Impact of Building Porosity on Self-Shading and Absorbed Solar Heat Reduction in Hot and Humid Regions

Today, the overwhelming consumption of energy has become one of the most critical concerns of human life. The implementation of solutions to reduce energy consumption in buildings is becoming increasingly important. One of the most important factors determining the amount of energy received by a building is the general form of a building and the amount of its porosity. Considering the self-shading as an efficient passive cooling solution in hot and humid regions, the present study investigates the effect of porosity on self-shading and heat absorption amount.

The research method of this study is descriptive-analytical, and simulations are conducted by Ecotect 2011 to explore self-shading potential and the amount of received solar energy.

Investigations indicated that the modification of terrace depth does not influence the amount of received solar energy significantly. A comparative study of the porous models revealed that the U-RL models have the best and R-RL models have the worst performance from the viewpoint of self-shading and solar heat absorption.

The implementation of porosity into solid models does not always improve the shading potential. Optimization of building self-shading depends on the comprehensive study and essential simulations that subsequence the design period.