Single-sided natural ventilation

Wind-driven single-sided ventilation (SSV) is present in many existing buildings across Europe and with new Near Zero Energy Building (NZEB) regulations for the refurbishment of the existing building stock, its attractiveness as a non-invasive, low energy solution is set to continue. As a strategy, however, in addition to its air change rate capacity, the distribution of fresh air is an important evaluating criterion for its performance.

The objective of this study is to investigate the possible transmission mechanism of inter-flat air cross-contamination under the condition of singlesided natural ventilation. In high-rise residential building with flush windows on the same side, the air pollutants can diffuse from lower flat to adjacent upper flat in the vertical direction related to the interflat air flow through open windows caused by the temperature difference between the indoor air and the air outside of the windows.

This study employed large-eddy simulation (LES) to investigate wind-driven single-sided natural ventilation for an idealized building model located in an urban environment. Two ventilation cases, single-sided ventilation with an opening on the windward wall and with an opening on the leeward wall, were considered. The airflow rates through the single opening were calculated based on the mean flow fields and the transient flow fields, respectively.

Natural ventilation is a commonly used principle when ventilation systems for buildings are designed.The ventilation can either be obtained by automatically controlled openings in the building envelope, orit can just be the simple action of opening a door or a window to let the fresh air in.