الفهرس 
Passive Cooling Considerations andOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Over the past few years, concerns toward the passive design buildings and sustainability development have increased. In ancient architecture the building design had to rely on natural systems to maximize the occupants´ comfort. Modern architecture has cared about high technological issues in the design without concerning the environmental, social, and economic issues. This leads to designing building that has no identity, building that has no concern about man comfort. These problems create the need to design new sustainable buildings with more scientifically and technical passive features in cooling and lighting by using alternative sources of energy. Passive cooling is considered one of the important principles of passive building design in sustainability development throughout the history. Wind catchers, courtyards, oriels, and cooling towers are examples of traditional passive cooling systems that have been applied in hot regions for achieving comfortable indoor climate. While in modern architecture, mechanical cooling has been considered to be the shortest effective way to achieve the interior thermal comfort. Recently passive cooling systems are considered as an alternative to the conventional (Mechanical) cooling as it requires complicated refrigeration systems and this mainly increases the running costs. By employing passive cooling techniques into modern sustainable buildings, architect could eliminate mechanical cooling or at least reduce the size and cost of the equipment. This research aims at initiating an implementation of passive cooling strategies into sustainable building in the hot- dry regions where summer overheating is a common problem.
Previous Researches
By reviewing the previous theses, researches, and literatures in the last 10 years and by analyzing them, there are many researches had concerned about sustainable architecture and its principles. Moreover, environmental buildings designs were concerned by many researches and there are also many researches that deal with the sustainability in urban environments. Passive cooling was considered in residential field. However, there are few researches deal with the application of passive cooling considerations and techniques in commercial field as the office buildings need special requirements . This thesis will introduce a variety of efficient passive cooling techniques and presents the availability in office buildings.
Problem Definition
Most ”Modern” architecture is dependent on the usage of fossil fuels as the main source of energy. The consumption of fossil fuel drives a higher running cost and decreases by time. Besides, generating energy by burning coal, oil, and natural gas is a major source of atmospheric pollution, environmental impact, global warming, and climate change . Buildings consume energy not only in their operation for heating, cooling, and lighting but also in their construction. Currently, the great majority of this energy is produced from nonrenewable and fossil fuel resources. Thus, the impacts of greenhouse gases on world climate are rising. So, it is essential to find ways to reduce load, increase efficiency, and utilize renewable fuel resources in all facilities. For example in Egypt during the last Fiscal Year 2007/2008, It was a challenge for Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) to meet the high growth rate of electricity demand; the peak demand of energy reached 19738 MW and energy generated reached 125 TWh. This creates the need for the usage of systems and strategies that consume less energy.
Office buildings depend mostly on mechanical air conditioning which has many problems concerning the economic and health view. Due to these problems, few researches are now paying attention to the ability of cooling the office buildings naturally without the need of consuming more energy. Moreover, technology plays an important role in developing the passive cooling strategies. There are now wide varieties of natural cooling and ventilation techniques that encourage the architect to cool the building naturally.
Thesis Hypothesis
The know how of designing a sustainable commercial building depends mainly on passive cooling techniques not on mechanical air conditioning
Thesis Scopes
• 1st: the thesis will introduce energy efficient passive cooling strategies applied in hot-dry regions as the main region for the application.
• 2nd: the thesis will focus on analyzing the passive cooling techniques in three sustainable office buildings.
Thesis Objectives
The thesis main target is to achieve better indoor environmental quality, energy efficiency, healthy atmosphere, and more productive office buildings. This target can be achieved by carefully choosing the indoor cooling strategies, as over heating is considered to be the main problem for person less comfort and less productivity, thus the main goal is:
Identifying the parameters for passive cooling strategies in order to provide sustainable comfort interior spaces
This main target could be achieved by considering some sub targets:
• Bringing up the main principles and designing parameters affecting the interior space cooling.
• Identifying the guidelines and effectiveness for various passive cooling strategies (radiation, evaporation, ventilation, and passive shading and insulation) to achieve an efficient interior cooling.
• Analyzing three case studies for office buildings that deal with technological natural cooling and ventilation systems.
Thesis Methodology
In order to achieve the main objective, this thesis followed the following methodologies:
d) Theoretical Analysis: Literature concerning building sustainability considerations, and passive cooling strategies were reviewed, analyzed and classified. This methodology dealt with chapter one.
e) Analytical and Comparative Analytical Methodology: By analyzing the passive cooling systems, their components, applications, principles, and limitations (chapter 2,3,4, and 5)
f) Deduction Methodology: To deduce the results, conclusions, and recommendations, in the last chapter.
Thesis Contents
The main goal of this research is achieved by studying the following contents:
Chapter One: Overview on The Main Considerations for Sustainable Building Development
Chapter one provides a general overview of the sustainable buildings and the main objectives for building sustainability. It presents the sustainable architecture historical background, its main principles and design considerations. Moreover, it presents the development in the environmental, social, and economic issues for sustainability development. This chapter presents three of the sustainability development principles: energy efficiency, site selection, and indoor environmental quality. These principles affect so much the interior passive cooling. At the end, this chapter presents the benefits that could be achieved by enhancing the development of building sustainability.
Chapter Two: Passive Cooling Considerations and Strategies
Chapter two reviews the general passive cooling definitions, main considerations, and architectural elements affecting the internal cooling. It is divided into two sections: 1st section presents the main architectural considerations for enhancing the internal cooling are by decreasing transmittance of external high temperature and decreasing the internal sources emitting heat energy. 2nd section presents the passive cooling strategies (radiation, evaporation, ventilation, shading, and insulation) that could be applied on sustainable buildings. Moreover, it studies their potential effectiveness, their basic principles, and their suitability of application in hot dry climate.
Chapter Three: Natural Ventilation Strategies
Chapter three declares the natural ventilation main idea and architecture considerations for enhancing the interior passive cooling. It presents three natural ventilation approaches to achieve efficient interior ventilation (double skin façades, innovative wind catchers, and interactive skin facades) with identifying their principles, system design, and main components.
Chapter Four: Advanced Shading and Solar Control Glazing Techniques
Chapter four presents the importance of the application of sun control and shading systems to enhance the interior passive cooling. It is divided into two parts: 1st section presents glass louvers, metal louvers, and stretched fabric membrane louvers as innovative shading louvers. 2nd section deals with insulated glass, tinted glass, surface coated glass, complex glazing, and electrically switchable smart glazing as innovative solar control glazing.
Chapter Five: Case Studies: Applying Various Passive Cooling Techniques and Sustainability Strategies on Office Buildings
Chapter five introduces the ability of application of passive cooling and sustainability strategies on three office buildings. It ensures the effectiveness of different passive cooling strategies in each case study with different climates and different site characteristics.
Chapter Six: Conclusions and Recommendations
This chapter introduces some conclusions of this research. Moreover, it presents some recommendations for the application of the strategies mentioned in the previous sections of this research.