Suchi Priyadarshani
A researcher, an architect, pursuing Ph.D. motivated to find solutions to sustain the health of the occupants and building.
Research Highlights
Research Interests: Sustainable Architecture and Design, Humidity in Buildings, Energy Efficient Buildings, Thermal Comfort in Buildings
Ongoing Research: Investigating the role of vernacular and conventional building materials in passively regulating indoor-humidity for occupant wellness
Moisture in the built environment
The indoor built environment has a significant impact on the occupant’s physiological, psychological, and behavioral health. Moisture is an important parameter that has a direct bearing on the quality of a built environment.
It impacts nearly all dimensions of a building’s functional performance, i.e., structural, durability, thermal, acoustics, indoor air quality, ventilation /freshness /odor, aesthetics, and also influences the health of occupants. Moisture unifies all parameters of the indoor air, yet strangely remains the least explored.
The vital link between any Building typology and Occupant is indoor air.
Outdoor air parameters (temperature, relative humidity, etc.), transport process through the building envelope, surface moisture buffering, ventilation, exfiltration/ infiltration, evapotranspiration by plants, respiration/ perspiration by occupants, humidification/dehumidification by consumer products determine the moisture in the indoor air.
Case Study: Jamgoria Village Cluster (India)
Jamgoria is located in Bokaro district, in the State of Jharkhand, situated in the eastern part of India. Summers are generally warm and dry, with May being the warmest month (mean temperature is 31.5 degrees Celsius). The lowest averages are seen in January (mean temperature is 16.8 degrees Celsius). Most of the precipitation occurs from June to September. Situated at 214 meters above the mean sea level, this region is the lowest Chotanagpur plateau level, also called the Manbhum area. The building selected is a cluster surrounding a courtyard. Each block is owned by one household of the same family.
Seasonal and Diurnal Indoor Moisture Variations
The indoor humidity variations are dependent upon the building typology/material as observed in the field study. The more hygroscopic materials regulate/dampen the peaks of humidity ratios, keeping it moderated diurnally with respect to the outdoor conditions. The present study examined the change in humidity ratio wrt outdoor (Courtyard) in Vernacular (adobe), later Vernacular (brick/lime & mud mortar) , and Conventional (Brick R.C.C), as illustrated. Highly hydroscopic/porous building materials exhibit a property called “moisture buffering”, that allows the material to moderate any changes in the air humidity levels,. The material absorbs/adsorbs moisture when indoor air humidity is high, and desorbs moisture when indoor air humidity is low.
Investigating the role of humidity on indoor wellness
This study attempts to explain the impact of varying indoor RH in vernacular and conventional building typologies on humidity-related comfort and health outcomes. It involves real-time monitoring and a computational approach. Skin temperature and wettedness have been computed corresponding to real-time indoor conditions in vernacular and conventional buildings based on the energy balance between the skin and indoor air. Humidity is an essential determinant of thermal, respiratory, and skin-related comfort, determining everyday habits like clothing, use of cosmetics etc., water intake etc. thereby impacting health. Although, the current building-simulation tools incorporate examination of thermal comfort associated with humidity, skin and respiratory comfort are not explicitly examined.
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