Thermal behaviour of adobe and concrete houses in Yemen

Mud has been well known in the world of construction for millennia. Traditionally, mud construction has been used for centuries in Yemen. The study in this paper is designed to bring out the appropriateness of traditional architecture through the results of a thermal analysis of a modern house and a traditional Yemeni adobe house. Transient heat transfer analysis is carried out in the thermal analysis of the two types of buildings. The quantitative results of the analysis indicate the thermal appropriateness of the mud construction where a major saving of energy consumption can be achieved.