Passive cooling roof design under Jordanian climate

Four identical test structures each having dimensions 1m x 0.6m x 1m have been fabricated. All the four sides of the test structure were made by using mild steel angle and galvanized steel sheet. A 0.08 m layer thickness of reinforced cement concrete CRCC roof was casted over each one. Different passive techniques were used over the roof for cooling the environment inside test structure; these techniques are painting of roof with white cement, pieces of glass and clay layer. One of the four structures is without any material over the cement concrete roof which is to be a reference one to compare other system results with it. The four structures were constructed, and installed next to each other so that they may be tested simultaneously. Under local climate the test procedure was casted out by measuring the inside, outside, wet and dry temperatures and also by measuring the relative humidity. The structure with clay on top of the concrete was found to be the most efficient structure for cooling purpose. Finally the thickness of clay layer was varied so as to find optimum layer thickness for cooling purpose. It was found that the cooling efficiency of the clay structure increases with thickness up to 0.05 m, beyond which the inside temperature remains constant. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.