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V. Müller:
"Thermal Implications of radiant roof barriers: A field study in hot-humid climatic conditions";
Supervisor: A. Mahdavi; Institut für Architekturwissenschaften, Abteilung Bauphysik und Bauökologie, 2012; final examination: 2012-01-26.

Three 3x3 sqm test cells were made to examine the use of radiant barrier in
the attics in hot and humid climate. The test cells were observed in four
ventilation methods. Each ventilation method was a round of changing the
vented windows, soffit boards, openings of radiant barrier at the ridges. The
three test cells with natural ventilation were tested simultaneously in each
round and each test cell produced its own indoor climate data. The
temperature and relative humidity observations of the four ventilation
methods over three test cells produce four comparative sets of room
temperature and each set has 3 test cells´ temperature measurements. The
indoor temperatures were compared in bin and frequency distribution,
psychrometric chart and PMV. The function and effectiveness of radiant
barrier installed between roof tiles and rafters of two test cells were
compared to the baseline case which had no radiant barrier on the roof. The
roofs with purposely made holes on the radiant barrier at the ridge were
compared to the tight roofs which have less amount of natural ventilation.
The clay tiling and concrete tiling roofs installed with radiant barrier were
discovered no significant difference in temperature measurements at the
expense of different material thermal properties.

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