Potential of Natural Ventilation in a Tropical Climate

Sustainable architecture design for tropical climates requires the use of natural ventilation combined with other strategies including: the use of appropriate materials, site location, orientation of faades and solar shading, etc. Requirements for thermal performance and indoor thermal comfort also depend on the geographical site where the building is located. The new Brazilian standard Norma ABNT NBR 15220-3 has established seven bioclimatic zones and some architectural guidelines for low-income houses. Perhaps, due to the lack or scarcity in relation to wind data, certain regions such as the Amazon and Northeast coast were inserted in the same bioclimatic zone. This will pose problems for the distinct ventilation strategies required for each region. As a means to overcome this challenge, a potential yearly average wind zoning map for all the country is proposed. This overlaps with the map of bioclimatic zones defined by the Brazilian standard. In addition, to aid design, yearly average wind velocity values for each region are presented which consider two heights from the ground; i.e. 1.5 m and 6 m. Calculations were performed using a logarithm profile defined from theoretical-empirical data charts (meteorology data + WasP simulations) at 50 m height,used for selection of available sites for wind driven electricity generation.