stack effect

Nowadays, there is increasing construction of high-rise buildings. Stack effect is one of the airflow characteristics in this type of tall buildings. The upward buoyant airflows in vertical shafts of high-rise residential (HRR) buildings can become an important way of gaseous pollutant transport during cold seasons. In this paper the airflows and pollutant transport driven by stack effect in a typical HRR building in Shanghai was simulated by using a multi-zone model. Measured and recommended leakage data were employed, and the air tightness level was kept the same for all floors.

Fires in buildings account for 60% of fires in Taiwan. Since establishment of the National Fire Agency in  1995, many fire codes have been promulgated resulting in a gradual decline in the number of casualties of fire. However, for old apartments in urban areas, although regulations aimed at improving fire-prevention refuge facilities and fire-fighting equipment of existing building have been announced, they cannot be implemented efficiently due to the lack of public acceptance. This investigation has found that hundreds of thousands people live in such buildings.

Food odor dispersion from residential unit to core is one of problems in high-rise residential building. In this study, it was analyzed in terms of stack effect, and the method how optimal air inflow of core was estimated and how the location of air in/outlet were decided were suggested to solve it. A combined CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and CONTAMW analysis was used for stack effect of building, dispersion of food odor, optimal air inflow of core, and the location of air in/outlet in the method.

Interior-surface condensation on the glazed curtain wall of high-rise residential buildings is an important environmental issue in Korea. There are three causes of the surface condensation. One is the curtain wall frame materials, another is the generated moisture from residents' behaviors such as cooking and drying the laundry, the other is inadequate ventilation caused by stack effect.

Non-invasive, scalable, building retrofit solutions are amongst the most likely large scale adoption techniques to assist in climate change adaptation in the existing built environment, particularly in university type buildings where rehousing live activities will prove costly. Natural ventilation is an attractive retrofit strategy due to the low impact nature of the installation. A number of internal environmental criteria that are important to ventilative cooling strategies can be substantially modified as a result of an external retrofit solution.

This study proposes the hybrid ventilation system and its design methods for high-rise buildings. The proposed hybrid ventilation system uses natural driving power for ventilation based on air flow in the whole building and indoor and outdoor pressure distributions. Furthermore, it solves the troubles of the conventional natural or mechanical ventilation systems. This paper presents theories and a process for duct design for natural ventilation which forms the basis of a hybrid ventilation system in high-rise buildings.

When it comes to natural ventilation performance for large space cooling during summer time or intermediate seasons, double skin facade(DSF) integrated with cross ventilation(CV) exhibits more energy efficiency than single-side ventilated DSF. In this case, ventilation performance is remarkably affected by climatic conditions. Therefore, it is important to analyze micro climatic conditions before applying this passive technique.

Guideline for ventilation to improve indoor air quality in apartment housings in Korea was recently enacted and natural or mechanical ventilation system has become mandatory. Meanwhile, as the height of residential buildings goes up, the performance of ventilation system is influenced by stack effect especially in winter. This study is to review how stack effect influences ventilation system in high-rise residential buildings through simulations.

Passive stack ventilation is a key feature of sustainable building design and has particular potential for use in tall, multi-storey buildings. However, natural ventilation flows through multiply connected spaces may not behave as expected. Recirculation of air through occupied parts of the building and bidirectional exchange flows at ventilation outlets may compromise the intended ventilation scheme resulting in an uncomfortable indoor environment.

In the light of global environmental problems, it is vital for buildings to conserve energy and make use of natural energies. Natural ventilation is one important method for achieving this. In houses, natural ventilation is a very attractive way to control the indoor environment. Compared to this, mid- to high-rise buildings include many closed spaces where windows cannot be opened and internal heat is trapped inside, which increases the cooling load. Based on this situation, consciousness of environmentally friendly buildings and utilization of natural energy becomes high.