Functions of ventilation

It has three distinctly different functions:

• Supply of fresh air
• Convective cooling
• Physiological cooling
Supply of fresh air
• The requirements of fresh air supply are governed
by the type of occupancy, number and activity of
the occupants and by the nature of any processes
carried out in the
• The provision of 'permanent ventilators', i.e. of
openings which cannot be closed, may be
compulsory.
• These may be grilles or 'air bricks' built into a
wall, or may be incorporated with windows.
• The size of openable windows may be stipulated in
relation to the floor area or the volume of the room.
• The aim of all these rules is to ensure ventilation,
but the rigid application of such rules may often
be inadequate to ensure a satisfactory performance
the principles involved must be clearly understood.
Convective Cooling
• The exchange of indoor air with fresh out-door air
can provide cooling, if the latter is at a lower
temperature than the indoor air. The moving air
acts as a heat carrying medium.
• A situation where this convective cooling is a
practical proposition, can arise in moderate or
cold climates, when the internal heat gain is
causing a temperature increase,
• In warm climates, when the internal heat gain or
solar heat gain through windows would raise the
indoor temperature even higher than the outdoor
air temperature, this is not a practical need.
Physiological cooling
• The movement of air past the skin surface accelerates
heat dissipation in two ways:
– increasing convective heat loss
– accelerating evaporation
• Both the bioclimatic chart and the ET nomograms
show the cooling effect of air movement, i.e. how much
higher temperatures can be tolerated with adequate air
velocity:
• For example, from Figure A : 30°C DBT and 25°C WBT
will give an ET of 27°C with still air (less than 0.1
m/s); and 22°C with a 7.5 m/s air velocity.
• Figure B: the upper comfort limit at 40% RH is 30°C
with still air but 36°C with a 1 m/s air movement.
Provision for air movement:
• Ventilation, i.e. both the supply of fresh air and convective cooling,
involves the movement of air at a relatively slow rate.
• The motive force can be either thermal or dynamic (wind).
• The stack effect relies on thermal forces, set up by density difference
(caused by temperature differences) between the indoor and out-door air.
It can occur through an open window (when the air is still): the warmer
and lighter indoor air will flow out at the top and the cooler, denser
outdoor air will flow in at the bottom.
• The principle is the same as in wind generation
• Special provision can be made for it in the form of ventilating shafts.
• The higher the shaft, the larger the cross-sectional area and the greater the
temperature difference: the greater the motive force therefore, the more air
will be moved. will

• rarely be sufficient to
wind effects
• Thermal forces will rarely be sufficient to create appreciable air movements.
• The only 'natural'
• force that can be relied on is the dynamic effect of winds.
• When the creation of air movements
• indoors is the aim, the designer should try to capture as much of the available
wind as possible.
• Negative control – when the wind is too much – is easy, if windows and
openings can be shut.
• Designer must examine how the flow of air through a building will be
influenced and by what factors.
Cont…..
• In the same way as wind is generated by
pressure differences – so an air flow through
the building is the result of a pressure
difference between the two sides.
• Air – although light – has a mass (around
1.2 kg/m3), and as it moves, has a
momentum, which is the product of its mass
and its velocity (kg m/s).
• This is a vector quantity, which can be
changed in direction or in magnitude only
by another force.
• When moving air strikes an obstacle such as
a building, this will slow down the air flow
but the air flow will exert a pressure on the
obstructing surface.
 • This slowing down process effects a roughly wedge-
shaped mass of air on the windward side of the building,
which in turn diverts the rest of the air flow upwards and
sideways.
• A separation layer is formed between the stagnant air
and the building on the one hand and the laminar air
flow on the other hand.
• The laminar air flow itself may be accelerated at the
obstacle, as the area available for the flow is narrowed
down by the obstacle,
• At the separation layer, due to friction, the upper surface
of the stagnant air is moved forward, thus a turbulence
or vortex is developed.
Due to its momentum, the laminar air flow tends to maintain a straight path after it has been
diverted, therefore it will take some time to return to the ground surface after the obstacle, to
occupy all the available 'cross-section'.
Thus a stagnant mass of air is also formed on the leeward side, but this is at a reduced
pressure. In fact, this is not quite stagnant: a vortex is formed, the movement is light and
variable and it is often referred to as 'wind shadow'.
• Consequently vortexes are formed wherever the laminar flow is
separated from the surfaces of solid bodies.
• On the windward side such vortexes are at an increased pressure
and on the leeward side at a reduced pressure.
• If the building has an opening facing a high pressure zone and
another facing a low pressure zone, air movement will be
generated through the building.
Air flow through buildings
• On the basis of such experimental observations the following
factors can be isolated which affect the indoor air flow (both
patterns and velocities):
– orientation
– external features
– cross-ventilation
– position of openings
– size of openings
– controls of openings
orientation

Effect of wind direction and inlet opening size on Effect of direction on the width of wind shadow
air velocity distribution
External Features
Cross ventilation

Effect of opening positions

Lack of cross-ventilation
Position of opening
Type of Opening
Air flow around buildings