Effects of surrounding buildings on wind pressure distributions and ventilation losses for single family houses. Part 1: 1 1/2-storey detached houses.

This wind tunnel investigation studies the effects of surrounding buildings on the wind pressure distribution over a 1 1/2-storey single-family house. Pressure coefficients obtained in the tests have been used for the calculation of air change rates and associated heat losses from the house for a range of wind speeds and internal-external temperature differences. For these calculations leakage areas in the building envelope have been assumed to be uniformly distributed. Expressed in a non-dimensional form, the reduction of heat loss due to the wind shelter offered by adjacent buildings is shown to be a function only of a densimetric Froude number, based on wind speed and the internal-external temperature difference.