NATURAL VENTILATION
STUDY REPORT
AAYOJAN SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, JAIPUR SUMIT RAINA
Building Services-I October 2011 B.Arch part time II nd year.
Natural ventilation
The process of supplying and removing air through an
The term Natural Ventilation is used to describe
indoor space by natural means. There are two types of
ventilation systems which make use of
natural ventilation occurring in buildings: wind driven
existing thermodynamic forces within a building to
ventilation and stack ventilation. The pressures
draw in fresh air and discharge waste
generated by buoyancy, also known as 'the stack effect',
air without the assistance of powered
The majority of buildings employing natural ventilation
components. Properly designed, manufactured
rely primarily on wind driven ventilation, but stack
and
ventilation has several benefits. The most efficient
installed, natural ventilation systems are
design for a natural ventilation building should
extremely economic, efficient, self-regulating
implement both types of ventilation
and require only minimum maintenance.
Human Performance in a Hot Environment When air in a building is heated by solar effect,
In hot stuffy conditions work has little appeal. People product, plant and machinery or other
need to rest more often and their means, it expands, which causes the density to
concentration wanders. Human relations suffer and decrease. This results in a reduction in the
inevitably performance drops. mass of a given volume. Should this air then be
Research confirms that uncomfortably high or low exposed to and in contact with
temperatures, lack of fresh air surrounding air that is cooler and heavier, the
movement and high humidity leads to lassitude, more warmer air will be induced to rise.
accidents and higher absenteeism. The rate at which this air rises depends firstly on
The actual number of vents required and the air supply the temperature difference between the
necessary makes allowance for rising column of warmer air and the surrounding
flow resistance based on their exhaust and inlet cooler air. The greater the temperature
coefficients. The positioning of the vents differential, the faster the column rises.
is also critical in order to exhaust the smoke without
mixing and cooling.
AAYOJAN SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, JAIPUR SUMIT RAINA
Building Services-I October 2011 B.Arch part time II nd year.
Ventilation strategies
The more common strategies are identified in the
following. It is relevant to divide them into two basic
categories (isolated and connected spaces).
In all cases the flow pattern is such that fresh (external) air
enters eachoccupied space. This pattern should be
maintained under a wide range of conditions
The magnitudes of the flow rates, as distinct from their
directions, are involved in Stage 3. Isolated spaces. In some
buildings the spaces or rooms can be considered as
isolated (in terms of air flow) from other parts of the building.
For this to be true, theopenings to other parts of the
building must be small inrelation to openings in the external
envelope. Figure 3 illustrates such spaces and possible
ventilation strategies.
Spaces A and B are examples of single-sided ventilation,
with a large single opening and two small openings at
different heights. Spaces C and D are examples of
crossflow ventilation of an isolated floor, again with large
and small openings. In both cases the flow pattern is that
due to the action of wind alone. Space E shows the flow
pattern due to buoyancy alone.
AAYOJAN SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, JAIPUR SUMIT RAINA
Building Services-I October 2011 B.Arch part time II nd year.
Connected spaces –
single-cell building. When the
spaces in a building are connected by large internal
openings, they effectively form a single-cell, with the
flow through any opening dependent on the flow
through
the other openings. Such spaces are relatively
common
in naturally ventilated buildings, partly because of the
desire to minimize internal resistance to flow and
partly
to enhance internal mixing. Figure 4 illustrates one
such
strategy (side “A”), based on the use of an atrium. The
atrium is used to generate inward flow of fresh air into
all
of the occupied floors i.e. crossflow ventilation of all
floors. An advantage of this strategy is that wind and
buoyancy will act in unison, provided the outlet
opening
is in a region of relatively low wind pressure and the
internal temperature is higher than the external. The
same
effect can be obtained by means of a stack (chimney),
or
possibly a stairwell, although fire safety is an issue
here.
AAYOJAN SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, JAIPUR SUMIT RAINA
Building Services-I October 2011 B.Arch part time II nd year.
AAYOJAN SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, JAIPUR SUMIT RAINA
Building Services-I October 2011 B.Arch part time II nd year.
Stack ventilation, can operate when no wind pressure is
available. (The absence of wind can occur at certain times,
due to its variability, or in certain sites, due to blocking
effect of other buildings or vegetation). It can also operate
in deep plan buildings where the distance from openings in
the perimeter, and the presence of partitions, make wind-
driven cross ventilation impractical.
It must be born in mind that the stack effect can only take
place when the average temperature in the stack is greater
than the outside air. Three distinct situations can be
identified – (1) where the stack is formed by the occupied
part of the building itself, (2) where the stack exists in the
occupied space but where the space is tall (such as in an
atrium) and the heated air is well above the heads of the
occupants, and (3) as a separate element.
When used for cooling, in case (1) the temperature
increment may decrease the thermal comfort of the
occupants. This may necessitate large openings to keep
the temperature increment to a minimum. In case (2), since
there are no occupants in the stack zone itself, the
temperature increment may be larger. In case (3), there is
no effect on the occupants, and the temperature may
be deliberately enhanced by solar gains, as in the so-
called solar chimney. It is important to reiterate that it is
the average temperature of the whole column of air that
matters, so any heat input must be made as close as
possible to the base of the chimney.
AAYOJAN SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, JAIPUR SUMIT RAINA
Building Services-I October 2011 B.Arch part time II nd year.
