Investigation of thermal comfort conditions of central courtyard houses in hot and arid climate Case study: Isfahan houses

Increasing the population of cities and the growth and development of urban planning on the one hand and climate change on the other hand has affected the thermal balance of cities and has created thermal islands, so attention to the impact of design on the thermal comfort of urban spaces has become important. The study of the thermal performance of yards as common spaces between urban scale and architecture has been evaluated differently, but relatively limited knowledge about the micro-climatic behavior of these spaces is available. This study seeks to assess the thermal comfort conditions of traditional houses of the Qajar period in Isfahan. Therefore, 10 houses of the Qajar period in the city of Isfahan have been selected and by the ENVI-met 4 software, which is designed to simulate and measure the micro-climatic conditions of the city, study the changes of climatic parameters and evaluation of thermal comfort conditions on the first day of July based on PET index. The results show that the temperature in the studied central yards compared to the neighboring open urban spaces decreased by an average of 0.7-1.7 ° C, the relative humidity increased by 1-1.8% and the wind speed decreased by 1.5-2 m / s. The average mean radiant temperature for the studied houses was between 35.7-55.7 and there is a high correlation between the average mean radiant temperature and PET index. Also, according to the PET index, the thermal comfort conditions of the studied houses are between moderate and strong heat stress.