Effect of Roof Cooling and Air Curtain Gates on Thermal and Wind Conditions in Stadiums for Hot Climates

Abstract

To host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Qatar is facing the greatest challenge in balancing the energy consumptions for cooling the stadiums and the thermal comfort for both players and spectators. Previous studies have not considered using a combined configuration of air curtain and roof cooling supply slot in stadiums to prevent the infiltration of outside hot air and reduce the cooling system’s energy consumption. This paper presents a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study of thermal and wind modeling around a baseline stadium and simulates the cooling scenarios of air curtains and roof cooling along with the energy consumption estimations for the World Cup matches using Building Energy Simulation (BES). Sensitivity analysis of different supply speeds and supply temperatures of air curtain gates and roof cooling was carried out, and the results showed that scenario six, which provides supply air of 25 m/s and 20 m/s at the roof and air curtain gates with a supply temperature of 10 °C, demonstrates optimal thermal performances on both the spectator tiers and the pitch. Compared with the baseline stadium performance, the average reductions in temperature on the pitch and spectator tiers under scenario six could reach 15 °C and 14.6 °C. The reductions in the Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied values for the upper and lower tiers as well as the pitch were 63%, 74%, and 78%. In terms of the estimated energy consumptions, scenario six would consume electric energy per match at a rate of 25.5 MWh compared with 22.8 MWh for one of the stadiums in the 2010 South Africa World Cup and 42.0 MWh for the 2006 Germany World Cup. Future research is recommended to explore the influence of supply angle on air curtain gates and roof cooling supply slots’ performances.

Sustainable Buildings: Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning

“…Here, we provide a brief review of the articles [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] published in the Special Issue. A graphical summary of the key areas covered in the Special Issue is shown in Figure 2.…”

“…The following contribution evaluated the provision of cooling in large semi-outdoor spaces such as stadiums. Extending their work [18] on the use of cooling air jets in stadiums, Zhong et al (2021) [14] conducted an in-depth study on the effect of roof cooling and air curtain gates on thermal and wind conditions in stadiums in hot climates. Their recent work attempted to address the challenge of external hot air entering the stadium through its roof opening and gates, resulting in higher stadium pitch temperatures.…”

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“…Some measures to lower the temperature include insulating the roof, creating hot-air outlets in the upper part, and openings in the lower part of the air inlet to provide cross ventilation [85,86].…”

“…Cross-ventilation is generally seen as more effective than unilateral ventilation because it can take better advantage of the high-pressure gradient around the building. In contrast, the efficiency of one-sided ventilation depends on the gradient shape of the single façade [52,85]. Proper ventilation can be achieved in residential buildings using solar chimneys and windcatchers, for example [90,91].…”

COVID-19 Spreading Prediction in a Control Room of Power Plant Using CFD Simulation

“…They modeled the thermal conditions and included the effect of solar irradiance on the interior and exterior surfaces. Their models are conducted for the stadium with and without air curtain gates and roof cooling to evaluate their thermal performance (Zhong, F et al 2021).…”