Modeling the performance of a naturally ventilated commercial building with a multizone coupled thermal/airflow simulation tool

The coupled thermal/airflow simulation software CONTAM97R was used to evaluate the performance of a naturally ventilated office building recently build in Entschede (The Netherlands), for which detailed measurements results within the Natvent project had already been published.
The ventilation system uses selfregulating air inlets, ventilation stacks and a fan to assist natural ventilation if required. Many calculations were operated as calibration calculations (comparison with previously published measuring results). Then, the software was used to study the night cooling of the same building if located in Los Angeles.