Effect of clouds and dust storms on the sky radiation exchange for buildings located in hot–dry climates

Abstract

This article evaluates the impact of effective sky temperatures on building radiation exchange under clear, cloudy, and dusty conditions for extremely hot and dry climates. In part, a dusty sky temperature model has been introduced as a function of atmospheric aerosol optical depth. The sky radiative exchange was evaluated using a one-dimensional transient heat transfer model with numerical calculations performed using the fully implicit finite-difference method. The newly available ASHRAE 2013 clear sky model was evaluated and implemented to calculate the hourly incident solar radiation for a horizontal roof under the extremely hot–dry climate conditions of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Results showed that in clear sky conditions, sky longwave radiation contributes to a reduction of the total heat gain. A daily mean clear sky cooling around 2645 and 2385 W-hr/m2 was estimated for July and January, respectively. In contrast, cloud and dust covers increase effective sky temperature and diminish the role of sky radiative cooling. Depending on severity, the mean contributed sky cooling heat exchange was found to range between 436 and 1636 W-hr/m2 for dust storm and scattered cloudy sky conditions, respectively. Similarly, the ASHRAE 2013 clear sky model and the sky temperature models were shown for four other extremely hot–dry global sites.