Impact of Internal Wall Barriers on Airflow Pattern in Natural Cross-Ventilation of the Common Houses in Bhubaneswar City, India

Abstract

Common walls between houses are a major reason for improper ventilation in apartment buildings. They make a compulsion for improper positioning of doors/windows. The shape of the house also affects the airflow distribution patterns inside the house. In this work, the effect of various shapes of the house on the ventilation inside the rooms is investigated with a cross-flow ventilation configuration, where the total floor area of the house is maintained as 1000 square feet. Moreover, work also has been performed to investigate the airflow inside a square-shaped house with different door/window configurations for various inlet airflow directions. Besides that, the impact of inlet airflow velocity on the ventilation process has also been investigated. From the investigation, it has been observed that with an increase in air volume flow rate, the area covered with low-velocity air (< 1 m/s) decreases and the area covered with high-velocity air ( > 2 m/s) increases irrespective of the shape of the house but does not follow any pattern for the comfort condition airflow velocity. The airflow pattern is not changed significantly with increase in inlet airflow velocity, but the airflow velocity regions are changed significantly. For a square shape house, 78% area is covered with a low air velocity region (< 1 m/s) is the highest with N & E door/window configuration. 62% area covered with high air velocity region (> 2 m/s) is the highest with N & S door/window configuration. 26% area covered with comfort flow condition (between 1-2 m/s) is the highest with N & S door/window configuration.