NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CALICUT

HEATING, VENTILATION & AIR CONDITIONING

HVAC AND CLIMATIC DESIGN IN
THE
ARAB COURTYARD HOUSES


SUBMITTED BY
SHAHIM ABDURAHIMAN M
B070234AR

GUIDED BY
Ar. Chithra K


DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CALICUT
L - M A I L
s h a h i m a b d u g m a i l . c o m
S l A l I M A B D U R A l I M A N M
HVAC AND CLIMATIC DESIGN IN THE
ARAB
COURTYARD HOUSES
ABSTRACT
Present throughout the entire history of building and architecture is the response the
designer makes to climate. Understanding the climate , and designing in accordance with
it is another and the most efficient way of designing. Knowledge of climate served as the
basis of human livability and, ultimately, the aesthetic expression of its design.
Many climatic design techniques can reduce both heating and cooling energy costs.
atural ventilation can provide comfort in summer, when used with the other cooling
techniques. !ven during the months when it is comfortable outside, an improperly
designed building can be uncomfortable due to the lack of understanding of climatic
design principles and practices.
"n some parts of the world, atrium or courtyard house design is standard practice. #he use
of mechanical $%&' system was totally absent at the time when traditional typical
courtyard houses were built. #he use of natural ventilation through these courtyards was
one of the $%&' design technique which has been utilised to bring out a comfortable
indoor environment. (ollowing this tradition, these techniques of making use of
courtyards in residences are widely being practised.
'ourtyard housing is not only practised in "ndia, but also in different parts of the world.
#hese courtyards differ from each other on the basis of their location and microclimate.
#he different shapes and si)es of these courtyards will act differently and provide a
different indoor environment.
#hrough this study, an analysis of the typical &rab courtyard houses and the practised
climatic design will also be analysed. #he ob*ective of the investigation also is to
understand the passive environment control system
CONTENTS

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. The Cooling process
4. Thermal Performance
5. Convective and Evaporative Cooling Devices
6. Case study courthouse project in ZMalet
7. References

LIST OF FIGURES

FIG 1. DIAGRAMMATIC EXPLANATION OF THE THREE CLIMATIC CYCLES AT NIGHT , NOON AND AFTERNOON
FIG 2. TALL ATRIUM BUILDINGS: AS VENTILATION SHAFT
FIG 3. A GENERAL SCHEME OF THE COURTYARD HOUSE THERMAL BEAHVIOUR
FIG 4. COURTHOUSE PROJECT IN ZMALET
FIG !. SCHEMATIC PLAN, SECTION AND THERMAL NET"OR# OF THE UNIT $IN ZMALET%


1. INTRODUCTION

The courtyard Arab house may be considered as prototype diffused in many variations through all
Arab countries and Islamic areas extending from the Arabian Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean. This
prototype is conceived to produce the same variety of contacts with open space, the same response to
shade and to the movement of the air at each hour of the day.

The courtyard house creates a complex regulating system that creates a microclimate which works in
a passive way. Heat transfer processes are all natural, without mechanical devices powered by non-
renewable energy. The courtyard house system manipulates the architectural components such as
shan, iwan, loggia, fountain etc., in order to achieve the best inside thermal comfort, day
and night, from natural resources within the constraints of locally available resources

The courtyard house is the end product of a sophisticated historical process of unconscious climatic
design through process of trial and error. The passive cooling technologies, developed as an
architectural system and a strong base for modern climatic approach to design.


2. THE ATRIUM AS A CLIMATIC MODERATOR


The Atrium in a house acts as a light-well as well as an air-shaft, bringing both daylight and air
movement to the rooms around it. The diurnal temperature changes amount to 10 'C to 20 C during
the summer months. The diurnal range is much higher in the hinterland than in the coastal regions.
In the hot-dry hinterland the atrium functions in three regular cycles, taking advantage of the
diurnal range of temperatures during summer.


During the first cycle, the cool night air descends into the courtyard and fills the surrounding
rooms. Walls, floors, columns, roofs, ceilings and furniture are cooled at night and remain so until
the late afternoon. The courtyard loses heat by irradiation to the sky and may be used for sleeping
during the summer, as can the roof (satieh).


During the second cycle around noon the sun directly strikes the courtyard floor. Some of the cool
air begins to rise and also leaks out of the surrounding rooms. This action sets up convection
currents in the rooms which may afford further comfort. The courtyard now begins to act as a
chimney. At this hour the ambient temperature is very high outside. Thick walls do not permit the
external heat to penetrate to the inside of the house. The adobe walls are excellent insulators, and the
time-lag for an external wall of average thickness may be as much as twelve hours. Three out of four
external walls on an average are party walls; thus the house remains enclosed on all sides and is
insulated from heat gain during the day.


During the third cycle, the courtyard floor and the inside of the house get warmer and further
convection currents are set up by the late afternoon. Most of the cool air trapped within the rooms
spills out by sunset.

Fig 1 Fig 2

3. THE COOLING PROCESS
The knowledge of cooling processes was based on a deep pre-scientific understanding of the
exchanges of energy fluxes in the earth-atmosphere system, namely the cooling effect of night
radiation to the sky; the convective process, namely the cooling effect of air movement determined
either bystack effect or by wind; and the evaporative process namely the cooling effect of the
change phase process typically water vapour.
Fig 3.



4. THERMAL PERFORMANCE

The Thermal performance of the courtyard house comprises heat exchange processes taking place
among the environments of three interrelated spaces; the indoor spaces, the courtyard space and the
external open spaces between houses.

Considering the indoor environment, heat is exchanged through:
(1) The inner envelope (courtyard alls)
(2) The outer envelope ( external walls and roof).
The different surfaces of the two envelopes are constantly exposed to the outside air temperature;
however their exposure to solar radiation varies with time. This emphasizes the importance of
studying means to control the exposure to solar radiation. In such control, the inner envelope is more
critical since most of the openings are located there.
Regarding the physical system, which represents the impact of solar radiation upon the indoor space
passing through the inner envelope, the two subsystems are identified.
The external system deals with:
(1) The insulation of the courtyard surfaces which is a joint function of the suns geometry and the
courtyard geometry; and
(2) The thermal balance of the surfaces as affected by the incident radiation

The internal system deals with the heat flow taking place through the opaque as well as transparent
materials of the envelope.
When outdoor conditions are very severe, the system has to resist thermal gains, minimising hot air
infiltration, solar radiation and heat conduction and to thermal losses through earth cooling,
ventilation, radiant cooling and evaporative cooling.

5. CONVECTIVE AND EVAPORATIVE COOLING DEVICES

Air movement inside the building can be used either to cool the structure or for physiological
cooling. Air movement can be generated by wind effect or by stack effect.
When the wind is warm it is better to generate ventilation by stack effect; when the wind is cool the
natural convection can be activated with a device able to catch winds and drive them into the rooms.
Wind Catchers are very frequent in Iran, Iraq and Egypt; they project on roofs to intecept cooler,
faster, less dusty air flows.

During the day (when inside temperature is lower than outside) hot inside air flows down the walls
of the wind tower, loses heat, and enters fresher than outside air into the room; it absorbs heat (
efrshing ambient air), and then is evacuated through window

During the night, if the wind is not blowing, wind towers function as a chimney sucking exhausted
hot air from rooms, replacing it with outside fresh air entering through openings.

Natural Convection and Ventilation can be improved by adding a device for the evaporation of
water. This lowers the temperature by means of latent heat loss by evaporation. Wind Catchers are
often combined with fountain and humid underground tunnels.



6. CASE STUDIES

ZMalet Study ( Algeria)
The work is the design of a naturally cooled, courthouse settlement to enlarge an existing agro-
pastural village in the Algerian Highlnds. The courtyard house unit is east-west oriented and
protected by tow buffer zones; the south one connecting the court to the inner space, the north one
connecting entrance, w.c. and the pebble-bed for the cooling system. The natural cooling system is
selected according to the life-style of the occupants who live indoors in the afternoon. The system
uses the following sources; storage of nights coolness in a pebble-bed; sky radiation cooling of the
roof and the court; wind to circulate the necessary air through the pebble-bed; evaporative cooling
of air by porous water containers; and , direct solar radiation gain of a solar chimney for partial air
circulation to the room in the absence of sufficient wind.
It is expected that the door opening to the courtyard is closed from 12 to 3p.m. . At night the
pebble-bed temperature is higher than the room temperature, and the cooler air flows through the
bed by natural convection. This process goes on all night and early morning the solar chimney
creates a small draft. A small wind catcher operates about noon, when the door to the courtyard is
closed and the wind is blowing. The air passing through the pebble-bed is cooled to the lowest
night room air temperature. Porous Water containers in the inlet of the pebble-bed further increase
the cooling effect of the convective process.
The simulated cooling performance of the dwelling unit was quite good: in the afternoon, when the
system is operating ( door closed) the inside air temperature drops of about 5 degrees.


Fig 4 Fig 5

7. REFERENCES

(1) Gianni Scudo, Climatic Design in the Arab courtyard house, paper presentation
(2) Koenisberger et al., Manual of Tropical Housing and Building, Part one: Climatic Design,
Longman, London, 1973
(3) M.N.Bahadori, Designof the natural cooling system for a settlement in ZMalet-El-Emir Abdel-
Kader ( Diara Ksar Cellala Algeria), Urbino, November, 1980