Effects of Lateral Window Position and Wind Direction on Wind-Driven Natural Cross Ventilation of a Building: A Computational Approach

M Z I Bangalee,M Ferdows,S Y Lin,J J Miau

doi:10.1155/2014/310358

Abstract

Energy is saved when an effective natural ventilation system can provide comfort air to the occupants in a building by replacing a mechanical ventilation system. It also minimizes the risk of the environmental pollution and the global warming. A one story, full scale building was considered to carry out a comparative study of three different cases of wind-driven natural (WDN) cross ventilation with the help of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In each case, the location of window was changed in lateral direction to predict the probable position for optimum ventilation performance and the angle of wind was varied to check the sensitivity of the wind direction on the flow field. After validating the current methodology through two satisfactory comparisons with the experimental investigations, the governing equations subjected to the corresponding boundary conditions were solved using commercial software and then the results were analyzed. A better location for the windows in each case was proposed. The ventilation purpose was served quite well even if the wind angle was changed in a moderate range from the original design. Furthermore, the velocity components, ventilation rate, surface pressure, ventilation time, and so forth in each case were investigated and compared extensively with those in other cases.

Highlights

Ventilation is a system in which the internal air is continuously replaced from an occupied space by the relatively fresh outside air through vents, windows, doors, and so forth
The grid independence tests were carried out utilizing meshes with up to 3.92 million elements and the results reveal that the discrepancy in the ventilation rate through the inlet was below 1.7% (Figure 3)
Three different cases of wind-driven natural (WDN) cross ventilation systems were studied with the help of computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

Summary

Introduction

Ventilation is a system in which the internal air is continuously replaced from an occupied space by the relatively fresh outside air through vents, windows, doors, and so forth. Forced ventilation is served by powering a mechanical system such as fans, blowers, and so forth to push the external air into the space of interest. Natural ventilation system neither consumes electric power nor needs any mechanical system. It is the system where the flow is induced naturally by the temperature and/or pressure differences between spaces. If the mechanical and the natural components are introduced in conjunction to ventilate the desired space, it is known as hybrid ventilation system. It is useful when the natural ventilation cannot serve the purpose completely due to unexpected weather conditions

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