Breakthrough of natural and hybrid ventilative cooling technologies: models and simulations

This special issue on Breakthrough of natural and hybrid ventilative cooling technologies: models and simulations, together with the connected issue Breakthrough of natural and hybrid ventilative cooling technologies: strategies, applications and case studies (vol. 16, issue 1), focuses on methods, tools and technologies for reaching the above-mentioned goal through the use of ventilative cooling, i.e. cooling by controlled natural ventilation (CNV). This strategy is one of the most cost-effective alternatives to air-conditioning systems. Although several application examples of such strategy can be found all over the world, same critical issues are still to be solved to completely demonstrate the effectiveness of ventilative cooling in different local contexts. One of the challenge in the current professional context is due to the lack of methodology and tools to deal with the complexity of air-movement physics. Furthermore, CNV is not considered mandatory in international standards for complying with energy saving requirements, although these being increasingly stricter in building regulations which are aiming at near-zero-energy-buildings