Thermal regulation performance of green living walls in buildings

Abstract

Green living wall is an emerging new technology and a sustainable design strategy for high performance green buildings. By using the natural processes of the vegetation, it can provide the potential benefits for mitigating urban heat island, enhancing building’s thermal performance and improving air quality. For densely populated urban cities like Hong Kong, the space available for greening is very limited and green living walls can be applied to the exterior and interior surfaces of buildings to improve the city environment. This research aims to investigate the thermal regulation performance of green living walls. The basic principles and mechanisms of thermal regulation of green living walls were studied. The major characteristics of the heat transfer processes were evaluated and the key factors affecting the thermal regulation were identified. Theoretical models were developed for assessing the thermal regulation performance of different types of green living wall systems. It is hoped that the information obtained can offer useful knowledge and hints for designing and applying green living walls in urban cities.