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Fluids
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Ventilation and Passive Cooling for Healthy and Comfortable Buildings
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Ventilation and Passive Cooling for Healthy and Comfortable Buildings

A special issue of Fluids (ISSN 2311-5521).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2019) | Viewed by 39575

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ben Richard Hughes

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Interests: natural ventilation system; passive cooling; fluid flow modelling; energy in the built environment
Dr. John Kaiser Calautit

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Architecture and Built Environment, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
Interests: sustainable buildings; passive technologies; computational fluid dynamics modelling; building energy simulation; thermal performance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The building sector has substantial scope to reduce the energy use associated with the operation and maintenance of buildings worldwide. Presently, the building sector contributes up to 40% of the global energy demand. Of this total energy demand, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) accounts more than half of the electricity consumption. This is due to the thermal comfort demands of occupants, regulations for adequate ventilation supply rates and current HVAC technology that is commonly used. Passive strategies, in particular natural ventilation, are one of the main techniques to moderate temperatures in buildings, reduce operating cost and provide better indoor air quality and comfort. The design and integration of passive strategies into buildings requires the knowledge and accurate prediction of the indoor-outdoor airflow and heat transfer that are dependent on several factors such as the local climate, building orientation and form, openings and indoor environment. The aim of the proposed issue is to present the recent developments on the modelling and experimental methods for the analysis of ventilation and passive cooling technologies/strategies. We invite researchers to contribute original research articles and review articles, dealing with all aspects of passive cooling and ventilation in the built environment. These contributions include new modeling and experimental studies, methods and advances focused on the evaluation of indoor ventilation, flow and pollutants.

Dr. Ben Richard Hughes
Dr. John Kaiser Calautit
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fluids is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Natural ventilation
  • Advanced mechanical ventilation/HVAC
  • Hybrid ventilation
  • Cross ventilation
  • Passive cooling systems
  • Indoor Air Quality
  • Indoor Environment
  • Pollutants
  • Mitigation strategies
  • Wind driven flows
  • Convection heat transfer
  • Buoyancy flows/stack effect
  • Impacts of urban morphology on ventilation
  • Thermal Comfort
  • Numerical analysis
  • Turbulence
  • Computational fluid dynamics
  • Experimental analysis
  • Wind tunnel
  • Field testing

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 1447 KiB  
Article
A Method toward Real-Time CFD Modeling for Natural Ventilation
by Wentao Wu, Bing Wang, Ali Malkawi, Nari Yoon, Zlatan Sehovic and Bin Yan
Fluids 2018, 3(4), 101; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids3040101 - 1 Dec 2018
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 7272
Abstract
Natural ventilation is often used as a passive technology to reduce building energy consumption. To leverage the rule-based natural ventilation control to more advanced control at multiple spatial scales, mathematical modeling is needed to calculate the real-time ventilation rate, indoor air temperatures, and [...] Read more.
Natural ventilation is often used as a passive technology to reduce building energy consumption. To leverage the rule-based natural ventilation control to more advanced control at multiple spatial scales, mathematical modeling is needed to calculate the real-time ventilation rate, indoor air temperatures, and velocities at high spatial resolution. This study aims to develop a real-time mathematical modeling framework based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The real-time concept is implemented by using real-time sensor data, e.g., wall surface temperatures as boundary conditions, while data assimilation is employed to implement real-time self-calibration. The proof of concept is demonstrated by a case study using synthetic data. The results show that the modeling framework can adequately predict real-time ventilation rates and indoor air temperatures. The data assimilation method can nudge the simulated air velocities toward the observed values to continuously calibrate the model. The real-time CFD modeling framework will be further tested by the real-time sensor data once building construction is fully completed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ventilation and Passive Cooling for Healthy and Comfortable Buildings)
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20 pages, 14549 KiB  
Article
Improving Ventilation Efficiency for a Highly Energy Efficient Indoor Swimming Pool Using CFD Simulations
by Gabriel Rojas and Jessica Grove-Smith
Fluids 2018, 3(4), 92; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids3040092 - 15 Nov 2018
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 6147
Abstract
The operation of a typical indoor swimming pool is very energy intensive. Previous studies have shown that high quality thermal building envelopes, i.e., with high levels of insulation and airtightness, make it possible to rethink conventional ventilation concepts. Due to the reduced condensation [...] Read more.
The operation of a typical indoor swimming pool is very energy intensive. Previous studies have shown that high quality thermal building envelopes, i.e., with high levels of insulation and airtightness, make it possible to rethink conventional ventilation concepts. Due to the reduced condensation risk in and on envelopes of high thermal quality, ventilation design can be optimized for indoor air quality rather than for averting condensation on the facade. This work investigates different air distribution concepts for an existing swimming pool via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to evaluate their ventilation efficiency. To reduce modelling and computational resources, the velocity and turbulence fields produced by the swirl-diffusers are determined in a set of separate CFD simulations and incorporated into the swimming pool models. The results show that the ventilation efficiency in the examined swimming pool could potentially be improved with various alternative air distribution concepts, therefore improving the indoor air quality. Although the results seem plausible and compare well with the limited measurement data of air humidity, a more formal experimental validation is still needed before generalizing recommendations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ventilation and Passive Cooling for Healthy and Comfortable Buildings)
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20 pages, 2909 KiB  
Article
Energy Modelling and Indoor Air Quality Analysis of Cooling Systems for Buildings in Hot Climates
by Zohaib Shaikh and Hassam Nasarullah Chaudhry
Fluids 2018, 3(4), 77; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids3040077 - 22 Oct 2018
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 6566
Abstract
Energy consumption due to cooling and ventilation of buildings has grown significantly within the last two decades, and therefore advancement in cooling technologies has become imperative to maximise energy savings. This work numerically investigates the performance of vapour-compression unitary and centralised cooling systems [...] Read more.
Energy consumption due to cooling and ventilation of buildings has grown significantly within the last two decades, and therefore advancement in cooling technologies has become imperative to maximise energy savings. This work numerically investigates the performance of vapour-compression unitary and centralised cooling systems for high rise buildings using an office case-study in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Energy modelling, thermal comfort and indoor air quality analyses have been carried out using the Integrated Environmental Simulation Virtual Environment (IES-VE). Using the benchmark system based on fan-coil units, the findings have indicated that attaching a Variable Speed Drive (VSD) fan can reduce the overall energy consumption of the building by 8%, with 20% reduction in the cooling loads. The unitary cooling system operating on variable refrigerant flow principle achieved an energy reduction of approximately 30%; however, this system is not recommended in high-rise buildings as the CO2 concentration obtained is in excess of 3000 ppm, which is considerably higher than ASHRAE standards. It is essential for buildings running in hot climates to incorporate hybrid cooling techniques to relieve the load on conventional active cooling systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ventilation and Passive Cooling for Healthy and Comfortable Buildings)
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Graphical abstract

14 pages, 5329 KiB  
Article
Ventilative Cooling in a School Building: Evaluation of the Measured Performances
by Hilde Breesch, Bart Merema and Alexis Versele
Fluids 2018, 3(4), 68; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids3040068 - 23 Sep 2018
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3750
Abstract
The test lecture rooms on Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven) Ghent Technology Campus (Belgium) are a demonstration case of Annex 62: Ventilative Cooling of the International Energy Agency’s Energy in Buildings and Communities programme (IEA EBC). The building is cooled by natural night [...] Read more.
The test lecture rooms on Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven) Ghent Technology Campus (Belgium) are a demonstration case of Annex 62: Ventilative Cooling of the International Energy Agency’s Energy in Buildings and Communities programme (IEA EBC). The building is cooled by natural night ventilation and indirect evaporative cooling (IEC). Thermal comfort and the performances of ventilative cooling are evaluated. Long-term measurements of internal temperatures, occupancy, opening of windows and IEC were carried out in the cooling season of 2017. The airflow rates through the windows in cross- and single-sided ventilation mode were measured by both tracer gas concentration decay and air velocity measurements. In addition, the air flow pattern is visualized by measuring air temperatures in the room. The results show that good thermal summer comfort was measured except during heat waves and/or periods with high occupancy. Both nighttime ventilation and IEC operate very well. IEC can lower the supply temperature by day significantly compared to the outdoor temperature. The Air Changes Rates (ACR) of the night ventilation greatly depends on wind direction and velocity. The air temperature profile showed that the air is cooled down in the whole lecture but more in the upper zone. The extensive data monitoring system was important to detect malfunctions and to optimize the whole building performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ventilation and Passive Cooling for Healthy and Comfortable Buildings)
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17 pages, 3752 KiB  
Article
Determining the Effect of Inlet Flow Conditions on the Thermal Efficiency of a Flat Plate Solar Collector
by Mohammad Alobaid, Ben Hughes, Andrew Heyes and Dominic O’Connor
Fluids 2018, 3(3), 67; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids3030067 - 17 Sep 2018
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 7864
Abstract
The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of inlet temperature (Tin) and flowrate ( m ˙ ) on thermal efficiency ( η t h ) of flat plate collectors (FPC). Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was employed to [...] Read more.
The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of inlet temperature (Tin) and flowrate ( m ˙ ) on thermal efficiency ( η t h ) of flat plate collectors (FPC). Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was employed to simulate a FPC and the results were validated with experimental data from literature. The FPC was examined for high and low level flowrates and for inlet temperatures which varied from 298 to 373 K. Thermal efficiency of 93% and 65% was achieved at 298 K and 370 K inlet temperature’s respectively. A maximum temperature increase of 62 K in the inlet temperature was achieved at a flowrate of 5 × 10−4 kg/s inside the riser pipe. Tin and m ˙ were optimised in order to achieve the minimum required feed temperature for a 10 kW absorption chiller. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ventilation and Passive Cooling for Healthy and Comfortable Buildings)
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21 pages, 13621 KiB  
Article
Experimental Study on the Aerodynamic Sealing of Air Curtains
by João Carlos Viegas, Fernando Oliveira and Daniel Aelenei
Fluids 2018, 3(3), 49; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids3030049 - 16 Jul 2018
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 6780
Abstract
Controlling the air quality is of the utmost importance in today’s buildings. Vertical air curtains are often used to separate two different climatic zones with a view to reduce heat transfer. In fact, this research work proposes an air curtain aimed to ensure [...] Read more.
Controlling the air quality is of the utmost importance in today’s buildings. Vertical air curtains are often used to separate two different climatic zones with a view to reduce heat transfer. In fact, this research work proposes an air curtain aimed to ensure a proper separation between two zones, a clean one and a contaminated one. The methodology of this research includes: (i) small-scale tests on water models to ensure that the contamination does not pass through the air curtain, and (ii) an analytical development integrating the main physical characteristics of plane jets. In the solution developed, the airflow is extracted from the contaminated compartment to reduce the curtain airflow rejected to the exterior of the compartment. In this research work, it was possible to determine the minimum exhaust flow necessary to ensure the aerodynamic sealing of the air curtain. This article addresses the methodology used to perform the small-scale water tests and the corresponding results. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ventilation and Passive Cooling for Healthy and Comfortable Buildings)
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