MRT in hot climate

Hi All,

I have been looking at the Honeybee microclimate maps to evaluate external thermal comfort in Dubai. I was looking at the MRT results for shaded and non shaded areas and it seems that we have a difference of 50°C between shaded and exposed areas. Moreover, MRT goes as high as 110°C in exposed aeras, does that seem plausible? Is anyone aware of measuring campaign in those areas?

Attached is a benchmark script.

Thanks for your help,

  • Nicolas

MRT benchmark.gh (616 KB)

Nicolas,

Sorry for the incredibly late reply. What you are seeing is true but it is important to keep in mind that MRT is a theoretical concept and not the actual temperature of a material. Only half of the heat transfer of a given surface is radiant and the convective heat transfer picks up a lot when MRT is this high. So no material ever gets that close to the boiling point of water.

Still, if you need an image of something really hot to justify these numbers, temperatures as high as what you are seeing there are probably enough to melt asphalt or at least fry an egg on the pavement. The sun is very powerful, particularly when you’re observing it at the right time.

-Chris