Natural ventilation in buildings: measurement in a wind tunnel and numerical simulation with large-eddy simulation

Natural ventilation in buildings can create a comfortable and healthy indoor environment, and can save energy compared to mechanical ventilation systems. In building design the prediction of ventilation can be difficult; cases of wind-driven single-sided ventilation, where the effects of turbulence dominate, are particularly problematic to simulate. In order to investigate the mechanism of natural ventilation driven by wind force, large-eddy simulation (LES) is used. In the meanwhile, detailed airflow fields, such as mean and fluctuating velocity and pressure distribution inside and around building-like models were measured by wind tunnel tests and compared to LES results for model validation. Three ventilation cases, single-sided ventilation with an opening in windward wall, single-sided ventilation with an opening in leeward wall, and cross ventilation, are studied. In the wind tunnel, a laser Doppler anemometry was used to provide accurate and detailed velocity data. In LES calculations, two subgrid-scale (SS) models, a Smagorinsky SS model and a filtered dynamic SS model, were used. The numerical results from LES are in good agreement with the experimental data, in particular with the predicted airflow patterns and velocities around and within, and the surface pressures over, the models. This is considered to establish confidence in the application of the LES methods to the calculation of ventilation in buildings, in particular for single-sided ventilation cases.