Evaluating wind-driven natural ventilation potential for early building design

Abstract

Natural ventilation is widely applied in buildings considering its potential of improving indoor air quality and saving building energy costs. However, to evaluate its viability and determine the ventilation rates quickly and relatively accurately during early design stage is challenging. This paper explores a fast and accurate evaluation approach in the form of empirical equations to estimate the ventilation rate and potential of wind-driven natural ventilation. By using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with results validated for both cross and single natural ventilation strategies, this study conducted a series of simulations to determine critical ventilation coefficients for the empirical equations as functions of wind direction, speed and building height. The proposed evaluation approach could help architects and engineers to evaluate the viability of natural ventilation during early building design. This approach was also demonstrated to evaluate the potential of natural ventilation in 65 cities of North America so a series of natural ventilation potential maps were generated for a better understanding of natural ventilation potential in different climates and for the climate-conscious design of buildings in North America.