Characterizing the Air Temperature Drop in Mediterranean Courtyards from Monitoring Campaigns

As microclimate modifiers, courtyards may be a good passive strategy for enhancing thermal comfort and reducing the energy demands of buildings. Thus, it is necessary to be able to quantify their tempering effect in dominant summer climates. This is frequently done using calculation methods based on CFD, but these have the drawback of their high computational cost and complexity, so their use is limited to advanced users with a high level of knowledge. Thus, an alternative is required based on a simplified method that can explain and predict the air temperature drop in courtyards. This would be extremely useful for professionals looking for the optimal design of this kind of space through energy assessment programs integrating these methods. This study proposes a simplified method of characterization that aims to identify the functional dependencies of the decrease in air temperatures in courtyards, and so to predict the air temperature inside them from that outside, if available. From the results of several experimental campaigns, three variables have been identified that characterize the decrease in the air temperature in courtyards, all of which depend on the confinement factor of the courtyard. Finally, the proposed predictive method was validated by means of an additional monitoring campaign. The results show a good fit of the calculated values to the measured ones, R 2 being equal to 0.98.