Simplified analysis of naturally ventilated desert buildings

Abstract

The verification of a simplified thermal analysis procedure and its application to naturally ventilated desert buildings are discussed. Measurements for buildings in the Negev Desert, done independently by the Desert Architecture Unit of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research, were inter alia used to verify the simplified thermal analysis procedure QUICK, developed by the Centre for Experimental and Numerical Thermoflow. As detailed information for validation purposes is not always readily available to researchers, the measurements as well as the buildings' descriptions are given in detail in this paper. The effect of natural ventilation strategies on the indoor air temperatures is also investigated for the desert buildings. A simplified but novel procedure to calculate the air change rates through the building from the measured wind speeds, building geometry and surroundings is proposed. Hourly air change rates determined with the proposed procedure are employed in the simulations with QUICK. The simulations and measurements showed that sensible ventilation strategies for certain buildings may reduce the maximum indoor temperature by as much as 2°C. It is now possible to establish such strategies at the early design stage.