The need to conserve energy in buildings of all types has led to improved standards of insulation, including those of flat roofs in domestic, public and industrial buildings. This Digest discusses the properties required of thermal insulation in flat and low-pitched roofs with continuous waterproof coverings. It reviews the wide range of products available and suggests criteria for selection.

This paper presents an investigation into natural ventilation in the field of computational fluid dynamics using in particular rather rough mesh cells. The CFD results were then  compared to the wind tunnel results obtained by Gouin at the Centre Scientifique et Technique du Batiment ( CSI'B) in Nantes. The role of eaves, and that of window configuration on windward and leeward sides of buildings was also investigated to search for a better interior airflow.

The objective of this research was to investigate thermal comfort with respect to the mass of the building inside a test room which is naturally ventilated. The room is an existing portable cabin of light mass, located at Loughborough University. The comfort parameters for different mass of the cabin were predicted. For this purpose a simulation package, is used to calculate the thermal parameters defined by Fanger. Medium and high thermal masses were added to the test room and their effects on thermal comfort were investigated.

A new thermal simulation model, QUICK II, is presented and numerous verification case studies performed on naturally ventilated buildings are discussed. Four new case studies performed on two buildings located in the Negev desert in Israel are discussed in detail. All the measurements pertaining to these new case studies were taken independently by the Desert Architecture Unit of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research. These measurements are provided, along with a description of the buildings.

The largest-ever exercise to validate dynamic thermal simulation programs (DSPs) of buildings has recently been completed. It involved 25 program/user combinations from Europe, the USA and Australia, and included both commercial and public domain programs. Predictions were produced for three single-zone test rooms in the UK. These had either a single-glazed or double-glazed south-facing window, or no window at all. In one 10-day period the rooms were intermittently heated and in another 10-day period they were unheated.

The objective of this research is to investigate air flow distribution inside a light weight test room which is single sided naturally ventilated. The ventilation rate into the room is controlled by adjusting four sets of louvres. The local outside air temperature, humidity, pressure, wind velocity and direction were measured. Inside the room the velocity and direction of the inflow air across the high and low level openings, temperature and velocity distribution at four locations and six levels across the room were recorded.

The effects of surface air movement on material emissions were investigated experimentally. A field study was carried out to understand the characteristics of surface air movement in real rooms, and a velocity-controlled test chamber was designed and built, based on the field study results, to provide a uniform mean air flow and boundary layer condition over the test area. An extensive experimental study on the effects of air movement on material emissions was carried out, under different mean flow velocities and turbulence fluctuations, by using the small velocity-controlled test chamber.