The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Cross-ventilation in a generic isolated building equipped with louvers: wind-tunnel experiments and CFD simulations

Cross-ventilation in a generic isolated building equipped with louvers: wind-tunnel experiments and CFD simulations
Cross-ventilation in a generic isolated building equipped with louvers: wind-tunnel experiments and CFD simulations

Natural ventilation can be used to improve indoor air quality, remove contaminants from spaces and to remove heat from a building during the day, or during the night. In some cases, openings for natural ventilation are equipped with shading devices – such as louvers – to reduce solar heat gains while allowing natural ventilation. This study presents wind-tunnel experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of a cross-ventilated building equipped with louvers. Four opening positions are studied: (i) openings in the center, (ii) upper or (iii) lower part of the windward and leeward facades or (iv) one opening in the upper part of the windward facade and one opening in the lower part of the leeward facade. The 3D steady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations are performed with three turbulence models (RNG k-ε, SST k-ω, RSM) and validated with the wind-tunnel experiments. The experimental results show that the largest velocities occur in a building with openings in the upper part of the facade. The best agreement with experimental data is provided by RSM. In addition, CFD simulations for buildings without louvers are conducted for the same opening positions to evaluate the effect of louvers on the dimensionless volume flow rate, age of air and air exchange efficiency. The highest dimensionless volume flow rate at reduced scale (0.69) is obtained in the building with louvered openings in the upper part of the facade and the highest air exchange efficiency is achieved for a building with louvered openings in the center of the facade (45%).

Air exchange efficiency, Natural cross-ventilation, Numerical simulations, Ventilation louvers, Ventilative cooling, Wind-tunnel experiments
0360-1323
263-280
Kosutova, Katarina
d8c6d1d6-fa38-48cf-b654-8e6b5f191420
van Hooff, Twan
85188f7d-7088-44cd-9811-8ad376fb0a16
Vanderwel, Christina
fbc030f0-1822-4c3f-8e90-87f3cd8372bb
Blocken, Bert
d16053bf-1772-49a2-aefc-7bb2e2a85d02
Hensen, Jan
234e7e21-fd3d-4c16-99d3-065ff2833a86
Kosutova, Katarina
d8c6d1d6-fa38-48cf-b654-8e6b5f191420
van Hooff, Twan
85188f7d-7088-44cd-9811-8ad376fb0a16
Vanderwel, Christina
fbc030f0-1822-4c3f-8e90-87f3cd8372bb
Blocken, Bert
d16053bf-1772-49a2-aefc-7bb2e2a85d02
Hensen, Jan
234e7e21-fd3d-4c16-99d3-065ff2833a86

Kosutova, Katarina, van Hooff, Twan, Vanderwel, Christina, Blocken, Bert and Hensen, Jan (2019) Cross-ventilation in a generic isolated building equipped with louvers: wind-tunnel experiments and CFD simulations. Building and Environment, 154, 263-280. (doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.03.019).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Natural ventilation can be used to improve indoor air quality, remove contaminants from spaces and to remove heat from a building during the day, or during the night. In some cases, openings for natural ventilation are equipped with shading devices – such as louvers – to reduce solar heat gains while allowing natural ventilation. This study presents wind-tunnel experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of a cross-ventilated building equipped with louvers. Four opening positions are studied: (i) openings in the center, (ii) upper or (iii) lower part of the windward and leeward facades or (iv) one opening in the upper part of the windward facade and one opening in the lower part of the leeward facade. The 3D steady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations are performed with three turbulence models (RNG k-ε, SST k-ω, RSM) and validated with the wind-tunnel experiments. The experimental results show that the largest velocities occur in a building with openings in the upper part of the facade. The best agreement with experimental data is provided by RSM. In addition, CFD simulations for buildings without louvers are conducted for the same opening positions to evaluate the effect of louvers on the dimensionless volume flow rate, age of air and air exchange efficiency. The highest dimensionless volume flow rate at reduced scale (0.69) is obtained in the building with louvered openings in the upper part of the facade and the highest air exchange efficiency is achieved for a building with louvered openings in the center of the facade (45%).

Text
9A_1-s2.0-S0360132319301738-main - Version of Record
Download (8MB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 11 March 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 15 March 2019
Published date: May 2019
Keywords: Air exchange efficiency, Natural cross-ventilation, Numerical simulations, Ventilation louvers, Ventilative cooling, Wind-tunnel experiments

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 429915
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/429915
ISSN: 0360-1323
PURE UUID: 264e09a9-90e6-4897-9801-a93539d2cfb7
ORCID for Christina Vanderwel: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5114-8377

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 09 Apr 2019 16:30
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:30

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Katarina Kosutova
Author: Twan van Hooff
Author: Bert Blocken
Author: Jan Hensen

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×