Thermal and airflow modelling of mediterranean buildings : application to thermal comfort in summer

The assessment of building thermal comfort quality in the Mediterranean context necessitates an accurate knowledge of air temperature and velocity fields inside the space. Also, these thermal and airflow aspects must be considered in combination because of their very strong interdependence. In this particular context, a three-dimensional calculation model of coupled heat transfer and airflow calculation has been developed, which enables the evaluation of temperature field and airflow pattern inside unconditioned buildings under transient conditions, taking into account external conditions. This approach is based on a temperature and pressure driven zonal airflow model, coupled with a thermal model founded on the coupling of reducedorder state models. By combining this with a thermal comfort model it is possible to evaluate the thermal quality of buildings by the prediction of a comfort vote. This paper presents an application of the coupled simulation tool dealing with the influence of a night natural cross-ventilation strategy upon the summer thermal comfort of a Tunisian building.