Wind Tunnel Experiment of Wind-Induced Single-sided Ventilation under Generic Sheltered Urban Area

The utilization of natural ventilation helps to reduce building energy consumption and improve indoor air quality. In the urban area, the performance of the natural ventilation is very sensitive to surrounding building density. However, the influence of surrounding buildings on ventilation rate was not well investigated in previous research. This paper presents a wind tunnel experiment to assess the influence of urban density on the wind-induced ventilation rate of single-sided ventilation. Spacing density, wind direction, and the number of openings were primary factors that were investigated in this experiment. The ventilation rate is evaluated by a continuous dose method of the tracer gas technique. The wind pressure coefficient at openings of the sealed model without openings was measured by pressure transduces. The streamwise velocity at the street canyon was measured by a split-film probe with a constant temperature anemometer unit. The ventilation rate, wind pressure coefficient fluctuations, and surrounding velocity of an isolated building are compared to that of a building with two layers of surrounding buildings with a spacing of 0.5 H (building height), 1 H, and 1.5 H. The relationship between the wind pressure coefficient of the sealed model and the ventilation rate was also discussed.