Renewable Energy, Vol.5, Part IL pp.

151-1090, 1994
El;evict Science Ltd
Pergamon Printed in Oreat Britain
0960-1481/94 $7.00+0.00

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR NATURALLY VENTILATED BUILDINGS

H.B. Awbi

Department of Construction Management & Engineering

University of Reading
Reading RG6 2AW, UK

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the parameters which should be considered in designing natural ventilation
systems and presents a procedure for calculating the air flow rate due to wind and buoyancy.
Examples are given o f systems using solar-induced ventilation which could have applications in
ventilating commercial buildings.

KEYWORDS

Ventilation, solar collectors, solar chimneys, Trombe walls, air flow in buildings.

INTRODUCTION

As passive means of ventilating commercial buildings is currently being more seriously considered
than in the last few decades, there is a need for an objective assessment of such systems. In the
UK, the proposed revision to Part L of the building regulations will focus the building designer's
mind on the viability and performance of passive ventilation either as the only means o f ventilating
the building or for supplementing an air-conditioning system. The proposed restriction of CO2
emission from buildings to the order o f 80 kg/m 2 o f gross floor area per year will be a crucial factor
in determining the ventilation strategy for the building. Too much reliance on air-conditioning will
increase CO2 emission but excessive outdoor air flow due to inadequately designed or controlled
passive ventilation systems can also increase the CO2 emission. On the other hand, too little
outdoor air can have a serious effect on the indoor air quality whereas too much outdoor air can
cause draught and discomfort.

A recent survey of current ventilation systems used in a sample of modern buildings in fourteen
developed countries carried out by the IEA Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre (AIVC) has
shown that all office buildings included in the survey used air-conditioning systems whereas natural
ventilation is still the most common method of ventilating domestic buildings (Limb. 1994). The
fourteen countries involved had climates ranging from polar, boreal, temperate, subtropical and
tropical but thirteen of these countries had temperate climate in at least part of the country. What
is significant from this survey is that commercial buildings ventilate for the purpose of controlling
heat gains and removing indoor pollutants and the choice of ventilation strategy is not necessarily
climate related. This would suggest that the potential of natural ventilation has been overlooked
1081
1082

even though it may have been plausible particularly in buildings situated in temperate climates.
There may have been a number of reasons for ignoring natural ventilation, such as not giving a "hi-
tech" image to the tenant or owner, undesirable location for natural ventilation, etc. but the lack of
control o f natural ventilation systems may have been a major factor too in most of the buildings
surveyed. In order to persuade tenants that natural ventilation could perform as well as or
sometimes better than mechanical ventilation, the designer has to demonstrate this by few good
examples. The new Commerzbank building in Frankfurt which was designed by Norman Foster &
Partners (Chevin, 1994) is such an example. This is one of the tallest buildings in the world where
natural ventilation will be used with air-conditioning

In this paper, the method o f sizing passive ventilation systems, taking into account the effect of
buoyancy and wind, is described. In particular, the effects of buoyancy and wind on the
performance of three types of solar collectors (i.e. solar chimney, Trombe wall and roof collector)
are analysed using examples.

NATURAL VENTILATION METHODS

The natural ventilation method which is most suited to a particular building can only be arrived at
by a careful consideration o f a number of factors, such as:

Depth of space with respect to ventilation openings

Ceiling height
Thermal mass exposed to the space
Location of building with respect to environmental pollution sources, e.g. traffic noise, air pollution, etc.
Heat gain
The most widely used methods are given below.

Single-Sided Ventilation

This is usually the simplest form o f naturally ventilating a building whereby a simple opening in the
form o f a window or a ventilation device such as a trickle vent on a wall is used to allow outdoor
air to enter the building and room air to leave either from the same opening or from another
opening situated on the same wall. Although this is a very common and inexpensive system it is
uncontrollable, except in an open or a closed position, and can only be effective over a distance of
about 6 m from the opening itself. Furthermore, some single-sided openings, e.g. windows, are
only suitable in moderate climates and are not suitable for winter ventilation.

Cross-Flow Ventilation

For spaces of more than 6 m deep a two-sided or cross-flow ventilation will be required. This
usually implies using the same openings as those used for a single-sided ventilation system but
these are installed on two or more opposite walls. This method can be used for a depth of up to
12m and it is usually more effective than the single-sided ventilation because the wind pressure can
be more favourable for providing larger air flow rates hence more suitable for larger heat gains.
However, this method also suffers from the same problems of air flow control as the previous
method.
 1083

Mixed-Flow Ventilation

For very large spaces or buildings with large heat gains (>30 W/m 2 of floor area), such as atria or
large public halls, a more complex system is required to increase the air flow rate from outside. In
such buildings the height of the roof is utilised for situating exhaust air openings to provide a large
height to increase the effect of buoyancy. The air inlet openings are situated on the floor, in the
case of a suspended floor, or on the walls at low level. With adequate design, these systems can
be very effective and are more controllable than the other two methods. However, they require a
high ceiling to be viable, i.e. in excess of 4 m.

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

Climate

One of the primary considerations in the design of natural ventilation systems is the geographic
location of the building. This will determine the seasonal variations in the external environmental
parameters, viz. air temperature, solar radiation, wind, humidity and outdoor air quality.

Natural ventilation systems are normally specified for steady air flow through the openings,
however transient effects such as wind turbulence could cause large fluctuations in the air flow
through the openings. To allow for these effects will require rigorous analysis and they are not
normally considered in great detail for ventilation system design.

Other considerations that influence natural ventilation design is the exposure of the building to the
wind, rain and the sun. Most meteorological data is for open country at a reference point on or
from the ground. However, buildings and other obstructions can distort the wind flow and adjacent
buildings in particular causing shielding from the wind, rain and the sun. Therefore, meteorological
data should be adjusted to take these effects into consideration.

Building Form

The form and height of the building have major influences on any natural ventilation strategy that is
considered by a designer. Such factors as ceiling height and depth have already been mentioned,
but the height o f the building is also significant. Traditionally, high-rise buildings have not been
considered for natural ventilation apart from a few exceptions. This is due to the large buoyancy
pressures between low-level and high-level openings and also the greater wind effect on the high-
level openings. If natural ventilation is to be contemplated for high-rise buildings, sophisticated
control for the ventilation openings is essential for the system to function effectively.

Other considerations such as thermal mass and building materials can have an influence on the
performance of a natural ventilation system, particularly if this is integrated with a night cooling
system.

Building Occupancy and Loads

The purpose of ventilating a building is to provide clean outdoor air to the occupants and to
remove excessive heat from inside the building. Therefore, the ventilation loads o f a building are
both thermal and pollution. Thermal loads are due to heat loss or gain by conduction through the
fabric, solar gain, internal gain due to occupancy, lighting, equipment, etc. Pollution loads are
1084

normally the bioeffiuent produced by the occupants, volatile organic compounds (VOC) emitted by
building materials and furnishing and VOC's and other gases and vapours such as H20, 03, CO2,
CO, Nox produced by equipment, cleaning agents and domestic and industrial processes. A good
ventilation system must be effective in dealing with thermal loads and controlling indoor pollutants
to below threshold limit values (Awbi, 1991).

DESIGN CALCULATIONS

Wind pressure

For estimating the flow rate through ventilation openings or building cracks it is a usual practice to
consider the average wind velocity and pressure to calculate average flow rates. The pressure due
to wind, p,,, at the surface of a building or a ventilation opening is expressed as:

pw = 0.5 p Vrz Cp (1)

where Cp is the pressure coefficient defined by:

P -- P r
c. = 0.5 p v? (2)

p and p, are the static pressures on the building and of the free stream at a reference point
respectively, p is the air density and V, is the reference wind speed. The values of Cp are obtained
from wind tunnel measurements on scaled models of the building, full-scale measurements (less
common) and using computational fluid dynamics.

The reference wind speed, Vr, is usually determined for a point corresponding to a characteristic
height such as the total height of the building or the height of an opening above ground. The
equation commonly used is:
Vr
-- = C z' (3)
II,0

where V~0 is the meteorological wind speed for a height of 10 m above ground in an open country,
c and a are terrain factors (Awbi, 1991). Vio is usually the meteorological wind speed for the
location which has acceptable occurrence frequency for ventilation design (i.e. lower velocity than
that used for structural design).

Because of the distortion of the wind flow by the building the reference speed, Vr, obtained from
(3) may be over-estimated. Wind-tunnel measurements for wind profiles representing open
country, suburban and urban terrain carried out by Chand, et al. (1992) produced the following
correlation for cross-ventilation through two opposite window openings:

- F (1- 0.82 a ) (4)

Vr

where Vi is the corrected wind speed at the inlet opening, and a is the terrain exponent. For
rectangular openings, the correction factor, F, is given by:
 1085;

F=I.1 [+
1 ' (5)

where Ai and A~ are the inlet and exit areas respectively.

Boyancv (Stack) Pressure

The buoyancy or stack pressure due to the difference in air density between outside and inside the
building is given by:

It, _rot
p,:pogZF--'~I-i~J (6)

where Ti and To are the outside and inside temperatures (K), Po is the outside air density, z is the
height between two openings and g is the acceleration of gravity.

Combined Wind and Buoyancy Pressure

The air flow rate (Q) due to wind or stack pressure is generally calculated using a power low
relationship given by:

Q = k Ap" (7)

where Ap is the pressure difference across the opening (Pa), k is a coefficient and n is an exponent.
The values o f k and n depend on the type of opening and the flow characteristic, i.e. laminar,
turbulent or transition. For large openings and turbulent flow k and n are given as the effective
flow area (Cd A), where Ca is the discharge coefficient and A is the free area, and 0.5 respectively.
For cracks or openings o f unknown characteristics k and n are determined from fan
pressurisation/depressurisation tests. For these openings n ~ 2/3.

When combining the effect o f wind and buoyancy it is recommended (Walker and Wilson, 1993) to
add the pressure due to the wind (1) and the buoyancy pressure (6), taking into consideration the
sign o f each pressure, i.e. positive or negative. The flow rate due to the combined pressure is then
calculated using the power law (7). Alternatively, a quadratic summation o f the flow rate due to
the wind and buoyancy will also give acceptable degree of accuracy (Walker and Wilson, 1993),
thus:

Qt = (QwTM + Qsl/a) a (8)

where n has a value o f 2/3 for cracks and 1/2 for large openings

Flow Characteristics o f Openings

The volume flow rate through an opening (Q) is given by Bernoulli's equation:

Q = Cd Ao ~ / ~ (9)

where Ao is the area and Cd is the discharge coefficient of the opening, Ap is the pressure difference
across the opening and p is the air density. For more than one opening in parallel:
1086
n

Cd Ao -- )'~(C a A), (10)

i=l

For more than one opening in series:

1 ~n I
- (11)
(C~Ao) 2

The wincl and buoyancy pressures will be equal to the sum of the velocity pressures at the inlet and
outlet and the pressure losses in the flow path. For a channel the pressure losses are given by:

Ap=[4f-~-h +K,I-~ ] +Kal-~] +K,,I--~-~]lpv2,,, (12)

where the K's are the pressure loss coefficients; A is the cross-sectional area of the ventilation
channel; Ai, Aa ,A, are the areas of inlet, damper and exit respectively; z is the height between two
openings; p is the density; Vm is the mean air speed in the channel; Dh is the hydraulic diameter of
the channel and f is the friction factor for the channel wall. The hydraulic diameter is given by:

2wh
D, =
w+h (13)

where w is the channel width and h is the depth. For a narrow channel (w >lOh):

Dh * 2 h (14)

WIND AND SOLAR-INDUCED VENTILATION

A CFD simulation of the air flow within a solar chimney and a Trombe wall was reported
previously (Awbi and Gan, 1992). In that paper, the theoretical basis for designing a solar chimney
and a Trombe wall for ventilation purposes was also presented. In this paper, the theory developed
previously is applied to a solar chimney, a Trombe wall and a roof collector to evaluate their
performance under the action of buoyancy forces only and by including the effect of wind also.

Solar Chimney

A solar chimney is normally utilised for providing natural ventilation by aligning one or more of its
sides with the south or south west direction in the northern hemisphere. The heated surfaces
generate a natural convection current by drawing air from the building and extracting it at the top
of the chimney.

The heat transfer between the internal surfaces of the chimney and the air is calculated using a
standard relationship for a vertical plate, viz.:

Nu = 0.1 Ra 1/3 (15)

where Nu is the Nusselt number and Ra is the Rayleigh number. The air exit temperature which is
required for calculating the stack pressure from (6) is calculated using the following equation,
which was derived previously (Awbi and Gan, 1992):
 1087

A A ~- p--~,e)
ro +
I
r, - e
(B'"/ (16)
where A = hi Twl + h2 Twz and B = hi + h2
h representing the heat transfer coefficient, subscripts 1 and 2 represent the two walls, H is the
height o f chimney and the other symbols have been defined previously. The stack pressure is
added to the wind pressure calculated using (1) and the pressure losses in the chimney are deduced
from the sum to give the net pressure. The net pressure is then used in (9) to obtain the volume of
air flow through the chimney.

W
4

air from
room I,

Fig. 1 Schematic of a solar chimney

This procedure was first applied to the experimental solar chimney investigated by Bouchair et al.,
1988 which is 1.95 m high (z), 1.5 m wide (w) and depth (h) in the range 0.1 to 0.5 m, Fig. 1. The
inlet slot is 0.1 m high and situated 0.1 m above the floor. In this chimney the two large walls were
heated to the same temperature which is not usually the case in practice. The calculated results for
this chimney is compared with the measured data in Fig. 2. The calculated results show that, at a
particular temperature difference, the flow rate through the chimney increases with the increase in
the depth, i.e. the distance between the two heated surfaces. However, the measurements show an
increase in the flow rate when h increases from 0.1 to 0.2 m but decreases slightly as h increases

0.1 o h=0.1 m
E 0.09 [] h=0.2 m
0.08 h=0.3 m
0.07 + h=0.5 rn
0.06 h=O. 1 m
" " 0.05 ......... h=0.2 m
0.04 h=O.3 m
0.03 . . . . . . . . h=0.5 m
- 0.02
?-
< 0.01
I I I I I
0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Temperature diffrence, Tw - Ta (K)

Fig. 2 Measured and calculated air flow rates for a solar chimney
[Symbols are measurements from Bouchair et al., lines are calculated]
above 0.2 m. This has been explained (Bouchair et al., 1988) to be due to the interference
1088

between the two boundary layers when h is smaller than the combined thickness of two free
boundary layers as it was the case for h <_0.2 m.

50
~, 0.14 45
o
O
I.i.'.............. Buoyancy only / 0
~. 0.12 Wind + BuoyancY1 _ ~ _ _ - 40

0.1 35
t~ m
E
30
--, 0.08
25 _a.
<
o= 0.06 i i : : : . .............. _ 20
n,, t~

" 15 t~
o 0.04
LL 03
.,=
,< 0.02
I I I I I 0

0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Temperature Difference, T w " Ta (K)

Fig. 3 Air flow rate and effectiveness of a solar chimney

The same method is also applied to predict the air flow rate due to wind and buoyancy for a larger
solar chimney of height 5 m, width 2 m and depth 0.5 m with an effective inlet area of 0.1 m2. This
chimney is heated on the external wall only which is usually the case for building applications.
The results are shown in Fig. 3. The inlet is open to the room or the building and the outlet is the
top of the chimney where a wind pressure coefficient of-0.5 and a reference wind speed (Vio) of 5
m/s have been assumed. The wind terrain parameters were c = 0.35 and a = 0.25 which are for an
urban site. A friction factor, f, of 0.01 is assumed for the chimney. When the two pressures are
combined, the air flow due to the wind is much more significant than that due to buoyancy.
However, the chimney is considered effective without the wind effect. It produces a flow rate of
0.045 m3/s per metre width, i.e. about 0.09 m3/s for the chimney, with a temperature difference of
10 K between the chimney wall and the air inlet. If this chimney was used for ventilating a room of
volume 60 m 3 say, then it will be able to remove a load of about 0.5 kW (~ 20 W/m 2 floor area)

(a) Trombe wall (b) Roof collector

Fig. 4 Schematic of Trombe wall and roof collector

and maintain the room at about 4.6 K above ambient. This outdoor air flow rate should be
 1089

sufficient for providing good air quality for about 5 occupants. Figure 2 also shows the
effectiveness o f the solar chimney (defined as s = (To -Ti)/(Tw - Ti)) where it is higher for the
buoyancy-driven flow as the flow rate in this case is lower than that for the wind and buoyancy
combined.

Trombe Wall

A Trombe wall collector which consists o f a glazed wall with an inlet opening to the room and an
outlet opening to outdoor is shown in Fig. 4(a). The height of the collector wall is 2.8 m, its width
is 3.4 m and the gap is 0.1 m. The effective areas of the inlet and outlet openings are 0.12 m 2 each
and they are 2.3 m apart (vertically). The wind data used are the same as that for the solar chimney
example and the friction factor was also taken as 0.01. Figure 5 shows the calculated flow rate and
effectiveness for this collector. It is clear that the air flow rate per m width is less than half that
produced by the solar chimney as a result of the lower height, the narrower gap and the greater
resistance to the flow. Therefore, if such a device is used for natural ventilation the width of the
collector and the opening areas should be as a large as possible to increase the air flow rate, hence
the cooling effect.

0.05 50
E
~. 0.04 ;- 40 ,~
............................. 35 o
~E 0.03 30
_= 25
U
n. 0.02 20

u_
.'= 0.01 I ..................... B u o y a n c y o n l y J - I 10 ~,
,<
- Wind + Buoyanc 5
....... J . . . . -/ 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Temperature Difference, T w - Ta (K)

Fig. 5 Air flow rate and effectiveness ofa Trombe wall

Roof Collector

Figure 4(b) shows a roof arrangement where a sloping south-facing roof is used as a solar
collector. The pitch angle o f the roof used to study the performance of such a device is 25 . The
length o f the collector is 5 m, i.e. giving a vertical spacing between the inlet opening (on the
ceiling) and the outlet opening (on the roof ridge) o f 2.3 m which is the same as the Trombe wall
example above. The width of the collector and the gap between the two surfaces are the same as
those used for the Trombe wall, i.e. 3.4 m and 0.1 m respectively. The heat transfer coefficient
was calculated using (15) also, i.e. for a vertical wall. Some authors recommend multiplying the
Rayleigh number by cosine the angle o f the surface from the vertical, however it has been found
(Bejan, 1993) that the experimental data for inclined surfaces produced better correlations if (15) is
used without the cosine o f the inclination. Therefore, the heat transfer coefficient was calculated
using this equation without the cosine multiplier.

The flow rat produced and the effectiveness o f the this collector are plotted in Fig. 6. The
resultsare simi]ar to those shown in Fig. 5 for the Trombe wall, except that they are slightly higher

RE S:8-X
1090

because of the larger surface area of the roof collector. It should be mentioned however that the
inlet and outlet areas and discharge coefficients as well as the gap in the collector have a significant
influence on the flow rate produced by buoyancy or wind. Therefore, the area and Cd for the inlet
and outlet openings were chosen to be the same as those for the Trombe wall to eliminate their
influence on the performance and to make the comparison more meaningful.

0.06 50

0.05 40

0.04
30
0.03
20
0.02
,3-
" 0.01 10 ~A

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Temperature Difference, T w" Ta (K)

Fig. 6 Air flow rate and effectiveness of a roof collector

CONCLUSIONS

Solar-induced ventilation can provide adequate air flow rates to naturally ventilated buildings for
extracting moderate thermal and pollution loads. However, large loads can only be removed if
solar ventilation systems are designed to utilise the wind pressure or if they are coupled with
mechanical systems, Such ventilation systems offer the advantage of better control (manual or
automatic) than is achievable with conventional methods such as windows and, they are therefore,
more suitable for ventilating modern buildings.

REFERENCES

Awbi, H.B. (1991). Ventilation of Buildings. Spon, London.

Awbi, H.B. and G. Gan (1992). Simulation of solar-induced ventilation. Renewable Energy
Technology and the Environment, (A. A. M. Sayigh, Ed.), 4, 2016-2030.
Bejan, A. (1993). Heat Transfer. Wiley, New York, pp 355-357.
Bouchair, A., et al. (1988). Moving air, using stored solar energy. In: Proc. 13th National Passive
Solar Conference. Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Chand, I., et al. (1992). Studies on the effect of mean wind speed profile on rate of air flow through
cross-ventilated enclosures. Arch. Sci. Rev., 35, 83-88.
Chevin, D. (1994). Sun Worshipper, Building, 7 January, 1994, pp 34-38.
Limb, M.J. (1994). Current Ventilation and Air Conditioning Systems and Strategies. Tech. Note
AIVC 42, Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre, Coventry, UK.
Walker, I.S. and D.J. Wilson (1993). Evaluating models for superposition of wind and stack effect in air
infiltration. Building and Environment, 28, 201-210