CFD Analysis of Different Ventilation Strategies for a Room with a Heated Wall

Abstract

Solar chimneys can help to reduce solar heat gain on a building envelope and to enhance natural ventilation. In this work, we proposed three configurations of two solar chimneys combined with a heated wall for the natural ventilation of a room: (I) the chimneys are connected serially, (II) the chimneys are parallel and exhaust air at two separate outlets, and (III) the chimneys are parallel, but the outlets are combined. The airflow rate achieved with each configuration was predicted with a Computational Fluid Dynamics model. The results show the effects of the heat flux in each channel and the geometries of the channels. Configuration (II) shows the highest flow rate. Particularly, the proposed configurations enhance the flow rate significantly and up to 40% when compared to the typical setup with a single channel solar chimney. The findings offer a novel design option for building façades for reducing solar heat gain and enhancing natural ventilation.