Experimental Analysis of Natural Gravel Covering as Cool Roofing and Cool Pavement

Anna Laura Pisello, Gloria Pignatta, Veronica Lucia Castaldo and Franco Cotana
Additional contact information
Anna Laura Pisello: CIRIAF (Interuniversity Research Center on Pollution and Environment "Mauro Felli"), University of Perugia, Via G. Duranti 63, Perugia 06125, Italy
Gloria Pignatta: CIRIAF (Interuniversity Research Center on Pollution and Environment "Mauro Felli"), University of Perugia, Via G. Duranti 63, Perugia 06125, Italy
Veronica Lucia Castaldo: CIRIAF (Interuniversity Research Center on Pollution and Environment "Mauro Felli"), University of Perugia, Via G. Duranti 63, Perugia 06125, Italy
Franco Cotana: CIRIAF (Interuniversity Research Center on Pollution and Environment "Mauro Felli"), University of Perugia, Via G. Duranti 63, Perugia 06125, Italy

Sustainability, 2014, vol. 6, issue 8, 1-17

Abstract: Passive solutions for building energy efficiency represent an interesting research focus nowadays. In particular, natural materials are widely investigated for their potential intrinsic high thermal energy and environmental performance. In this view, natural stones represent a promising solution as building envelope covering and urban pavement. This paper concerns the experimental characterization of several low-cost and local gravel coverings for roofs and urban paving, properly selected for their natural high albedo characteristics. To this aim, the in-field albedo of gravel samples is measured with varying grain size. These in-field measurements are compared to in-lab measurements of solar reflectance and thermal emissivity. The analysis shows a significant variation of the albedo with varying grain size. Both in-lab and in-field measurements agree that the stones with the finest grain size, i.e. , fine sand, have the best optic-thermal performance in terms of solar reflectance (62%). This feature results in the reduction of the surface temperature when exposed to solar radiation. Moreover, a natural mixed stone is compared to the high reflectance stone, demonstrating that the chosen stone presents an intrinsic “cool” behavior. Therefore, this natural, low-cost, durable and sustainable material could be successfully considered as a natural cool roof or cool paving solution.

Keywords: cool roof; cool paving; highly reflective gravel; in-field albedo; energy efficiency in buildings; cool pavements; urban heat island; reduction of cooling demand (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/8/4706/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/8/4706/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2014:i:8:p:4706-4722:d:38566

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().