The importance of thermal modelling and prototyping in shelter design

Abstract

More than 9 million people live in shelters globally, often in extremely hot climates. The thermal performance of shelters is often overlooked in the design process, despite being a consideration second only to safety in surveys of camp dwellers. Indeed, indoor temperatures exceeding 40 °C have been recorded in previous studies. To aid in improving conditions, the roles building simulation and prototyping could play in forecasting shelter thermal performance as part of a new shelter design process are examined. The thermal performance of prototypes, built in the refugee camp of Azraq, was monitored during the hot season to evaluate four design approaches: (1) "blind" (uncalibrated) models, (2) calibrated models, (3) on-site design-variants and (4) off-site prototypes. These included the original shelter and six design alternatives implementing different overheating countermeasures. The results demonstrate that blind models are sensitive to the judgement of uncertainties but were still qualitatively useful. Model calibration vastly improves the agreement and significantly enhances forecasts of performance for the design alternatives, which remained similar across examined climates. It is therefore concluded that simulation and prototyping, either on-site or off-site, should be adopted within the shelter design process before mass deployment, to create better living conditions for their dwellers.

A review of the impact of shelter design on the health of displaced populations

“…This methodology allows the study of most of the parameters related to the shelter environment. It is time effective and low cost (Fosas et al 2020 ) and allows to capture the indoor behaviour of the shelter.…”

Application Possibilities of the Off-Grid HVAC System Operation Solution for Temporary Shelters in the Latvian Climate Conditions

“…Indoor comfort and HVAC systems efficiency were often ignored in the temporary shelter design process, as they were primarily built to provide safety of camp residents. Studies [3], [4] show that such camps are mostly concentrated in regions with a harsh, often extremely hot climate, and the indoor temperature in shelters can reach 39-46 °C. These data show the need to maintain an appropriate microclimate in temporary shelters.…”