Abstract

ESPARZA-LOPEZ, C.J.; URBINA-ROSALES, C.L.; AGUILAR-LUCAS, S.R.  and  ELIZONDO-MATA, M.F.. Cool shading device. Potential of water as passive cooling system in shading devices for warm sub-humid zones. RIIIT. Rev. int. investig. innov. tecnol. [online]. 2020, vol.7, n.42, pp.1-21.  Epub Feb 05, 2021. ISSN 2007-9753.

The recommended strategies to achieve thermal comfort insides the buildings in hot humid areas are natural ventilation and solar protection. The applicability of both strategies in one device that works simultaneously to generate shadow and avoid heating the air that passes through it is hard to find.

An experimental study of a shading device under real conditions is presented in this paper. The shading devices allow to reduce the air temperature by itself due to the indirect evaporative cooling (IEC) of water. The study was carried out in the west coast of Mexico, specifically at Coquimatlan, Colima in a warm sub-humid climate. The average temperature of the analyzed season is 25.3 °C and the RH is 55 %.

Two devices were made of aluminum and acrylic inside polystyrene cells of 0.05 m wide as insulation. The dimension of the cells is 1.22 m long, 0.24 m high y 0.38 m wide. The dimension of the devices is 0.61 m long, 0.04 m high and 0.28 m wide. A 0.080 l of water was incorporated in one of the devices to promote evaporative cooling. The experiment was performed 3 hours before and after local Zenit.

The results showed that indirect evaporative cooling helped reducing the temperature of the air passing below it by an average of 0.8 K in comparison with the same device without water. In further researches, it is recommended to perform the experiment under natural solar radiation conditions.

Keywords : Indirect evaporative cooling; solar protection; convective cooling; shading device.