Innovative Solutions and Performance Assessment of Green Roofs - Materials, Technology Aspects and Building Passive Cooling

The Monograph deals with the study of different green roof configurations by varying the materials used, in order to propose an innovative technological solution. In addition, this Monograph aims to increase the scientific knowledge on building passive cooling, which is one of the main benefits of green roofs. Firstly, a thorough bibliographical survey was carried out concerning the technological aspects in green roofs. The numerical analysis involved the performance of different commercial solutions, in order to identify those with the highest energy performance, even in the case of building retrofitting. Based on scientific literature and numerical analysis results, two experimental set-ups have been designed and installed. The first, built at the University of Catania, aimed to determine the thermal performance of an innovative technology that involved the polyethylene granule, coming from the regeneration of films released in agriculture, as drainage material. The second, built at the University of Lleida (Spain), had the objective of assessing the passive cooling due to evapotranspirative phenomena of green roof, varying the irrigation regime, and correlating it both to the energy performance and the microclimatic conditions.