Influence of water

[abhilasha.porwal]

Hi, I need to run a simulation to see the cooling effects of water on its surrounding buildings and open spaces. This would include evaluating temperature and humidity differences. Also, this would take the incoming solar radiation into consideration. Is is possible to combine all these to run tests in ecotect? What plug-ins will I need?

[Pennetier1]

Hello abhilasha.porwal, 

No, Ecotect cannot simulate the cooling effect of a body of water to its environment.

The reason for this is that thermal simulations are done for a known volume of air (from a thermal zone).

The cooling effect of a body of water to its environment would actually lower the ambient air temperature itself.

If you happen to know the formulae used to determine the cooling effect of water evaporation, given surface area, temperature and humidity, you may be able to use that to lower the air temperatures from your weather file, to be used for the normal thermal calculations for your thermal zones.

Also, you can use the Weather Tool to look at the potential evaporative cooling effect potential given the particular weather file.  Use the Psychrometric tool > right click > Direct evaporative cooling to see the extent of the comfort zone when this strategy is applied.

Cheers,