Evaluation of Wind Tower Effectiveness in Rammed Earth Building

Zeynep Örgev1, Neslihan Türkmenoğlu Bayraktar1

1
Kocaeli University, Kocaeli, Turkey

natural ventilation systems to be effective. Natural

Abstract
ventilation components, constructed to respond to the
Due to global warming, the cooling requirements increase climatic conditions of the region where the buildings
even in locations with broad heating periods. The locate, meet the occupants' ventilation and cooling
integration of passive cooling systems, especially in requirements and come forward as significant elements
buildings and settlements in hot-dry climates, contributes that reflect the architectural identity of the district.
to the decay of energy consumption. The selection of the
Wind towers in regions with hot-dry climate
appropriate material and determination of the application
characteristics are a decent example of this. Since the air
technique is a significant issue since passive cooling
flows from the outside to the indoor environment, air
systems significantly affect energy performance. In the
bulks with outdoor temperature also affect indoor
study, a hypothetical residential building, assumed to be
temperatures. Because of this, from past to present, wind
built with the rammed earth technique in Diyarbakır with
towers that allow the cooler air entrance in the elevations
hot-dry climate characteristics, is used to evaluate the
above the roof prevent the increase of interior temperature
suitability of wind towers in terms of natural ventilation
with outdoor temperature in hot-dry climate regions.
and thermal comfort performance.
Wind towers stimulate cross ventilation by catching upper
Key Innovations cooler prevailing wind flows and orienting downwards to
 Wind Tower exit from the outlet openings located on the facade or roof.
 Hot-Dry Climate Cooler airflows decrease interior surface and air
 Rammed Earth temperatures. Air circulation also enhances the passive
cooling of the occupants by increasing heat loss by
 Thermal Comfort
convection from the building and body surfaces.
Practical Implications The basic working principle of wind towers is based on
Consider night ventilation in any case for massive the airflows stimulated by pressure difference due to
buildings in hot climates. Avoid cross ventilation in day buyancy effect and forced convection by wind (Figure 1).
time in hot climates. Two openings on wind tower Wind towers are diversified in terms of opening directions
increases thermal comfort conditions. and plan layout to use environmental factors effectively.
In terms of aperture directions, they are classified as one-
sided towers, two-sided and multi-sided towers. Clean,
Introduction cool air is circulated to the interior space through the
Today, with the effect of global warming, the increase in windward openings of the tower, placed with the
cooling requirements, even in settlements with more consideration of the prevailing wind direction with one
heating periods, increases the need for passive cooling sided windcatchers (Ghadiri et al., 2011). The hot and
systems. With natural ventilation, one of the most basic polluted air inside the space is exhausted through the
and effective passive cooling approaches, the need for leeward openings of the building. The temperature
mechanical systems in cooling and air conditioning difference supports the circulation under the effect of the
required to provide indoor climatic comfort conditions wind and provides ventilation and cooling in the absence
reduce and, therefore, energy consumption decreases of wind (Kilci, 2005). Upper cool air gets in through tower
(Kumar et al., 2021; Melikoğlu and Bekleyen, 2021). Air openings during the day. In most of the examples the
circulation in natural ventilation systems is stimulated by temperature of intaken airflow decreases by evaporation
temperature and/or wind pressure differences (Küçüker, by cooling pads before reaching interior zones. This cool
2019). air is exhausted from the building openings; During the
The characteristics of the environment and the building as night, the need for ventilation and cooling is eliminated
district pattern, location, topography, climate, building by letting the cool air in through the building openings
form and dimensions, organization of the functions, user and expelling the hot air from the tower openings by the
requirements, building envelope materials, and building stack effect.
typology have to be considered from the design stage for
 Figure 1: The basic working principle of wind towers.

Figure 2: The basic working principle of two-way wind towers.

Two-way wind towers have 2 circulation paths provided currents and, accordingly, indoor thermal comfort
by opposite openings one of which orients to prevailing conditions (Hosseini et al., 2016).
winds (Figure2). Two-sided towers, which are more Bahadori evaluated the disadvantages of the existing wind
efficient in terms of ventilation performance, provide tower in the Middle East climate conditions and
ventilation and cooling with opposing openings. Three- developed two wind tower design proposals suitable for
sided wind towers, which are not preferred outside of areas where wind effects are sufficient or insufficient with
certain regions, are designed to take the wind from at least various add-ons to improve thermal comfort conditions
two places (Melikoğlu and Bekleyen, 2021). (Bahadori, 1994).
Four-sided configurations are the most widespread wind The rammed earthen building is a masonry construction
tower types separated by vertical shafts. Wind flow is system, the main material of which is soil, and a wall is
provided from all directions. Versatile wind towers have built by compressing different, moistened soil layers in
a more complex system with hexagonal and octagonal lateral forms between the temporary formwork panels and
shapes with plan layouts, classified as X, +, H, I, and K compacting it with the help of equipment to build
types (Habıbzadeh, 2018) (Figure 3). monolithic walls (Alibeyoğlu and Ökten, 2021).
Rammed earthen buildings with widespread examples in
the world have important potential in terms of aesthetics,
durability, and energy efficiency. Building components
constructed with this technic, have low embedded energy
and carbon emissions due to their natural material content
(Dong et al., 2014). Besides the researches on the
durability and combination of rammed earth technic, there
are some studies in which application of natural
ventilation strategies in rammed earth buildings (Taylor
Figure 3: Classification of wind towers, adapted of et al., 2008; Fernandez, 2019; Dong et al., 2014). Taylor
Habıbzadeh, 2018. et al. (2008) investigated the effect of night ventilation on
Ahmed et al. compared the air exchange rates provided by thermal comfort-and energy use in an office building
the cross and single-sided ventilation, formed by openings constructed with rammed earth in a hot-dry climate zone.
on the facades, with the wind tower and solar chimney The study revealed that natural ventilation was
setup, in hot climates. The study revealed that wind insufficient to provide the thermal comfort conditions of
towers and solar chimneys provide better performance by the building, and insulation was required on the outer
producing higher ventilation rates (Ahmed et al., 2021). walls.
Hosseini revealed that in the climatic conditions of Yazd There is limited study on rammed earth buildings with
city of Iran, dimensional changes in the 4-way wind tower wind tower configuration in the literature. Wang (1992)
have a direct effect on the speed and distribution of air investigated the thermal performance of an earthen tower
building. However the building itself has a tower typology climate is low humidity and high temperatures.
instead of seperate wind tower. Temperature differences between day and night reach to
Adobe buildings constructed with soil bricks dried in the high levels. Cooling needs require much more
sun are common construction technics in the cities such consideration in building design as summer conditions are
as Tunceli, Diyarbakır, Şanlıurfa with hot climate dominant in a year with long periods.
conditions (İzgi, 2020). There are very few examples of An imaginary building is assumed to locate in 500 evler
rammed earth technique in Turkey. The application of district with existing low rise buildings in Diyarbakır.
rammed earth walls and wind towers, which are preferred A low-rise building with 3 zones with 6 m x 12 m
especially for thermal comfort in hot-dry climatic regions, dimensions is assumed to locate in the area in question.
would have a significant potential to provide optimum The opening area rate is 15% for each of the South and
indoor climatic conditions with lower energy North facades of the building. The simulations are
consumption. conducted for the zone in the middle. Interior doors are
In cases where the ventilation and cooling performance of assumed to be close for all simulations (Figure 4).
the openings on the facade are not sufficient, wind towers,
which have been a common building component in
regions with hot climates since ancient times, to benefit
from the wind passing over the roof level, are also useful
in reducing cooling loads and providing optimum indoor
climatic comfort conditions in districts with hot climate
conditions such as Diyarbakır in Turkey (Uslusoy, 2012).
Diyarbakır, a city located in the Southeastern Anatolia
region with hot climate conditions has similar
architectural features to the Middle East region with
fountains, pools for cooling by evaporation; courtyards,
Figure 4: Layout and building plans.
high walls, semi-open rooms for shading (3 sides closed),
massive outer walls for delaying and decreasing the peak 5 types of alternative configurations with and without
heat loads in traditional residential buildings. Wind wind towers on the terraced roof of middle zone are
towers and rammed earth buildings are prominent generated for the CFD simulation process conducted with
examples of vernacular architectural identity, designed to Designbuilder program in order to present the natural
resist harsh hot-dry climatic conditions, in some of the ventilation and cooling performance and variation of
neighboring countries in the middle east, such as Iraq and thermal comfort sensation by Fanger method for summer
Iran (Bekleyen and Dalkılıç, 2011; Sözen and Gedík, design day 21 July for the morning and afternoon hours.
2007; Jafar Rouh, 2017; Jaquin, 2008). However, rammed The wind acts from the Northeast with a velocity of 1.60
earth building constructions with wind towers are not part m/s at 10:00 and from the Northeast with a velocity of
of architectural applications in the old settlement in 1.58 m/s at 16:00 on 21 July due to the Energyplus
Diyarbakır though it is a common strategy in countries weather data for Diyarbakır. The alternative [a-ref-conc]
such as Iran with similar climatic conditions. Therefore, as the reference building is a reinforced concrete building
rammed earth buildings with wind towers for cooling without a wind tower. The second alternative is a
effect by ventilation in summer can be constructed in rammed-earth building also without a wind tower.
newly built residential areas with small parcellation which Primarily the combined effect of natural ventilation and
does not permit courtyard design. building envelope thermo-physical properties on thermal
comfort is investigated with the second alternative. The
In this study, wind towers, one of the architectural
alternatives [b1wt-rammed], [b2wt-rammed], and [b4wt-
approaches to natural ventilation systems, are investigated
rammed] have wind towers located on the middle part of
together with the rammed earth wall construction. The
the roof in the North with a different number of openings
effect of wind towers, which are preferred in regions with
for each. The effects of the number of openings on
hot-dry climates, on indoor climate comfort conditions is
thermal comfort conditions are investigated by these
evaluated with the DesignBuilder simulation program for
alternatives. The alternative [c1wt-rammed] has a wind
rammed earth building models derived from wind tower
tower on the middle part of the roof in the South. The
alternatives with different opening locations under the
effect of the location of the wind tower is examined by
climatic conditions of Diyarbakır. Energy consumption
this alternative (Figure 5). The wind towers, which are 3
and thermal comfort levels achieved by the alternatives
m high from the terraced roof, have an area of 1.6 m2.
are compared with the results of the sample model made
Alternatives are derived for wind towers with a wall
of reinforced concrete and without a wind tower.
thickness of 0.3 meters, where 0.7m *1m in size, single,
Method two, and four openings are present. Two-way and multi-
This study investigates the effects of natural ventilation direction wind towers are divided into compartments in
on energy performance; indoor climatic comfort levels the plan. These partitions are formed with 3 cm thick
that occur by the rammed earth buildings alternatives with wooden. It is assumed that the wind towers extend to the
wind towers assumed to locate in Diyarbakır with hot ceiling level of the space.
climatic conditions. Basic characteristics of Diyarbakır
 Figure 5: Simulation alternatives and operation of openings.
The metabolic rate of the seated occupants in the sitting Higher operative temperatures and less air movement
position was set as 1.0 met and clothing insulation value velocities are obtained at the point “R” in the indoor
as 0.5 clo, at 40% relative humidity for Fanger thermal environment with all alternatives except [b2-wt-rammed]
comfort calculations with CFD. Interior obstructions in according to the reference situation [ref-conc]. The
the room are not considered. interior mean operative temperatures with all alternatives
Calculation Parameters and Boundary conditions for are above the comfort temperatures due to the size of the
CFD with Designbuilder opening, the transfer of hot outdoor airflows, and the
effect of solar gains by closed windows. The interior
K-e turbulence model based on Navier-Stokes equations
operative temperature increased in the [b4-wt-rammed]
is used for the calculations. The Power Law discretisation
alternative depending on the increase in opening sizes.
method was selected. Maximum mesh spacing is 0.3m,
However, the same effect did not occur with [b2-wt-
Maximum dependent variable residual is 10-6 and cell
rammed] with lower indoor operative temperature values
aspect ratio is 13. Simulation results obtained by
by the effect of air velocities with lower temperatures
Energyplus for 21 July were used as CFD boundary
(Figure 7).
conditions (Table 1).
The homogeneous distribution of the air flows in the zone
Openings on north and South facades are assumed to be
is provided most with [b2-wt-rammed], according to the
full open for cross ventilation for the reference
reference situations. However, vortices can be observed
alternatives, [a-ref-conc] and [b-rammed].
at the locations, [X2, X3; S-w1, N-w1] with [a-ref-conc];
Table 1: CFD boundary conditions. [X2, X3; S-w1, N-w1] with [b-rammed]. [b-rammed]
INPUT/OUTPUT 10:00 16:00 alternative was created to observe the effect of material
° ° differentiation on indoor air movement velocity,
C C
distribution, and operative temperatures compared to [a-
External Temperature 37.50 41.70 ref-con] reference alternative formed with concrete
Initial Air Temperature 20.00 20.00 material. The massive wall effect, which delays the
sensation of the outdoor peak temperature effects in the
Average Zone Air 36.72 38.78
Temperature indoor environment and, also reduces the indoor
Thermal comfort PMV-PPD outputs are plotted on plan temperature oscillations, could not provide a temperature
view obtained by horizontal slice set at a height of 1.2 m. decrease due to the ventilation carried out during the day
Air temperature and velocity plots are presented below. with high temperature airflows. Although there is not
much difference between them in terms of these
Results parameters, indoor operative temperatures have reached
Morning Hours higher values with the [b-rammed] alternative. The air
Relevant wind acts from 74° northeast at 10:00 in the flows at the user sitting level are homogeneously
morning hours. The effect of indoor airflow distribution distributed in the [b2-wt-rammed] and [a-ref-conc], [b-
and velocity on the variation of the operative rammed] but stagnated at the rear. Although the PPD
temperatures, accordingly thermal comfort levels in the values were low in a few limited areas near the windows,
zone were compared for the six alternative situations they were at a near rate of 96% throughout the place, even
(Figure 6). with these alternatives.
 Figure 6: Operative temperature and PPD variations for the alternatives on 21 July at 10:00.

Figure 7: Operative temperature and PPD variations at point R.

Afternoon Hours area in front of the window, it is insufficient to provide
Relevant wind acts from 42.75° northeast at 16:00 in the climatic comfort throughout this zone.
afternoon hours. The effect of indoor airflow distribution Airflow distributions are provided homogeneously with
and velocity on the variation of the operative all alternatives. This distribution and velocity effects are
temperatures, accordingly thermal comfort levels in the dominant with [b1-wt-rammed], [b2-wt-rammed], [b4-
zone were compared for the six alternative situations wt-rammed], [c1-wt-rammed]. However, stagnant air
(Figure 8). flow conditions among vortices are observed at the
It is seen that the internal operative temperature values locations, [X2, X3; S-w1, N-w1] with [b1-wt-rammed];
obtained in the evening at the point, “R” are at higher [X2, X3; S-w1, N-w1] with [b2-wt-rammed]; [X1, X2; S-
levels for [b1-wt-rammed], [b4-wt-rammed], [c1-wt- w1, N-w1] with [c1-wt-rammed]. The [c1-wt-rammed]
rammed] alternatives compared to morning hours. Higher model, in which the wind tower locates in the south
internal operative temperatures are observed for [a-ref- orientation, has a slightly lower temperature than the other
conc], [b-rammed], [b2-wt-rammed] alternatives models at the point, “R” due to the fact that the building
compared to morning hours. openings are located in the north.
Operative temperatures above the comfort threshold The [b2-wt-rammed] seems to be the most effective
⁰
temperature 26 C were observed at the reference point alternative with homogeneous air circulation. The highest
and in other regions with all alternatives. Although airflow velocities are obtained with the [b4-wt-rammed].
desired comfort temperatures are achieved in a limited
In the [b2-wt-rammed] alternative, the air currents reach the operative temperature in the interior environment.
the upper levels of the interior space through the wind Even if, airflows reach all parts of the zone for all models,
tower opening. Then, as it orientates towards the south a more effective circulation is obtained with [b2-wt-
façade and returns from the user-level parts of the zone to rammed] and [c-1wt-rammed]. For this reason, PMV-
the north façade openings, it creates an effect that lowers PPD values are lower with these models.

Figure 8: Operative temperature and PPD variations for the alternatives on 21 July at 16:00.
Conclusion simulations with similar configurations as north location
can present the potential of wind tower location change in
According to the analysis, the operative temperature
terms of increasing thermal comfort and ventilation
values obtained in the reference and alternative models
efficiency. The determination of the position of the inlet,
were insufficient to provide comfortable conditions
outlet openings, optimum wind tower location, height,
during the warm period. However, it is an appropriate
and integration of night ventilation, especially in hot
approach to ventilate at night when the outdoor
climate regions where massive walls are widely used,
temperature is lower in hot climate conditions. The fact
appears to be of great importance in improving interior
that the operative temperatures are above the comfort
microclimatic conditions. Therefore, the studies on these
limit values, especially in the [a-ref-conc] and [b-
parameters have to increase.
rammed], is an expected issue due to the cross-ventilation
with large opposing windows and the transfer of air
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