On The Profiling of Air Leakage Infiltration Pattern across Chinese Vernacular Buildings

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide understanding of the seasonal pattern of air leakage (infiltration) in Chinese vernacular buildings across China’s five climate regions. In achieving the set purpose, a grand extensive literature survey was conducted and supported with data drawn from established Meteonorm V6.1 on sensible heat and psychrometric variables. Numerical computations for normalized and specific infiltration from stack effects followed the Gowri method in line with ASHRAE reference 2004. Solar energy admittance into building followed Bouger’s model form Angstrom properties. From the distribution of vernacular buildings across five climate regions of China, evidence from computational and numerical values showed symmetries in terms of minimums and maximums times of occurrence. Further, a reciprocal pattern exists between solar radiative admittance and region’s temperature profile. Knowing that Chinese vernacular building heritage extended to further Asia, this research became limited to only the Chinese region. It became difficult to report if the construction culture away from China has correlation with infiltration and energy admittance value. Earlier works on Chinese climate and vernacular dwellings reported a climate responsive dwelling designed by passive cooling strategy; a gap was closed by extending the previous work to specific infiltration pattern and energy admittance level. Chinese vernacular buildings by virtue of research outcomes are and should be adoptable to modern housing needs for cultural integration.