Full Numerical Investigations on the Wind Driven Natural Ventilation: Cross Ventilation and Single-sided Ventilation

The opening location plays an important role of buildings’ environment and natural ventilation effectiveness. Present research investigated three categories of ventilation configurations: single-sided ventilation with an opening on the windward wall; single-sided ventilation with an opening on the leeward wall and cross ventilation with two openings. The velocity distribution and pressure distribution as well as the pressure coefficient are presented to analyze the representative fluid dynamic characteristics of these three configurations. Numerical results indicate that cross ventilation could achieve the best ventilation performance, and the situation for opening on the leeward wall is better than that on the windward wall. According to these results, the study gives some guidance for building design on natural ventilation and provides some useful ideas as well as approach and methodology for the development of energy-efficient buildings.