Simulation of the Thermal Behavior of Various Local Roofings for a Residential House in the Humid Tropics

Abstract

Most of the houses in Benin are built randomly, with arbitrary orientations and unsuitable materials. This lack of rigor in the design of edifices and the inappropriate choice of materials lead to the construction of premises that do not meet the climatic requirements and lead to excessive energy consumption in case of air conditioning. Thus, the purpose of this work is to explore the suitability of various local roofing materials eligible for the construction of residential premises and to analyze their impact on the overall thermal and environmental performance of houses. To achieve this, four different roofs were tested on a building chosen as a model. The thermal contributions of these different roofs, as well as the energy consumption, were determined by dynamic thermal simulations in order to apprehend the thermal behavior of the chosen building. The TRNSYS software was used to model the building and perform the various simulations. The study showed that the straw roof reduces the need for cooling by 37% compared to the reference building whose roof is made of concrete slab. With the terracotta tile roof, the heat load is reduced by 15%. On the other hand, the zinc sheet roof increases the cooling requirement by 40% compared to the concrete slab benchmark. The study revealed that there exists an economic and environmental interest to develop roofing made from local materials such as straw and terracotta.