Harsora Shaunak Rupesh

CT3596

The need of cooling a space has led to the invention of air conditioning systems which use energy in abundance and release greenhouse gas. The global pattern of use of these systems has led to heating up areas at an urban scale creating a global environmental crisis. There is an imperative need to find energy efficient cooling systems which use naturally available elements for cooling. Evaporative cooling has been one of the most efficient systems in hot dry climates and has been in use since ages. As it uses water for cooling, it increases humidity which helps in regions where relative humidity is low. Some of the earthen materials are highly porous which increases the rate of evaporation and hence becomes ideal for evaporative cooling. The combination of terracotta and evaporative cooling can help in the global crisis which is cooking up our planet. To counter the negative effects of this urban heat problem, large-scale adaptive facade applications for cooling can make a difference as it not only affects the urban microclimate but also affects the cooling in the interior space. This paper aims to study how evaporative cooling works by looking at several case studies of, conducting experiments to study evaporative cooling with terracotta through various parameters and proposing a facade application of terracotta evaporative cooling for buildings. The idea behind the facade is for it to be adaptable to the design of the building as maybe a shading device or a window while also serving the purpose of cooling as an evaporative cooling system.