Influence of grass cover on flat reinforced concrete slabs in a tropical climate

Abstract

Reinforced concrete slab is a better alternative to regain the land due to the buildings because available land is insufficient for usage with respect to the rate of urbanization. However, the reinforced concrete roof slabs do not perform in acceptable level in tropical countries with warm humid climate condition and tend to act as heated bodies which emit long wave radiation to the occupants. As a solution, a green roof is proposed and its thermal performance was determined experimentally using small scale models. Using experimental results, large scale building models were developed to simulate the indoor thermal performance of green roofs and it is shown that the green roof provide satisfactory indoor thermal performance while providing many other benefits such as enhancing aesthetic and regaining lost land for the building.