Effects of Crosswinds on the Aerothermal Behaviour of A Double-Skin Façade

Abstract

In double-skin facades, airflow is mainly induced by buoyancy forces due to temperature gradients and air compressibility. In practice, this passive system is also affected by ambient crosswind. The present work is focused on the analysis of the aerothermal behavior of an asymmetrically heated channel interacting with a transverse airflow. To achieve this, we utilized the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique based on the finite volume method to predict the system's performance. After validating the adopted numerical model, we examined the flow structure for different channel widths, and we determined the corresponding ventilation flow rates. We integrated the effect of wind with the thermosiphon effect. The thermo-aerodynamic performance of the facade was presented as a function of wind velocities, which significantly influence the airflow through the cavity and its openings.

Keywords

• double-skin facade
• passive ventilation
• unstable natural convection
• wind effect
• open vertical channel