Reduced-scale experimental model and numerical investigations to buoyance-driven natural ventilation in a large space building

This research establishes a reliable and effective methodology for evaluating the buoyancy-driven ventilation performance in a large space building through a reduced-scale experimental model and full-scale prototype numerical simulation. The measured values are modeled back to the corresponding environmental parameters for the prototype building by using similarity analysis. The experimental data are compared with numerical simulation results, and good agreements with relative errors no more than 1% in temperatures and airflow rates are achieved. The thermal comfort conditions in the building are numerically investigated in terms of well-known thermal comfort index. Results indicate that pure buoyancy-driven ventilation cannot keep people thermally comfortable when the ambient temperature is high, and mechanical ventilation is needed for such a building with a large glass ceiling. The proposed methodology provides a useful procedure to quantify the thermal conditions in such a large space building with a semi-transparent glazed ceiling, and the results of this study can be considered at the initial design stage of the building to obtain a comfortable indoor thermal environment.