Wind-induced ventilation performances and airflow characteristics in an areaway-attached basement with a single-sided opening

In the present study, we performed both wind tunnel experiments and numerical simulations on a scale model with the focus on wind-driven natural ventilation in an areaway-attached basement with a single-sided opening. In the experiments, the mean value of the effective ventilation rate, purging flow rate (PFR) was measured for nine wind incidence angels based on the homogeneous emission rate method. The experimental results were used to validate two numerical approaches: Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) modeling and large-eddy simulation (LES). The influences of inflow turbulent fluctuations for LES modeling were also examined. The comparisons between the experiment and the numerical simulation indicate that LES can provide more accurate results than RANS and the inflow turbulent fluctuations should be taken into account for LES modeling. Based on LES with the inflow turbulent fluctuations, the mean airflow patterns within and around the areaway-attached basement were further studied for different wind incidence angles to investigate the influence of wind direction on ventilation performance in the areaway space. Furthermore, the relationships between the effective ventilation rate and the kinetic energy in the basement space were analyzed for three wind directions: 0°, 90° and 180°. A close correlation was found between the mean values, whereas the corresponding time variations showed large discrepancies. Finally, we compared the effective ventilation rate obtained using the homogeneous emission rate method and the airflow rates through the opening using two integration procedures. The effective ventilation rates were found lower than the airflow rates through the opening.     

Computational analysis of wind driven natural ventilation in buildings

The design of natural ventilation in buildings is often performed by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques, whose application is gaining popularity. In the present study, Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equation (RANS) approach is applied to wind driven natural ventilation in a cubic building. Two different models are considered, namely the two-equation k–ɛ model and the Renormalization Group (RNG) theory. The velocity and pressure distribution inside and around the building are determined, as well as the ventilation rate, for three different configurations: cross ventilation, single-sided ventilation with an opening on the windward wall and single-sided ventilation with an opening on the leeward wall. The numerical results are compared with experimental data, showing a good agreement, particularly when using RNG. The discrepancy in the determination of the ventilation rate is reasonable and the flow distribution inside the building is properly described when RNG model is used. However, the k–ɛ model fails to determine the correct velocity components near the horizontal surfaces. According to these results, the RNG model can be considered a useful tool for the study of wind driven natural ventilation, especially for the assessment of the ventilation rate and of the air distribution inside a room.     

香港地区高层住宅单体建筑风压系数的研究

调查了香港住宅建筑的布局形式，使用LES模型对常见布局建筑的外流场进行了数值模拟，得到了建筑外表面风压系数的分布。给出了增强自然通风的设计建议。     

Single-sided natural ventilation driven by wind pressure and temperature difference

Even though opening a window for ventilation of a room seems very simple, the flow that occurs in this situation is rather complicated. The amount of air going through the window opening will depend on the wind speed near the building, the temperatures inside and outside the room, the wind direction, the turbulence characteristics in the wind and the pressure variations caused by e.g. wind gusts. Finally, it also depends on the size, type and location of the opening. Many of these parameters are unsteady which makes the calculation of air-change rates even more complicated. In this work, full-scale wind tunnel experiments have been made with the aim of making a new expression for calculation of the airflow rate in single-sided natural ventilation. During the wind tunnel experiments it was found that the dominating driving force differs between wind speed and temperature difference depending on the ratio between the forces and the wind direction. This change is also found in the velocity profiles measured in the opening, which might change from wind dominated to temperature dominated under the same wind direction but with increasing temperature difference.     

Experimental and numerical investigation on the distribution characteristics of wind pressure coefficient of airflow around enclosed and open-window buildings

In the present paper, the distribution characteristics of the wind pressure coefficient of the air flow around enclosed and open-window buildings were studied by using wind tunnel model tests and numerical analyses. A typical high-rise building model was designed and wind tunnel tests were performed for the airflow around the building for an enclosed and an open-window condition. The experimental findings were complemented by the numerical analysis. This study shows that the opening windows of a building has little influence on the wind pressure coefficients in the area around the window of adjacent area from window edge; the wind pressure coefficient increases slightly after opening the windows of the buildings. Opening the windows in the rooms adjacent to this window decreases the ventilation efficiency of the room although the influence is small. The time-average value of the wind pressure coefficient can effectively represent the magnitude of the instantaneous wind pressure coefficient. The wind pressure coefficient is independent of the wind velocity of inflow. Furthermore, this study also proposed the distribution characteristics of wind pressure coefficients with different incident angles of wind.     

External flow effects on the discharge coefficients of two types of ventilation opening

Envelope flow models are commonly used in the design of naturally ventilated buildings. Such models rely on specification of the discharge coefficient, C_z, of ventilation openings, such as air vents and chimneys (stacks). Current practice is to make use of values obtained from laboratory tests under still-air conditions. These values may not be appropriate when the ventilation is due to wind, due to the external flow around the opening which is characterized by unsteadiness of both the velocity and pressure fields. Experimental tests have been carried out in a wind tunnel on two types of openings, namely a sharp-edged orifice (flush to the wall) and a long opening (chimney). Using an analytic result for the still-air case and simple dimensional analysis it is argued that the local crossflow velocity ratio, V/u, is an important parameter for the orifice and the experimental results support this (as do some simple CFD calculations). The experimental results for the sharp-edged opening are similar to earlier work on generally larger openings. For the long opening the effects of external flow are smaller. In particular, the effects are negligible when the outlet of the opening lies in the external flow. Estimates are made of the consequential uncertainties arising in envelope flow calculations for natural ventilation design.     

Full scale experimental study of single-sided ventilation: Analysis of stack and wind effects

Natural ventilation can contribute to the reduction of the air conditioning demand and to the improvement of thermal comfort in buildings. In this paper, the flow field and the air change rate generated by a simple configuration of natural ventilation, namely single-sided ventilation, are examined experimentally. The experiments are realized in a full scale building exposed to outdoor conditions, using several measurement techniques. The main features of the flow generated by stack and wind effect are examined for different outdoor conditions (temperature difference, wind speed and direction). Finally, measured air change rates are compared to those calculated by existing correlations in order to analyze their applicability to the experimental configuration. Results show that the wind generates turbulence diffusion at the opening, counteracting the stack effect. Moreover, in the case of windward opening, there is an additional effect, namely the effect of mixing layer, which tends to increase the airflow rate. Existing correlations give reasonably good results in the case of windward opening, while in the case of leeward opening they overestimate the airflow rate.     

A laboratory experiment of shear-induced natural ventilation

When the wind direction is parallel to the opening façade, the wind shear near the building opening generates turbulence and entrains air across the opening. This kind of shear-induced ventilation cannot be predicted by the orifice equation because the time-averaged pressure difference across the opening is close to zero. This study uses wind tunnel experiments and the tracer gas decay method to investigate the ventilation rate of shear-induced ventilation. The influences of opening area A, external wind speed U and wind direction on the ventilation rates Q, of single-sided and two-sided openings are systemically examined. The experimental results indicate that the dimensionless ventilation rate, Q^* = Q/UA, of shear-induced ventilation is independent of the wind speed and opening area, and the value of Q^* of two-sided openings is larger than that of a single-sided opening. In addition, a cosine law was used to predict the ventilation rate of building with two-sided openings under various wind directions, and the results are compared with the prediction of the multizone ventilation model COMIS.     

Airflow assessment in cross-ventilated buildings with operable façade elements

This paper presents an experimental study of basic cross-ventilation flow characteristics that are essential inputs for accurate natural ventilation modelling and design. The study focuses on a generic single-zone building model tested in a wind tunnel under isothermal flow conditions (wind-driven ventilation). An advanced experimental method based on particle image velocimetry (PIV) was developed to investigate the air velocity field in buildings with cross-ventilation. It was found that airflow patterns in rooms with cross-ventilation are complex and cannot be predicted by simplified macroscopic models such as the orifice equation. Inlet-to-outlet ratio and relative location of openings on a building façade are important parameters to be considered, in addition to the wall porosity. This study provides new insights that enable improved design and control of operable façade elements to enhance space cooling using natural ventilation.     

Experimental and numerical study on natural ventilation performance of various multi-opening wind catchers

Wind catcher as a natural ventilation system is increasingly used in modern buildings to minimize the consumption of non-renewable energy and reduce the harmful emissions. Height, cross section of the air passages and also place and the number of openings are the main factors which affect the ventilation performance of a wind catcher structure. In this study, experimental wind tunnel, smoke visualization testing and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling were conducted to investigate ventilation performance of wind catchers with different number of openings to find how the number of opening affects hydrodynamic behavior of wind catchers. To achieve this particular aim, five cylindrical models with same cross section areas and same heights were employed. The cross sections of all these wind catchers were divided internally into various segments to get two-sided, three-sided, four-sided, six-sided and twelve-sided wind catchers. The experimental investigations were conducted in an open circuit subsonic wind tunnel. For all these five shapes, the ventilated air flow rate into the test room was measured at different air incident angles. Numerical solutions were used for all these five configurations to validate the proposed measuring techniques and the corresponding wind tunnel results. The results show that the number of openings is a main factor in performance of wind catcher systems. It also shows that the sensitivity of the performance of different wind catchers related to the wind angle decreases by increasing the number of openings. Moreover, comparing with a circular wind catcher a rectangular system provides a higher efficiency.     

A comparison between CFD and Network models for predicting wind-driven ventilation in buildings

The aim of this paper is to compare the implementation of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and Network models for airflow rate estimation in buildings. The CFD software used is Fluent 5.5. Comparison between the predicted and simulated airflow rate is suggested as a validation method of the implemented CFD code, while the common practice is to compare CFD outputs to wind tunnel or full-scale measurements. This could be useful for studies that have no access to laboratory or full-scale testing facilities. Results obtained from testing a number of cases have been compared and analysed, considering normal and oblique wind directions. The comparison held between mathematical and CFD results generally showed a good agreement, which seems to justify the use of CFD code for predicting natural ventilation in buildings.     

严寒地区住宅建筑冬季通风研究

针对严寒地区节能住宅建筑冬季卫生通风不足的问题，本文应用Fluent软件对安装通风装置的示范住宅建筑的室外风场、室内气流组织及温度分布进行模拟研究并实测室内空气温度场。在严寒地区，为保证适当的卫生通风和气流组织，应加强热压的作用，而尽量避免风压的不利影响。对严寒地区典型的建筑住区不同尺度的外部风环境模拟分析结果表明：除建筑住区的迎风面建筑外，整个建筑住区及建筑子区内风场分布较为均匀，符合严寒地区冬季避免冷风侵入耗热量的建筑节能设计。为避免迎风面建筑较高层住宅的背风向房间出现进风口变为排风口的现象，需加强屋顶排风风口处的引风作用；示范性通风建筑室内的进风角度及安装位置、建筑构件、家具的材料以及家具摆放位置等是影响室内热舒适性和室内气流组织的主要原因。     

A hybrid RANS and kinematic simulation of wind load effects on full-scale tall buildings

Up till recent years, predicting wind loads on full-scale tall buildings using Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is still impractical due to a prohibitively large amount of meshes required, especially in the vicinity of the near-wall layers of the turbulent flow. A hybrid approach is proposed for solving pressure fluctuations of wind flows around tall buildings based on the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulation, which requires coarse meshes, and the mesh-free Kinematic Simulation (KS). While RANS is commonly used to provide mean flow characteristics of turbulent airflows, KS is able to generate an artificial fluctuating velocity field that satisfies both the flow continuity condition and the specific energy spectra of atmospheric turbulence. The kinetic energy is split along three orthogonal directions to account for anisotropic effects in atmospheric boundary layer. The periodic vortex shedding effects can partially be incorporated by the use of an energy density function peaked at a Strouhal wave number. The pressure fluctuations can then be obtained by solving the Poisson equation corresponding to the generated velocity fluctuation field by the KS. An example of the CAARC building demonstrates the efficiency of the synthesized approach and shows good agreements with the results of LES and wind tunnel measurements.     

An experimental study of wind-driven cross ventilation in partitioned buildings

This study uses wind tunnel experiments to investigate wind-driven cross ventilation in partitioned buildings. The discharge coefficients of internal opening under various flow conditions were determined by a fan technique. It was found that the internal discharge coefficient is dependent on the internal porosity, but independent of external porosity, and opening location. Based on the experimental results, a predictive model for internal pressure and ventilation rate of multi-room buildings was developed and verified. This model also revealed that the ventilation rate increases as the internal porosity increases, and that the maximum ventilation rate occurs when the windward and leeward opening areas are equal. Because internal partitions reduce the difference between external and internal pressure, the ventilation rate of partitioned buildings is always smaller than that of buildings without partition. Furthermore, this study provides a quantitative scheme to regulate the ventilation rate of partitioned buildings by controlling the opening areas of windward, leeward and internal openings.     

The assessment of the performance of a windcatcher system using computational fluid dynamics

Natural ventilation is increasingly being used in modern residential buildings to minimize the consumption of non-renewable energy and the reliance on active means for environmental control. Innovative green features such as the windcatcher has made use of natural ventilation in residential buildings for increasing ventilation rate. This paper presents a numerical study of assessment of the performance of windcatcher using computational fluid dynamics. A 500 mm square windcatcher system connected to the room has been modeled for different wind speeds in the range of 0.5–6 m/s and four different wind directions. The numerical results generally agree with the published experimental results of a wind tunnel experiment. The numerical results demonstrate that the windcatcher performance is greatly influenced by the external wind speed and direction with respect to the windcatcher quadrants. In all cases studied, the maximum velocity of air entering the room is close to the external wind speed and the windcatcher system is found to be an efficient way to channel fresh air into the room. The study also shows that the airflow rate of the air entering the room increases with the wind speed and slightly decreases with the wind incidence angle when the wind speed is lower than 3 m/s. In addition, the results show that the uniformity of air inlet decreases with increasing the wind speed and the incidence angle.     

基于天气预报模式和大涡模拟的台风风场多尺度耦合数值模拟

结合2015年第1509号超强台风“灿鸿”期间在杭州九堡大桥的现场实测数据,基于WRF(weather research and forecasting)和LES(大涡模拟)的台风多尺度耦合数值模拟方法,重现了台风“灿鸿”的中小尺度发展演化过程,并对九堡大桥周边台风风场进行多尺度精细化模拟;以多项式插值的方式解决疏网格向密网格的背景风场要素降尺度耦合问题;最后通过大涡模拟获得了九堡大桥周边地区30min瞬态台风风场数据。模拟得到的瞬态风速结果与实测数据在统计意义上较为吻合,表明WRF-LES耦合系统能实现从气象中尺度到建筑小尺度的多尺度数值模拟,有效地获取一次台风过程中目标区域的瞬态台风风场。NSRFG(narrowband synthesis random flow generator)方法生成的入口脉动风速适用于局部台风风场的LES计算,模拟所得风速功率谱与实测结果在低频段基本一致。     

自然通风在现代建筑中的应用

本文针对目前建筑中在过渡季节存在过热的问题,提出自然通风是过渡季节最经济有效的通风换气方式。通过分析自然通风的机理和条件,提出了在建筑中应用自然通风的方法,并给出了最小开窗面积的计算方法,强调自然通风的实现与周边风场的关系,在建筑中实现自然通风应很好地结合建筑风场和建筑开窗情况优化气流组织。     

Numerical evaluation of wind effects on a tall steel building by CFD

A comprehensive numerical study of wind effects on the Commonwealth Advisory Aeronautical Council (CAARC) standard tall building is presented in this paper. The techniques of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), such as Large Eddy Simulation (LES), Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes Equations (RANS) Model etc., were adopted in this study to predict wind loads on and wind flows around the building. The main objective of this study is to explore an effective and reliable approach for evaluation of wind effects on tall buildings by CFD techniques. The computed results were compared with extensive experimental data which were obtained at seven wind tunnels. The reasons to cause the discrepancies of the numerical predictions and experimental results were identified and discussed. It was found through the comparison that the LES with a dynamic subgrid-scale (SGS) model can give satisfactory predictions for mean and dynamic wind loads on the tall building, while the RANS model with modifications can yield encouraging results in most cases and has the advantage of providing rapid solutions. Furthermore, it was observed that typical features of the flow fields around such a surface-mounted bluff body standing in atmospheric boundary layers can be captured numerically. It was found that the velocity profile of the approaching wind flow mainly influences the mean pressure coefficients on the building and the incident turbulence intensity profile has a significant effect on the fluctuating wind forces. Therefore, it is necessary to correctly simulate both the incident wind velocity profile and turbulence intensity profile in CFD computations to accurately predict wind effects on tall buildings. The recommended CFD techniques and associated numerical treatments provide an effective way for designers to assess wind effects on a tall building and the need for a detailed wind tunnel test.     

Sensitivity of air change rates in a naturally ventilated atrium space subject to variations in external wind speed and direction

Design guidelines for natural ventilation (NV) in buildings focus on the potential hourly air change (ACH) rates based on the building space parameters. Critically, external airflow data is often assumed on the basis of a single mean wind speed and an associated prevailing wind direction. This can result in significant variation in ventilation rates and comfort conditions when non-design external wind conditions prevail. This paper describes a CFD study aimed at examining the influence of variations in external wind speed and direction on the air change rate for the atrium space of a two-storey naturally ventilated building. The building atrium is ventilated by a series of entry vents on one wall of the building in conjunction with roof vents. External wind speeds from 25 to 250% of the mean site wind speed (5.7 m/s) were examined and found to result in an almost linear increase in the ACH rate. For a single wind speed, the relationship between wind direction and the ACH rate was also found to be approximately linear for wind directions between 0° and 90° (orthogonal and parallel) to the wall vent openings, but non-linear for other wind directions (90–135°). More generally, the significant variation in the atrium ACH rate with changes in external wind conditions, evident in this particular building model, illustrates the importance of considering non-design wind conditions when designing NV buildings.     

建筑环境设计模拟分析软件DeST第8讲自然通风与机械通风系统的联合模拟分析

建筑通风对建筑环境的影响是直接而迅速的,因此对建筑热环境的模拟必须解决建筑通风的模拟问题。建筑的通风包括自然通风和机械通风,二者本质相同并且经常是同时发生的,计算时应该一起考虑,而不是分离开来。详细介绍了建筑热环境模拟软件DeST中根据多区域网络模型和管道流体网络模型发展出来的建筑通风的统一的网络模型,介绍其求解方法,并给出了建筑中常见的通风支路阻力模型,实现了建筑热环境和自然通风真正的耦合模拟。通过介绍几个利用通风模拟来分析解决设计中问题的实例,指出了建筑通风模拟的应用范围和实际意义。