Numerical simulation and analysis of the two-sided windcatcher inlet\outlet effect in ventilation flow through a three dimensional room

Copyright © 2014 by ASME. A windcatcher is a structure placed on the roof of a building for providing natural ventilation for interior space working by wind power. It draws out the inside stale air to the outside and supplies the outside fresh air for the building's interior space. In this paper, the effect of different types of windcatcher's inlet\outlet on the air flow, flow velocity and flowrate through a three-dimensional room fitted with a two-sided windcatcher is observed numerically, using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software package. The standard RANS K-ε CFD method is used in the simulations. The flow pattern, flow velocity and flowrate of the inside ventilation flow is considered for the six different types of a two-sided windcatcher's inlet\outlet. It is found that the shape of the inlet\outlet of windcatcher strongly affects flow pattern, flow velocity and flowrate and the performance of square windcatcher is higher than the circular one specially in ventilating the living area (lower part) of a room