A PHYSICAL STUDY OF WIND EFFECT ON THERMAL AND AERODYNAMIC BEHAVIOR ON DIFFERENT BUILDING MODELS

Abstract

The interaction between buildings and their external environment (wind regime, direction, humidity, and temperature) is ultimately reflected on human comfort. It is therefore important to examine the effect ofthese variables on the aero-thermal characteristics of buildings. A wind tunnel was locally designed and built at the Housing and Building Research Center (HBRC), Egypt The tunnel was subsequently tested as part of a comprehensive project on the indoor investigation of the problem •of building I environment interaction. Different measuring facilities. wind profile, direction and turbulence control arrangements, and data acquisition and processing equipment were utilized. This thesis presents results of measurement on simplified building models whose configurations were as follows a) Single building models, namely low nse (LR) of dimensions !Ox!Ox!O cm3 and 20x20xl0 em' b) Single building models, namely medium rise (MR) of dimensions I 0 x 10 x20 cm3 and 20 x20 x20 em' c) Two building models (LR & MR) in combination. d) Four building models (all LR) in combination representing a building groupmg. One of the above (LR) building model was provided with a heated surface to study the corresponding isotherms and heat transfer coefficient distribution with the model being single as well as in combination with other models. The models were tested for their various exposed surfaces with different wind directions (a.). Pressure and temperature contours were then obtained. The flow configuration around the tested models was visualized in a smoke wind tunnel where zones of flow separation. reattachment and wake spread were clarified by these visualization tests.