Natural ventilation systems for industrial buildings have traditionally been designed using empirical engineering models, which often require the designer to 'over-engineer' the design to achieve a 'guaranteed' level of ventilation performance. This paper describes an application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and multi-zone thermal and airflow modelling to analyse the effectiveness of natural ventilation in removing moisture from a red mud filtration building used in the alumina industry in Australia.

Environmental and economic concerns linked to conventional heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems (HY AC) have sparked a renewed interest in natural ventilation, passive cooling and other low energy microclimate control strategies for buildings. In Canada, the combination of extreme weather conditions, wind variability, transient occupancy patterns and high internal heat gains may hinder the feasibility of implementing natural ventilation as an exclusive means of ventilating non-domestic buildings.

For natural ventilation of rooms there is a wide range of possibilities with regard to the selection of window type, size and location. A bottom hung window mounted near the ceiling is often used as it has proved to work well with regard to draught risk and thermal comfort in the room. However, there is a need for more detailed information on the performance of this and other types of windows to make it possible to use improved design methods for natural ventilation systems.

In natural ventilation systems fresh air is often provided through opening of windows. However, the knowledge of the performance of windows is rather limited. Computation of natural ventilation air flow through windows is most commonly made using discharge coefficients, that are regarded as being constant. The reported results show that the discharge coefficient for a window opening cannot be regarded as a constant and that it varies considerably with the size of the opening area, the window type and the temperature difference.

A number of new techniques have been developed in recent years, by various researchers, to assist in the sizing and positioning of natural ventilation openings. These may be of considerable assistance in the natural ventilation design process, while still allowing architectural freedom. This paper reviews some of the available techniques. The complexity of the configurations accounted for by the procedures ranges from two openings with the indoor air at a uniform temperature to a technique that allows for multiple openings throughout a multi-zone structure.

In displacement ventilation the airflow pattern in a room is mainly guided by the convection flows from the heat sources present in the room. This implies that the air in the breathing zone mostly comes from the lower parts of the room, where the air often is less polluted by pollutants originating from persons or electrical appliances present in the room.

Wall-mounted air conditioning systems including window-type and split-type air conditioners are widely used in Asian countries. However, these systems blow cold air directly into the working space perpendicular to the mounted wall and may make people affected by these air conditioners experience discomforts such as draught and uneven temperature distribution. Now a wall-mounted air conditioning system is expected to effectively implement the displacement ventilation system for space cooling and cold draught avoiding.

A study is being conducted to assess the performance of displacement ventilation in high-ceiling areas such as commercial and industrial manufacturing facilities. These areas, which can range from 5 to 20 meters in height, often feature high internal heat loads and contaminants associated with heat sources. Very little performance data exists for displacement ventilation installations in high-ceiling areas, particularly any which account for the influence of wall temperature.

The paper presents a comparison between the results of experimental tests airflow pattern forming in a room with displacement ventilation and numerical calculation. The heat source in the room was a heating plate. Quasi-laminar diffusers supplied the air with the ventilation change rate from l to 7 h-1. Temperature and velocity distributions in the plume and in its surroundings as well as the tracer gas concentrations in the background were measured. The airflow in the room was also predicted by means of CFD, using the standard k-E turbulence model and standard log-law wall-functions.

Two-dimensional computational simulations are performed to examine the effect of vertical location of a convective heat source on thermal displacement ventilation systems. In this study, a heat source is modeled with seven different heights from the floor (0.5m, 0.75m, 1.0m, 1.25m, 1.5m, 1.75m, 2.0m) in a displacement ventilation environment. The flow and temperature fields in thermal displacement ventilation systems vary depending on the location of the heat source. As a heat source rises, the convective heat gain from the heat source to an occupied zone becomes less significant.