Characteristics of revolving door use as a countermeasure to the stack effect in buildings

Abstract

Efficient control of ventilation and cooling/heating systems in buildings is integral to making adjustments to indoor environments and to minimizing energy use. In high-rise buildings, however, the stack effect is generated through vertical shafts in the buildings, and the air flow due to the stack effect greatly affects the efficiency of air-conditioning systems used for ventilation, cooling, and heating. Therefore, attenuating the stack effect in high-rise buildings is a critical aspect of HVAC operations as well as a solution for direct problems related to the stack effect, such as high-velocity draft, high-level noise in the buildings, and so on. In general, as a method to attenuate the stack effect in high-rise buildings, revolving doors are installed at the lobby entrance. However, while this method may be effective on the floors where revolving doors are applied, the efficiency is very low when considering the entire building due to the existence of many air flow paths and the fact that revolving doors applied to only part of a building can control only a portion of the air flow. Numerical simulation analysis was performed in this study to quantitatively examine the stack effect attenuation characteristics of revolving doors on both a partial building level and for the entire building. In addition, the effects of building height and airtightness on the performance of the building envelope were considered.