Numerical and experimental analysis of a multi-directional wind tower integrated with vertically-arranged heat transfer devices (VHTD)

Calautit, John Kaiser; Hughes, Ben Richard; O’Connor, Dominic; Shahzad, Sally

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.02.025

Cited by 25 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The blockage ratio is defined as the cross-sectional area of the tower in the domain area. This parameter must be small enough to avoid the blockage effect, and we determine that the blockage ratio is around 3.3% which is considered acceptable for the simulations [43,44]. …”

Section: Geometrical Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Investigation of Airflow Patterns in a New Design of Wind Tower with a Wetted Surface

et al. 2018

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Abstract:Passive cooling systems, such as wind towers, can help to reduce energy consumption in buildings and at the same time reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Wind towers can naturally ventilate buildings and also can create enhanced thermal comfort for occupants during the warm months. This study proposes a modern wind tower design with a moistened pad. The new design includes a fixed column, a rotating and movable head, an air opening with a screen, and two windows at the end of the column. The wind tower can be installed on roof-tops to take advantage of ambient airflow. The wind tower's head can be controlled manually or automatically to capture optimum wind velocity based on desired thermal condition. To maximize its performance, a small pump was considered to circulate and spray water on an evaporative cooling pad. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of airflow around and inside the proposed wind tower is conducted to analyze the ventilation performance of this new design of wind tower. Thereby, the velocity, total pressure, and pressure coefficient distributions around and within the wind tower for different wind velocities are examined. The simulation results illustrate that the new wind tower design with a moistened pad can be a reasonable solution to improve naturally the thermal comfort of buildings in hot and dry climates.

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Section: Geometrical Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Steady-state three-dimensional CFD simulations are performed with a standard k-ε turbulence model, following previous studies on wind towers [1,[43][44][45][46][47][48][49]. It is possible to predict the natural ventilation airflows inside and around wind towers and also indoor airflows with this approach.…”

Section: Solver and Boundary Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of Airflow Patterns in a New Design of Wind Tower with a Wetted Surface

et al. 2018

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“…The review of current literature showed that significant research interest has been focused on a number of areas relating to the development of windcatcher technology [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][27][28][29][30] and its integration with cooling methods [23][24][25][26] such as heat pipes [15][16][17][18]. The research gaps that this study aims to address are the following; (1) There are limited studies on the experimental investigation of commercial windcatchers, particularly using field test method.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The answer to the issue, however, might be closer to the Gulf than previously thought. Researchers, engineers and architects are now looking at traditional architecture as a way of providing low-energy cooling [8,9]. An example of this is the windcatcher or wind tower (Figure 1a), which was used by several Middle East countries for many centuries to capture wind and provide a comfortable indoor environment without using energy [10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climatic analysis of a passive cooling technology for the built environment in hot countries

2017

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The aim of this work was to determine the ventilation and cooling potential of a passive cooling windcatcher operating under hot climatic conditions by replicating the monthly wind velocity, wind direction, temperature and relative humidity (RH) observed in a hot-desert city. The city of Ras-Al-Khaimah (RAK), UAE was used as the location of the case-study and available climatic data was used as inlet boundary conditions for the numerical analysis. The study employed the CFD code FLUENT 14.5 with the standard k-model to conduct the steady-state RANS simulation. The windcatcher model was incorporated to a 3 x 3 x 3 m 3 test room model, which was identical to the one used in the field test. Unlike most numerical simulation of windcatchers, the work will simulate wind flows found in sub-urban environment. The numerical model provided detailed analysis of the pressure, airflow and temperature distributions inside the windcatcher and test room model. Temperature and velocity profiles indicated an induced, cooler airflow inside the room; outside air was cooled from 38˚C to 26-28˚C, while the average induced airflow speed was 0.59 m/s (15% lower compared to a windcatcher w/out heat pipes). Field testing measurements were carried out in the Jazira Hamra area of RAK during the month of September. The test demonstrated the positive effect of the integration of heat pipes on the cooling performance but also highlighted several issues. The comparison between the measured and predicted supply temperatures were in good agreement, with an average error of 3.15%.

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“…Simulation results indicated that both the out-of-plane and in-plane translational motions have significant effects on the unsteady aerodynamic forces. Calautit et al [30] investigated the potential of incorporating vertically-arranged heat transfer devices (VHTD) into a multi-directional wind tower system in terms of reducing the temperature of the airflow and also maintaining the fresh air rates. The study was conducted by using numerical modeling and uniform flow wind tunnel experimentations.…”

Section: Renewable Energymentioning

confidence: 99%

Clean, efficient and affordable energy for a sustainable future

et al. 2017

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Numerical and experimental analysis of a multi-directional wind tower integrated with vertically-arranged heat transfer devices (VHTD)

Cited by 25 publications

References 37 publications

Investigation of Airflow Patterns in a New Design of Wind Tower with a Wetted Surface

Investigation of Airflow Patterns in a New Design of Wind Tower with a Wetted Surface

Climatic analysis of a passive cooling technology for the built environment in hot countries

Clean, efficient and affordable energy for a sustainable future

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