Computational and Analytical Study of Trombe Wall Configurations within Bandung Weather Condition

Trombe wall is a building envelope technology that mainly used for passive heating or cooling. Its performance depends greatly on weather condition such as solar irradiation and outdoor air temperature. The heat collected during daytime could be stored in thermal mass wall before transmitted gradually later at night. Assessment of Trombe wall utilization has not been gaining many attention due to potential of overheating occurrence in the afternoon. Bandung City with cooler environment than other cities in Indonesia is chosen as the area to conduct CFD simulation and thermal performance evaluation regarding the temperature and heat gain. Configuration of varied thickness is selected as the primary parameter in which indoor temperatures are being monitored. Simulation results of Trombe models give a consistently higher temperature than conventional wall. As the wall gets thicker, indoor air temperature decreases. The results also show the overheating phenomenon on hot days so that a model of vented Trombe wall is simulated as an alternative modification of Trombe wall configuration. Unfortunately, indoor air temperature only decreases as much of 2.27 degrees C averagely which is still higher than conventional wall model by 6.30 degrees C on average.