Identifying the most influential parameter affecting natural ventilation performance in high-rise high-density residential buildings

Abstract

Natural ventilation contributes to comfort, reduction of energy use for air conditioning and improving indoor air quality in high-rise high-density residential buildings. Measures to improve its performance should be of interest to the general public. Among factors that have an impact on natural ventilation performance of residential units, openings configuration is perhaps the most investigated. Much research work has been done on investigating the impact of different configuration parameters, but most previous studies are focused on only one impact parameter. In this study, computational fluid dynamics simulations are conducted for evaluating the combined impact of different configuration parameters so as to identify the configuration parameter that has the highest impact on natural ventilation performance of residential units. Statistical analysis of simulation results revealed that amongst the five studied parameters (i.e. ventilation mode, window type, orientation, window-to-wall ratio and living room area), natural ventilation performance, represented by mean age of air, is most affected by the ventilation mode adopted (i.e. cross or single-sided ventilation).

Role of building material in thermal comfort in tropical climates – A review

“…In addition to the building orientation, research shows that natural ventilation improves thermal comfort in buildings that are located in hot and humid climates [45][46][47][48][49][50]. Natural ventilation can be become an integral part of the building envelope by introducing any one of the following ventilation elements viz., wind scoop, wind tower, chimney, double façade, atrium, ventilation chamber, embedded duct and/or ventilation opening in the facade [51,52].…”

Development of price models for architectural and environmental quality for residential developments in Hong Kong

“…This study adopts the hedonic price method to determine the marginal WTP and ES for each architectural and environmental attribute for the information of homebuyers and building developers in Hong Kong, based upon performance indicators developed earlier by the authors (Fung & Lee, 2011, 2014 and representative transaction records.…”

“…This is less of a problem for architectural attributes which can easily be understood by homebuyers but is a problem in case of environmental attributes. Accordingly, a series of studies has been done by the authors for developing performance indicators for quantifying a residential unit's environmental qualities (Fung & Lee, 2011, 2014. Through the use of the hedonic price method, the marginal WTP and ES for each architectural and environmental attribute are determined for the information of homebuyers and building developers.…”

Analysis of Ventilation Efficiency and Effective Ventilation Flow Rate for Wind-driven Single-sided Ventilation Buildings

“…Cross ventilation can provide large air-exchange rate in comparison with single-sided ventilation (Fung and Lee, 2015). However, only a few buildings can be designed to utilize cross ventilation because of room depth, interior partitions and other obstacles in most cases.…”