Achieving thermal comfort using natural ventilation - Effect ofinternal finishing

Thermal mass activation (TMA) can assure, incertain cases, thermal comfort conditionswithout the need of air conditioning systems.Even if other cooling systems have to be used,night ventilation significantly reduces theduration of the working time of additionalcooling systems.The desired night ventilation rate (NVR),could be achieved using either mechanicalventilation, natural ventilation or a combinationof these two methods (hybrid ventilationsystem).In this paper, we will investigate thefeasibility of night cooling using naturalventilation for a residential building in a hotregion of France: Cargkse. We will develop amodel that calculates the internal temperatureaccording to the heat balance and the combinedeffects of buoyancy and wind forces.Besides, we will study the effect of theinternal finishing on the effectiveness of TMA.What type should we choose? And if we decideto use a suspended ceiling, a raised floor or agypsum board in fi-ont of a concrete wall, whatimpact will this choice have on summer comfort?