A review of ventilation opening area terminology

Abstract

The design of a natural ventilation strategy requires the establishment of the location and size of a series of purpose provided ventilation openings (PPOs). The success of the design is dependent on knowledge of the aerodynamic performance of the PPOs often described by their geometry (normally an area) and resistance to airflow. The incorrect interpretation of this information can lead inappropriate ventilation strategies and buildings that overheat and have an excessive energy demand.Many definitions of PPO area are used by standards, guidelines, text books, and software tools. Each can be assigned multiple terms and a single term can be assigned to different definitions. There is evidence that this leads to errors in practice. An effective area of a PPO, defined as the product of its discharge coefficient and its free area, is proposed as a standard description because it is unambiguous and its measurement is governed by recognised standards. It is hoped that PPO manufacturers will provide an effective area as standard and that its use will be recognised as best practice. It is intended that these steps will reduce design errors and lead to successful natural ventilation strategies and better buildings. HIGHLIGHTS Definitions of free, effective, and equivalent ventilation opening areas are given  A review of current definitions highlight contradictions in national standards and guidelines  The contradictions are shown to lead to unintended design errors  An unambiguous term that describes ventilation opening performance is proposed  This will help to mitigate against design errors in ventilation strategies KEYWORDS Natural Ventilation; Design; Standards; Effective area; Equivalent area; Free area; Policy. 3 INTRODUCTIONOpenings located in the thermal envelope of a building comprise those that are intentional, known as purposeprovided openings (PPOs), and those that are unintentional, known as adventitious openings (Etheridge, 2012).It is desirable to minimize adventitious openings to minimize a building's energy demand and to ensure the satisfactory operation of a system of PPOs (Jones et al., 2015). When designing a ventilation strategy that comprises a system of PPOs, a fundamental objective is to establish their location and size. Both factors depend on the airflow rates required through each PPO for a given pressure drop in order to maintain adequate indoor air quality (IAQ) and to dissipate heat gains under limiting conditions (CIBSE, 2005). Accordingly, a description of the geometry of each PPO and its resistance to airflow are required in order to enable a designer to establish the performance of a system using envelope flow models (CIBSE, 2005;Etheridge, 2012). The same information can also be used when working with more complex simulation tools to ensure that a building meets relevant energy and indoor environment quality (IEQ) criteria, such as indoor air quality (IAQ), thermal comfort, overheating, and noise levels. The geometrical information and resistance to airflow of a specific P...

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“…To encourage the widespread use of natural ventilation, reliability issues need to be addressed. A major source of prediction error stems from a poor understanding of the aerodynamic performance of window openings (PPOs) and whole building systems [1,2,3,4]. This paper will show that techniques for modelling real openings are flawed, and create systematic errors in performance predictions that, when brought to light in the under-performance of the finished building [5], can damage the reputation of natural ventilation design.…”

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“…Regarding the latter, even within the well-established engineering/scientific communities there can be considerable variation between the definition and interpretation of certain terminologies. As an example, Jones et al (2016) recently highlighted different, and even contradictory, definitions regarding the area of ventilation openings that are currently used by building standards, guidelines, textbooks and software tools. Confusion, in this case, over terms including 'free area', 'equivalent area' and 'effective area', can lead to unintended and undesirable errors in design specifications, leading (in turn) to under (or over) ventilation, overheating, air quality and acoustic issues, excessive energy consumption and associated carbon emissions, and high capital running costs (Jones et al, 2016).…”