Using the central ventilation shaft design within public buildings for natural aeration enhancement

The natural ventilation of buildings can be closely related to building design. The object of this investigation is to conduct computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations and field measurements for studying the natural ventilation effectiveness of office space in a common public building with a built-in central ventilation shaft (CVS). The aeration flow behavior was predicted and compared with the measured air velocity and temperature data at 16 monitoring positions over three different floors inside the main building to validate the computer software as well as attain a better understanding of the natural ventilation mechanism associated with the interaction of the wind with the building. CFD simulations were also extended to examine the design impacts of removing the CVS and reducing the cross-sectional area to a half-sized CVS on the building aeration performance in terms of the air exchange rate per hour (ACH) and the adaptive comfort standard (ACS) and predicted mean vote (PMV) results. This CFD simulation procedure can serve as a useful analysis tool to facilitate architects for improving the natural ventilation design of buildings during their decision-making process.