The Rehabilitation effects on the thermal behaviour of Algerian earthen built heritage.

The earthen built heritage presents today a state of deterioration due to the climate changes that put it seriously at risk, through the degradation of its envelope building materials. These degradations lead its occupants to rehabilitate it by using modern building materials. This paper focuses on the rehabilitation of vernacular earthen architecture and its influence on the thermal behaviour of ksourian houses in sub-arid zones. It is based on a comparative study that combines the site measurements and the numerical simulation by Energyplus. Two courtyard houses, constructed of an adobe brick, were evaluated, one in its initial shape and the other rehabilitated. The results shows that the rehabilitation of the envelope made on this house did not influence its thermal qualities significantly; a very small difference justified on its internal thermal behaviour was recorded in cold period and almost minor during summer

The Rehabilitation effects on the thermal behaviour of Algerian earthen built heritage.

The earthen built heritage presents today a state of deterioration due to the climate changes that put it seriously at risk, through the degradation of its envelope building materials. These degradations lead its occupants to rehabilitate it by using modern building materials. This paper focuses on the rehabilitation of vernacular earthen architecture and its influence on the thermal behaviour of ksourian houses in sub-arid zones. It is based on a comparative study that combines the site measurements and the numerical simulation by Energyplus. Two courtyard houses, constructed of an adobe brick, were evaluated, one in its initial shape and the other rehabilitated. The results shows that the rehabilitation of the envelope made on this house did not influence its thermal qualities significantly; a very small difference justified on its internal thermal behaviour was recorded in cold period and almost minor during summer

Exploring the Cooling Potential of Ventilated Mask Walls in Neo-Vernacular Architecture: A Case Study of André Ravéreau’s Dwellings in M’zab Valley, Algeria

This study investigates the thermal performance of the ventilated mask wall used in the low-income neo-vernacular dwellings designed by André Ravéreau to cope with the warm desert climate conditions of M’zab Valley, Ghardaia, in southern Algeria. This device is a ventilated façade provided with an opaque external massive cladding. It is designed to be particularly efficient in hot climates, functioning simultaneously as a brise-soleil and a ventilated façade, compared with conventional façade systems. Based on a typical experiment conducted during the summertime (12–14 August), a residential unit in Sidi Abbaz selected as a case study was modeled and calibrated using EnergyPlus (v8.4) software, and then a dynamic simulation was performed in order to assess the efficiency of the ventilated mask wall as a cooling strategy. By means of the validated thermal model, various alternatives for the façade materials were investigated, and the thermal behavior of the current ventilated mask wall was compared with a 45 cm thick limestone façade wall, and a 30 cm thick hollow clay brick wall under the same conditions. Countless benefits were achieved by the application of the mask wall system, including a stable and less fluctuant inner surface temperature, and a reduction in the incoming summer heat flux. The improvements performed, in particular the time lag of 12 h and the related decrement factor of 0.28 indicate the effectiveness of this wall system, which enabled radiant temperature drops of more than 10 °C, and an air temperature decrease of about 6 °C, during the summer sunniest hours. The results demonstrate that this solution is suitable for buildings design applications to meet the objective of low-energy demand in warm desert climates