TY - JOUR
T1 - Numerical study on natural ventilation of the wind tower
T2 - Effects of combining with different window configurations in a low-rise house
AU - Wu, Yan
AU - Gao, Naiping
AU - Niu, Jianlei
AU - Zang, Jianbin
AU - Cao, Qiang
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 22120180566 ), and sponsored by Shanghai Sailing Program (No. 19YF1451100 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/1/15
Y1 - 2021/1/15
N2 - Wind tower is a traditional zero-energy natural ventilation device, which is capable of reducing building energy consumption and improving indoor environment. Many studies were conducted for its performance evaluation and design optimization, but most of them are more like underground applications. This paper aims to integrate the wind tower with single-sided natural ventilated house to arrange more desirable indoor air distribution. The ventilation behavior of the wind tower in a low-rise house was firstly compared with a common underground application. Then, effects of combining with different window configurations were investigated. CFD simulations were conducted using well validated numerical models. The results show that local wind environment must be well reproduced to accurately predict indoor airflow. Under the same incoming wind speed, the ventilation effectiveness of the wind tower in the low-rise house is 15%–40% lower than the underground application due to the effect of the separating flow above the roof. Optimizing the roof structure and slope to change the local flow field may improve the ventilation capability of the wind tower. When combining wind tower with different window configurations, setting a window on the windward wall is a more promising solution to improve cross-ventilation, since that the wind tower is in the negative pressure region above the roof. When the indoor temperature is higher than the outdoor, the exhaust wind tower will perform better due to the stack effect. The findings can provide practical implications for the performance evaluation and application of wind tower in contemporary house design.
AB - Wind tower is a traditional zero-energy natural ventilation device, which is capable of reducing building energy consumption and improving indoor environment. Many studies were conducted for its performance evaluation and design optimization, but most of them are more like underground applications. This paper aims to integrate the wind tower with single-sided natural ventilated house to arrange more desirable indoor air distribution. The ventilation behavior of the wind tower in a low-rise house was firstly compared with a common underground application. Then, effects of combining with different window configurations were investigated. CFD simulations were conducted using well validated numerical models. The results show that local wind environment must be well reproduced to accurately predict indoor airflow. Under the same incoming wind speed, the ventilation effectiveness of the wind tower in the low-rise house is 15%–40% lower than the underground application due to the effect of the separating flow above the roof. Optimizing the roof structure and slope to change the local flow field may improve the ventilation capability of the wind tower. When combining wind tower with different window configurations, setting a window on the windward wall is a more promising solution to improve cross-ventilation, since that the wind tower is in the negative pressure region above the roof. When the indoor temperature is higher than the outdoor, the exhaust wind tower will perform better due to the stack effect. The findings can provide practical implications for the performance evaluation and application of wind tower in contemporary house design.
KW - CFD
KW - Indoor airflow arrangement
KW - Natural ventilation
KW - Ventilation performance
KW - Wind tower
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85096524163&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.107450
DO - 10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.107450
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85096524163
SN - 0360-1323
VL - 188
JO - Building and Environment
JF - Building and Environment
M1 - 107450
ER -