Architectural Design Help (Concrete passive cooling)

[architune]

Hi,

This is my uni project. The building's concrete flat slab will be extended from the brick partition wall.

1) Concrete will gain heat from sun in day time and release them in the interior in night time. Like passive heating. The question is is there any minimum thickness required for this strategy? or any thickness flat slabe can do this passive heating?

 

2) It will work in winter. But what about in summer? will it create overheating?

 

Thank you.

[tcupp]

I am by no means a pro at such a topic but I would say that it largely dependent on the climate. It would be a bad idea in a very cold climate as cold transfer in the winter into the interior would cause cold floors at the perimeter. I even know that there are systems that are made just for this purpose, to provide a thermal break between exterior concrete decks monolithically poured with interior conc floors.

 

Now if you are in a more temperate climate then I would say that you would want some form of heat/cold transfer deeper to the interior than the concrete would provide. Ie- use the slab as the collector to transfer the heat cold to something like water that would be pumped into the interior. Just my 2 cents.

[Brodie Geers]

Google "thermal mass." As i recall from school any amount of concrete, stone, or brick will do what you're talking about to some extent but if there isn't enough "mass" the effects would be negligible so ideally you'd want as much as you can.

 

-brodie