Analyzing the effects of passive design strategies on building ventilation performance and thermal comfort using simulation-based approach

Abstract

One of the sustainable approaches to improving indoor thermal comfort and building ventilation efficiency, particularly in developing and populated countries, is to implement the optimum passive design solutions. However, the interaction between ventilation performance, indoor thermal comfort, and passive design features of buildings is scarcely studied in the domain of airflow modeling. Therefore, this study aims at assessing the ventilation performance and indoor thermal comfort with regards to passive design strategies, specifically, opening characteristics such as the Opening to Wall ratio (OWR) and Window to Wall ratio (WWR) in a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) environment. The CFD simulations run is found pivotal for determining the spatial variation of Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and Predicted Percentage Dissatisfied (PPD) to gauge thermal comfort and the natural ventilation performance in terms of air change rate per hour (ACH). The proposed methodology is implemented in classroom spaces of an academic building located in a warm and humid region. In the study, a field investigation is carried out to collect precise temperature and air velocity data needed to validate the resulting CFD model. The findings show that increasing OWR and WWR percentages can enhance ventilation efficiency and indoor thermal comfort.