In desert regions, the orientation of buildings has an important influence in
the inside air temperature. In the present work, we carry out a study on the
influence of the buildings orientation as well as the thermal insulation on
the internal temperature. To do so, we have considered the case where only
the exposed walls are isolated. The main objective of the current work is to
determine the temperatures of the building in question with and without
thermal insulation. This study aims at assessing also the geographic
parameter enhancing or damping the role of thermal inertia, providing a
variety of results. As result, this work proves that stones play a
contradictory role on thermal comfort. We have verified that thermal
insulation is specified to reduce heat transfer through the building.
Concerning the orientation, results indicates that the variation in
orientation does not influence significantly the internal air temperature of
a well thermally insulated building. Moreover, in hot period, whatever
orientation considered, the phenomenon of overheating presents a serious
problem to minimize consumption of energy and control of indoor temperature
in case of building without insulation. The numerical data was compared to
the experimental measurements in order to validate the mathematical model. In
conclusion, to achieve a better thermal comfort arid and semi arid regions,
the habitation will have to be situated in south flan of a hill to satisfy
the two strategies (hot and cold).
The role of thermal inertia in the representation of mean and diurnal range of surface temperature in semiarid and arid regions