THE STUDY OF ACTIVE STACK TO ENHANCE NATURAL VENTILATION USING COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS (CFD)

Abstract

This dissertation demonstrates the use of a combined methodology of wind tunnel experiments and CFD applications for natural ventilation study. The objective is to study the effectiveness of a combined system of natural ventilation integrated into an active mechanical stack. Since the wind tunnel experiments do not provide the dynamic profiles of the airflow, the results are used as boundary conditions for subsequent CFD simulations. The main parameter to study is the air velocity measured at selected positions. The design factors include stack sizes, stack locations, doors operations, wind effect, and extract fan operations. There are 32 cases computed by the CFD simulations. The response results are compared to reference results and the key design factors that significantly affect the ventilation performance are identified using factorial design analysis. The results are also validated with the results obtained from the wind tunnel experiments. Key Words: Wind tunnel experiment, CFD simulation, active stack effect, air velocity, design factors, factorial design analysis.