ENHANCING THERMAL COMFORT IN POST DISASTER RESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION: A CASE OF DOLAKHA TOWN

Abstract

The research aims to learn about the thermal performance of traditional and post-disaster reconstructed residential buildings of Dolakha town and the ways to enhance thermal comfort through passive design strategies in terms of building envelope. One of the important aspects of building a house is to provide a specific level of desired thermal comfort. Earthquake 2015 and its subsequent aftershocks led to destruction of numbers of houses. The reconstructed buildings lag thermal comfort with modern architectural style. Because of their increased attention to seismic performance, many buildings have neglected the local climatic condition. Enhancement of thermal comfort and attaining energy efficiency is the first step to achieve sustainability in post disaster reconstruction. Various passive design strategies and energy policies of Nepal are studied for energy efficiency in buildings. Szokolay’s Bioclimatic chart is used to determine different passive strategies to achieve thermal comfort in Dolakha town and results from Mahoney’s table are used. Ecotect energy simulation software is used to evaluate the thermal performance of traditional and post disaster reconstructed building. Seven case scenarios were created to optimize post disaster reconstructed building with change in infill wall material and construction technology and window wall ratio. The research concludes that optimizing window wall ratio with double glazed window helps in achieving thermal comfort by 4.37%. Changing infill wall to stone wall in cement mortar helps in optimizing by 22.31%, switching infill wall to cavity wall of Brick shiner wall on either side with air cavity improves efficiency by 18.05% and to cavity wall of half brick on either side with air cavity is improved by 21.56%.