabi, considering both the buildings' height and density. It was concluded that the optimum solution to improve the OTC is to increase the building height-to-width ratio [17]. Another study evaluated the outdoor evaporative surfaces in an outdoor campus courtyard in Abu Dhabi.…”