Numerical analysis of indoor thermal comfort in a cross-ventilated building using a top-hung window

Numerical analysis of indoor thermal comfort in a cross-ventilated building using a top-hung window

Authors:

Xiang Deng, Zhenjun Ma and Georgios Kokogiannakis

Organisation of Presenter:

University of Wollongong, Australia

Abstract:

Natural ventilation is used in residential buildings in several Australian climatic zones. Well-designed windows could improve indoor air quality and thermal comfort. Top-hung window is one of the most popular window types in Australia. This paper investigates the effect of the attributes (i.e. window length, aspect ratio, height above the ground, window opening angle and the fly screen) of the top-hung window and the wind conditions (i.e. wind speed and direction) on the indoor thermal comfort during cross ventilation using CFD simulations. Taguchi method is used to design the simulation scenarios and analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to determine the most significant factors influencing thermal comfort with a reduced number of CFD simulations. The results for a case building showed that window width, window height and fly screen are the most important factors influencing indoor thermal comfort. The optimal window configurations for the indoor thermal comfort of the case building are also identified by signal-to noise (S/N) ratio analysis.