Applying Computational Fluid Dynamic to Evaluate the Performance of Four-Sided Rectangular Wind Catcher with Different Height

Abstract

Performance of four-sided wind catcher was investigated by numerical method. Wind catcher is one of the vernacular elements which are widely used in hot, hot-dry and hot-humid climates especially in Middle East countries. They are tall towers on the building's roof top with several vents to catcher wind for cooling the interior spaces. In this study six 3D rectangular wind catchers with different channel height were employed based on the review of the wind towers' characteristics with emphasis on their morphology and categorization of the wind towers based on their physical attributes and parameters. In this study also CFD simulations were accomplished to evaluate the effect of height on ventilation rate of wind catcher room. It was found that the height of wind catcher influence the ventilation rate, wind velocity and volume flow rate on different opening of the wind catcher. Generally, wind velocity on windward increased and ventilation rate of room decreased by increasing the wind catcher height.