Use of simulation in the design of a large naturally ventilated commercial office building

The design for the new Federal Building for San Francisco includes an office tower that is to be naturally ventilated. The EnergyPlus thermal simulation program was used to evaluate different ventilation strategies for space cooling and rationalize the design of the faade. The strategies include ventilation driven by different combinations of wind, internal stack and external stack. The simulation results indicate that wind-drive ventilation can maintain adequate comfort even during hot periods. Computational fluid dynamics was used to study the airflow and temperature distribution in the occupied spaces arising from different combinations of window openings and outside conditions, and thereby inform the design of the windows.