State-of-the-art of noise control in openings for natural ventilation and its applicability to the comfort in regions of tropical climate

The environmental sustainability requires the development of natural ventilation technologies to enhance occupant comfort since this strategy can improve thermal comfort and air quality in indoor spaces, decreasing the energy consumption. On the other hand, urban noise has a substantial growing impact in the citizens' health. In the last 20 years, many researches have been carried out in order to understand the paradoxical relationships between two important variables of comfort: acoustics and thermal. Many strategies were studied and published, such as windows, double facades, balconies, active noise control, hybrid approaches, acoustic shutters, ventilated lintels and sills, as well as other facade elements. However, most of this research comes from regions of temperate climates, mainly China and European countries. It is not known the potential from the studied devices and systems for removing thermal load and to provide thermal comfort for countries located between tropics. Furthermore, it was noticed that most of the works prioritize the issue of acoustics over the thermal one, both in their methodological procedures and in their results and discussions. Therefore, this paper aims to gather these researches bringing them to the tropical climatic reality.