Publications

The definition of climatic zones is characterized as an important tool for the planning of buildings adapted to the local climatic context. The assessment of climate impacts on buildings is relevant since it influences their energy performance, especially in regions with high climatic specificity, such as the Brazilian semiarid region. In this context, the objective of this work was to propose climatic zones for the Brazilian semiarid using multivariate statistical techniques and to evaluate passive thermal conditioning strategies for the proposed climatic zones, based on thermal energy simulations. Principal component analysis (ACP) was used to select the variables with the greatest influence and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was used to spatially define climatically homogeneous zones. For each established zone, the most appropriate constructive thermal conditioning strategies were defined, as well as the thermal indexes of heat and degrees hours of cooling and heating were calculated. Thermo-energetic simulations were carried out to evaluate the strategies defined considering five municipalities representative of the established climatic zones: Apodi/RN, Oeiras/PI, Palmeira dos Índios/AL, Buritirama/BA, and Águas Vermelhas/MG. Natural ventilation strategies were analyzed, subdivided into natural diurnal ventilation, natural nocturnal ventilation, windows open 24 hours and windows closed 24 hours, in addition to the strategy of thermal inertia with solar heating. The evaluation of the simulations took place from the indicators of thermal balance, adaptive thermal comfort, and degrees of heating and cooling. As result, the ACP made it possible to reduce the initial database from 104 to 48 variables, among which the variables related to temperature stand out. From the HCA, five climatic zones were defined, for which there was a high demand for constructive thermal conditioning strategies. Among the simulated natural ventilation strategies, the use of windows open 24 hours and during the night is characterized as a good alternative to reduce hours of discomfort due to heat in buildings inserted in Zones 1, 2, 3, and 4. These strategies promoted higher percentages of thermal comfort, as well as a lower need for degrees-hour of cooling. For Zone 5, the natural ventilation strategy with windows open only during the day is the most recommended. The strategy of thermal inertia with solar heating evaluated for this zone promoted a reduction in discomfort due to cold during the winter, but an increase in discomfort due to heat and the need for degree-hours of cooling in the other months. In this way, the zoning proposed in this study has great potential for application for constructive planning more adapted to the climatic aspects of the Brazilian semiarid region, contributing to the increase in the energy efficiency of buildings. Finally, complementary analyzes are suggested for a better application of the thermal inertia strategy in buildings inserted in this region.