The hydraulics of exchange flow between adjacent confined building zones

Buoyancy-driven exchange flow between two adjacent building zones connected with top and bottom vents

“…On the contrary, buildings are typically characterized by multiple rooms and corridors. This study extends the research analytical and experimental works by Nabi and Flynn [10], Linden et al [7] and Nabi and Flynn [11] to analyze the transient buoyancy-driven flows between two connected chambers. As discussed in Linden [22], buoyancy-driven exchange flows highly depend on the position of the interior vents.…”

“…[10,11]. Therefore, if the purpose is to redistribute buoyancy from an attached solarium as quickly as possible, the architectural design associated with only a common doorway is inferior to that of Fig.…”

“…It is assumed that there are no fabric heat losses or gains through the ceiling or floor and that the building is well insulated. Following our previous analysis [10,11], the system is assumed to be incompressible and Boussinesq and the pressure distribution hydrostatic. For analytical convenience, the plume is assumed to be switched on at t ¼ t 2,b , not t ¼ 0, the instant when the bottom and top vents are simultaneously opened.…”

“…As discussed in Linden [22], buoyancy-driven exchange flows highly depend on the position of the interior vents. Previously, we examined the exchange flow between two zones of slightly different densities separated by a single common doorway which was located at the bottom of each zone [10,11]. In order to gain a more complete understanding of architectural exchange flows, we now extend our investigation to cases where the bottom openings or vents are matched by an equal or unequal number of vents adjacent to the ceiling, which we will hereafter refer to as the top vents.…”

“…Over time, a stratified ambient develops in the dense zone, and depending on the geometrical parameters discussed in Refs. [10,11] the light zone will include two distinct layers with a possible intermediate stratified layer. Conversely in the displacement ventilation flow that is the topic of this paper, by opening the top and bottom vents simultaneously unidirectional flow of opposite sign is observed through the bottom and the top vents.…”