Passive Cooling Solution for Heat Stress Mitigation

Summary

The project aims to develop passive cooling technique for mitigating heat-stress due to climate change for a low-income community for developing countries. As the world warms up owing to climate change, the demand for cooling is growing rapidly. People need cooling to protect themselves from extreme heat and to remain productive. Temperature plays a crucial role in human health, with thermoregulation of the body constantly occurring with the aim of maintaining a constant core body temperature typically between 36-37°C. An acute increase in core body temperature causes the clinical syndromes of heat cramps, heat syncope, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke. Symptoms range from extremity swelling, muscle spasms, light-headedness, fatigue, headache, and nausea, to hypotension, hyperventilation, tachycardia, seizures, coma, and ultimately death. An acute increase in core body temperature is more likely to occur when exposure to temperatures higher than usual is prolonged (such as during heat waves), when the humidity is also high, and when individuals lack access to water. In addition to the aforementioned clinical heat-related syndromes, elevated temperatures have negative effects on human populations. A recent systematic review by Chevance et al. showed that higher temperatures are associated with poorer sleep outcomes. Poor sleep is associated with the development of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, cancer, mental health disorders, and accidents. Increased temperatures reduce physiological capacity, leading to lower productivity, higher workplace injury, higher worker attrition, loss of income, and greater reliance on younger workers in indoor factories. In dwellings, hot nights result in a lack of sleep, with everyday activities affected by daytime temperatures, impacting both health and well-being. 

The aim of this project is to establish the effect of easy and inexpensive passive cooling interventions on the climatic conditions inside buildings. This will be achieved though our objectives:

1. To establish stakeholder mapping for implementing passive cooling systems 
2. To establish the participants’ cooling needs, interventions and expectations 
3. To establish a sample data set of the impact of heat stress on physical and mental well-being
4. To Develop CFD modelling for investigating the impact of passive cooling intervention
5. To develop experimental setup to investigate the impact of passive cooling intervention
6. To develop machine learning algorithm to develop predictive model to speed up the design and interventions 

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