Thermal Performance Assessment for Stacking Shipping Containers as habitable spaces: Cairo Case Study

Abstract

The world is moving towards reuse, recycling, and low economic buildings in the AEC industry. Among these concepts, the reuse of shipping containers (SC) in architecture has seen a remarkable increase in recent times. Few studies have focused on the thermal performance of different stacking configurations using multiple SCs in hot climates to achieve the most suitable thermal performance and testing different passive design techniques. This study aims to know the most effective stacking configuration as a passive technique not tested before using SC as residential spaces in Cairo by analyzing its effect on their internal thermal performance. This paper presents a comparative analysis of four simulation models as separate residential units, including a control unit, an uninsulated SC, and three types of different configurations, three units horizontally connected, three units vertically connected, and the last model consists of three units connected both horizontally and vertically. The thermal performance of these units is tested as uninsulated SCs in the hottest and coldest days (23 August and 20 January, respectively) in the year using Design-Builder software. The paper concludes that the best configuration of SCs models that contribute to improving SC’s thermal performance in the hot climate is the vertical stacking configuration.