Rem: Revista Escola de Minas
Print version ISSN 0370-4467
SOUZA, Henor Artur de and RODRIGUES, Luciano Souza. Natural ventilation as a strategy for thermal comfort in buildings. Rem: Rev. Esc. Minas [online]. 2012, vol.65, n.2, pp. 189-194. ISSN 0370-4467. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0370-44672012000200007.
Appropriate natural air circulation within a structure reduces the thermal gradient, and contributes towards internal air renewal. This latter is important because, depending on the profile of occupation of the environment, the lack of this process can be harmful to the health. This type of circulation is an efficient alternative for the reduction of the consumption of energy in the conditioning of buildings. In this research, we studied natural ventilation, driven by the combined action of the forces of wind and thermals. The efficiency of the single sided and cross natural ventilation is evaluated, using the numerical method of the finite elements with the software ANSYS. The numeric model is used to determine the effects of the force of the winds and the combined thermal forces, resulting in the airflow and the temperature distribution. The results obtained are compared with the results of empiric models, whereby it was observed that the efficiency of the cross ventilation is around 3.5 times higher than the single sided ventilation, increasing the vortexes in the airflow inside the environment.
Keywords : Natural ventilation; thermal comfort; numerical solution.