The Thermal Performance Exploration of Outdoor and Indoor Spaces Using IES & ENVI-me

© 2017 Society for Modeling & Simulation International (SCS). Recent studies have frequently reported the relatively high rate of thermal discomfort in urban spaces during summer time in numerous cities. This clearly indicates the crucial need for applying effective passive design and heat mitigation strategies during the early design phase of urban built environments. Reviewing the recent studies in this area, it is found that there is a growing interest in use of ENVI-met simulation for the purpose of thermal performance investigation of urban areas. However, besides the limitations of ENVI-met simulation, the majority of these studies do not fully take into account the impacts of their findings on indoor environments. As a result, this study proposes a new simulation approach using IES and ENVI-met to better understand the design weaknesses of the existing urban settings and explore the circumstances of thermal performance optimization. Hence, looking at two case studies in Toronto and Kuala Lumpur; the study explores and tests the benefits of the proposed two-phase simulation strategy. The output of this strategy can lead to the development of more effective technical guidelines for the design of thermally comfortable urban areas while taking into account the impact of the proposed configurations on both outdoor and indoor thermal conditions.