IBPC 2024 Conference Paper: Integrating Hydrophilic Material in Constructed Wall for Evaporative Cooling in Desert Climate

Extreme heat poses a major obstacle for human settlements in desert regions. Such hot and dry regions possess favorable conditions for passive evap-orative cooling. This study aims to design and investigate the performance of porous evaporative cooling surfaces used to cool down indoor environments in desert climates. A case study with a porous evaporative cooling wall in a thermal shelter in Arizona is examined, where average summer conditions are 40°C and 30% relative humidity. First, a physical experiment was set up in a climate cham-ber to compare the evaporative cooling performance of evaporative surface mod-ules made of three different hydrophilic materials. Subsequently, energy simula-tion models were used to determine the cooling load demand for the proposed thermal shelter building. The simulated cooling load demand served as a bench-mark to assess the cooling capacity of an evaporative cooling wall integrated with different hydrophilic materials for the proposed building, calculated from the ex-perimental data. The results show that the aspen pad performs best in terms of evaporative cooling and can provide sufficient cooling for the test building in a hot, arid climate.