Effects of Wall Shape Changes in Indoor Air Circulation - Studies on Concave and Convex Walls

Abstract

In naturally ventilated environments, indoor temperatures are directly related to the air circulation and conditions of the built environment. Taking natural ventilation as an important comfort source, our aim in this work is to evaluate the design plan interference - in this case, wall shape - on the potential of indoor air circulation to a specific building environment. Indoor air circulation improvements for some simple wall modifications to the original specific plan are analyzed. The specific plan is a prototype of a small habitation module, which was developed to apply the alteration and to evaluate the indoor ventilation changes.A Petrov-Galerkin stabilized finite element method on the Navier-Stokes equations formulated in velocity and pressure variables was used to obtain the wind field. The implemented numerical method ensures stability for the internal constraint imposed by the velocity field and accommodates moderate to large advection effects. By introducing and applying a global circulation index to the obtained wind field, it was possible to determine the wall shape modification alternatives that do or do not increase ventilation and can alter its distribution allowing, in this way, a better adequacy of the built environment for climate needs and its objectives.