Experimental study of the performance of porous materials to moderate the roof surface temperature by its evaporative cooling effect

The change of urban surfaces from permeable to impermeable materials, i.e. asphalt or concrete, has caused the rising of surface temperatures, particularly in densely developed cities. The consequences of this problem lead to higher energy consumption, especially for cooling purposes and other environment related issues. This paper aims to investigate the performance of several non-porous and porous potential roofing materials, to determine which ones might best be used to create a more effective system by utilizing their moisture absorption and evaporation capabilities. Here, four kinds of materials—pebbles, silica sand, volcanic ash, and siliceous shale—were tested to evaluate their moisture and thermal performance, including the effects from different particle sizes. First, the necessary physical properties and pore characteristics were obtained. Thus, each material, under simple boundary conditions, was evaluated in an evaporation experiment, to determine comparative moisture and thermal behavior. Next, cyclic experimentation was conducted, in which variations of temperature, relative humidity and simulated solar radiation were included. The measurement results showed that porous materials can satisfactorily lower surface temperature. Among the tested samples, siliceous shale of both small and large particle diameter was found to lower the daily average surface temperature by up to 6.8 and 8.6 °C, respectively. The better performance of large size particles could possibly be caused by the ventilation occurring within the material layers and high solar penetration through the large gaps between particles, which would release more latent heat when compared to materials of smaller particle size. Finally, analysis of surface energy balance suggested that water contents, solar absorptivity, and wind effects all have significant influences on cooling the surface temperature.