BLOCK A

Natural and Hybrid Ventilation

Chapter A8 Calculating
Natural Ventilation Rates

Calculating ventilation rates

The calculation of ventilation rate involves:
Identifying the ventilation openings;
Determining the pressures acting on each opening;
Applying the flow equations at each opening;
Obtaining a flow balance so that the air entering the building
(and individual zones in a building) is balanced by the outgoing
air.
Here we are mainly concerned with the flow balance calculation. Such
calculations are needed to:
Size ventilation openings as part of a ventilation design;
Check on the adequacy of a ventilation design;
Determine the need for and develop a hybrid ventilation strategy

Calculation techniques

Suitable calculation techniques include:

Single zone network models;
Multi zone network models;
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

Single Zone Network Models

A naturally ventilated building consists of a series of openings through which air will
pass. These openings include:

Purpose provided openings (e.g vents and windows as described in chapter A3);
Adventitious infiltration openings.

In assessing the natural ventilation performance of a building, both types of openings

must be included. Even although buildings are less leaky than in the past, gaps and
cracks can still adversely add to flow rates, especially in winter when driving forces
are usually higher.

Calculating the Natural Ventilation Rate

The calculation of naturally induced airflow through the building

requires the following steps:
Apply the general flow equation (chapter A4) to each path;
Calculate wind pressure for each path;
Calculate stack pressure for each path;
Determine the total pressure (add wind +stack) for each path;
Determine an internal pressure for the space such that the total
airflow into a space is balanced by the total airflow out of the
space.
This final step is the central component of ventilation calculations.
Except for very simple networks, the calculation is not direct and the
process of iteration is required. It is this element that makes
ventilation calculation approaches so difficult to follow.

Balancing air flow

Taking all the flow paths, the conservation of mass requires a flow balance between
the ingoing and outgoing airflow. This is expressed by:
j

Q
i 1

(kg/s)

(A8.1)

where:
i = Density of air flowing through flow path i (kg/m3);
Qi = Volume airflow rate through flow path i (m3/s).

The air density, i, of incoming air is given by that of the value for the outside air
while, for outflowing air, it is given by that of the internal air density. If the density
differences between the internal and external air masses are negligible in comparison
to the magnitude of the overall density of air then density term may be ignored and,
instead, calculation can be considered in terms of conservation of volume flow rather
than mass flow. Working in terms of volume flow rate rather than mass flow rate
helps simplify iterative calculation and presents results in the familiar format of
volume flow.
Thus Equation (A8.1) above is simplified to:
(A8.2)
j

i 1

Qi 0

Balancing air flow

To determine the flow rate through each flow path, it is necessary to express Qi by
the chosen flow equation (in this module the popular power law equation is used
although alternative equations such as the quadratic approach are equally
applicable). The power law equation gives:
(A8.3)
j

C p
i 1

ni

Where:
Ci and ni = the flow coefficient and flow exponent of the ith flow path
respectively;
(pi)
= the pressure difference acting across the path.
The pressure difference (pi) is made up of the wind and stack pressure acting on
the outside of the opening and the internal pressure of the space, pint. This internal
pressure adjusts itself to preserve flow balance and is the unknown that must be
determined in order to calculate the flow through each opening.

Balancing air flow

For the airflows to add up to zero therefore some flows must be positive (air coming
into the building) and others must be negative (air leaving the building). This means,
also, that some ps will be positive and some ps will be negative. Unfortunately it
is not possible to raise a negative p to the power n and therefore some
rearrangement of the Equation 8.3 above is needed. Incorporating this
rearrangement and replacing pi by pi - pint gives:

C
i 1

pi pint

(Term 1) (Term 2)

ni

pi pint

pi pint

(Term 3)

In this rearrangement, Term 2 is always positive (and hence can be raised to the
power n) while term three becomes either +1 or -1 and hence defines the flow
direction.

Single Zone Network Models

Advantages
The single cell network approach offers many advantages. These include:
Comparative ease of calculation;
The incorporation of any number of flow paths;
The inclusion of any combination of wind, stack and mechanically induced
pressures;
The ability to assess the effect of flow path distribution on air change rates);
The ability to identify the flow direction and the magnitude of the flow rate
through each of the defined openings;
The calculation of internal pressure;
The ability to determine the neutral pressure plane using the external and
internal pressure data.
Disadvantages
Only applicable to buildings that can be approximated by a zone of single
uniform pressure;

Multi-Zone Network Models

A Multizone network model is an approach in which individual rooms or

zones within a space are separately divided. This approach is needed when
internal partitioning presents an impedance to the movement of air.

Multi-Zone Network Models

any number of flow paths, terminating within each internal zone, can be
selected to represent leakage openings in the building envelope.
Additionally paths are selected to represent leakage openings across
internal zones. For the m'th such zone with a total of j flow paths, the mass
flow balance is given by:

jm

im 1

im im

pim pm

nim

pim pm

pim pm

For q zones the mass balance is applied to each zone to give:

jm

(
m 1 im 1

im im

pim pm

nim

pim pm

pim pm

) 0

Multi-Zone Network Models

Unlike the 'single zone' approach, where there was only one internal
pressure to determine, there are now many values. This adds considerably
to the complexity of the numerical solution method.

Treatment of Single Sided Openings: wind effect

Based upon full-scale measurements and wind-tunnel studies, a

simple empirical equation has been derived to predict wind driven
ventilation:
(A8.7)

Q k.A.Uref

Where,
A is the area of opening and
Uref is the speed of the undisturbed wind at the height of the
building containing the space under consideration.
In practice the value of k will depend upon a number of factors,
including wind direction relative to the faade containing the
opening, surrounding structures and any local obstruction at the
surface of the building in proximity of the opening. However, a
conservative value for design purposes may be taken as 0.025.

Treatment of Single Sided Openings: stack effect

The basic equations for stack effect set out in Section A6.1 can be
applied to flow through a single opening. The neutral plane (see
Figure A6.1) occurs within the opening and, if internal air
temperature is higher than outside air, air flow out above the
opening and in at the lower part of the opening. The position of the
neutral plane is determined by the equality of the mass flow in and
mass flow out. For a plane rectangular opening of height, h, and
area A, the ventilation rate is given by the following equation;

A .h.g
Q Cd . .

3 273

0.5

where,
is the difference between internal and external air temperature
q is the mean of internal and external air temperatures
g is the gravitational constant
Cd is the discharge coefficient of the opening (see Chapter A4)

Treatment of Single Sided Openings:

Stack and Wind

In the case of both wind and temperature difference being present,

the contribution due to wind and stack effect should be determined
separately and the larger of the two values applied.

Self assessment questions

A8.1 For the figure and conditions illustrated calculate the flow airflow rate
through openings A1 and A2 assuming wind driven flow only;
A8.2 For the same configuration calculate the stack driven flow only;
A8.3 Finally calculate the airflow rates due to the combined influence of wind
and stack pressure.
A8.4 For the combined case what is:

The air flow direction through openings A1 and A2?

The air change rate in air changes per hour (ac/h)?

Building Height Windspeed = 4 m/s

Building Volume
= 250 m3

Area of opening,
A2 = 0.1 m2

A2
ext = 10C

int = 20C
Building Height
= 4.5 m
4m

Area of opening, A1
= 0.1 m2

A1
1m

Exposure: Urban, surrounded by buildings of equal height