Assessment of thermal comfort in a naturally ventilated residential terrace house

Abstract

In hot and humid climates thermal discomfort is a major problem to the occupants of many residential terrace houses especially when they are not equipped with an air-conditioning system. This paper presents a study on an assessment of the level of thermal comfort in a naturally ventilated residential terrace house in Malaysia using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. Actual measurements were made to obtain the average air temperature, relative humidity and air flow pattern in various sections of the house. CFD simulations were conducted on a simplified model of the house to predict and visualize the temperature distribution and air flow pattern and its velocity in the house. The level of thermal comfort in the house was found to be well outside the comfort limits as specified by ASHRAE standards.