Parametric Enhancement of a Window-Windcatcher for Enhanced Thermal Comfort and Natural Ventilation

Window-windcatchers, a passive ventilation method, have been shown to improve ventilation and enhance thermal comfort. Preliminary characterization of a novel window-windcatcher has been undertaken in a previous work, but no relationship had been identified between the actual ventilation rate ((Formula presented.)), the wind velocity ((Formula presented.)) and crucial design parameters such as the fins angle ((Formula presented.))). In this paper, the relationship that quantifies how the window-windcatcher’s performance depends on (Formula presented.) and (Formula presented.) was determined. Additionally, for the first time, the ventilation performance of the window-windcatcher was optimized by studying the effects of (Formula presented.) and the fins-wall distance ((Formula presented.)) through a Computational Fluid Dynamics parametric study (ANSYS)|. In this optimization approach, the angle (Formula presented.) and the distance (Formula presented.) corresponding to the maximum actual-to-required ventilation rate were found to be 80° and 45 cm, respectively. The actual ventilation rate increased by approximately 13.2% compared with the baseline design of the windcatcher ((Formula presented.) and (Formula presented.) equal to 40° and 45 cm, respectively); this corresponds to an increase of approximately 8.6% in the actual-to-required ventilation rate, according to the ASHRAE standards.