Division of Information Technology, Engineering and the Environment
School of Advanced Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering
School of Advanced Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering
Thesis Abstract
Integration of passive features into the building design is an energy efficient option for minimising the air-conditioning demand in buildings while maintaining thermal comfort. Passive features are components which can be integrated as components of the building at the design stage to induce ventilation, cooling and heating without the need for a mechanical system. These elements may include solar chimneys, earth air tunnels, wind towers, evaporative cooling towers, or Trombe-walls. Individual passive systems however are inherently variable in performance. Due to variable responses of passive systems, the use of a combination of these features has the potential to significantly increase the ability to meet the comfort demand with minimal energy use. The lack of simple modelling techniques of combined passive features has prevented designers from adopting them in building designs.
A coupled numerical multi-zone ventilation and building thermal model is developed using MATLAB including a number of passive airflow components. An experimental set-up is established simulating wind-induced earth air tunnel, low pressure evaporative cooling and solar chimney for the model validation. The model will be validated with the experimental setup, ANSYS-FLUENT and field data obtained from low-rise buildings in South Australia which implement these features. This research studies how the combined passive elements can effectively be integrated into a building ventilation and air-conditioning system.
