Thermal Comfort Evaluation for Naturally Ventilated Building Applying an Adoptive Model in Different Cities of Iran

In the present article, the performance of natural cross ventilation in providing thermal comfort in a building across six cities of Iran with different climates has been investigated using EnergyPlus software. To evaluate the thermal comfort of the building, the adaptive thermal comfort model of ASHRAE Standard 55 has been applied. This model is proposed to evaluate the thermal comfort in naturally ventilated buildings without any mechanical ventilation equipment. However, the air flow network model has been considered to simulate natural ventilation through openings. The simulation time for all six cities is considered from 21 March to 22 September. The results show that the achievement of thermal comfort in the building depends mainly on climate. The best and the worst performance has been observed for Tabriz with cold climate and Bandar Abbas with hot and humid climate, respectively. The thermal comfort has been provided in more than 69% of the times applying natural cross ventilation in Tabriz for the building without insulation. While this value for Bandar Abbas is estimated about 12%. Also results show that use of insulation with a thickness of 5 cm in the external constructions of the building make an increase of about 8-12% in the hours of thermal comfort for all cites compared to the building without insulation.