The effect of wind on the convective heat transfer from the floor of single-sided naturally ventilated cubical enclosures

Abstract

In mild climatic conditions, residential houses are often ventilated by windows on a single exterior wall. The resulting airflow in single-sided naturally ventilated spaces is complex due to the involvement of buoyancy and wind driven forces that can reinforce, or restrict, the buoyancy-driven flow. The consequence of these effects on indoor flow-fields, and particularly convective heat transfer on the floor, needs examination. To understand the influence of wind conditions, this work utilized computational fluid dynamics to examine the flow in, and heat transfer from the floor of, a single-sided partly open air-filled cubical enclosure. The results indicate that both the indoor flow-field and convective heat transfer at the floor are strongly influenced by the outside wind conditions. As such, there is a significant scope to improve the relationships used to estimate the convective heat transfer from the floor of naturally ventilated buildings by including the effect of outdoor wind conditions.

KEYWORDS:

• natural ventilation
• heat transfer
• residential house
• natural convection
• wind
• CFD

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Callaghan Innovation, New Zealand for supporting this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Callaghan Innovation.