Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, Vol. 15, No.

3, 2015 177

Effects of window position in vertical direction on

wind driven natural cross ventilation

Md. Zavid Iqbal Bangalee

Department of Applied Mathematics,
University of Dhaka,
Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh
Fax: (+88) 028615583
Email: raaz2015@yahoo.com

Abstract: Natural ventilation system can be considered as one of the zero energy building
systems. The comfort of occupants can be achieved if the buildings are designed in favourable
and satisfactory ambient conditions. The replacement of any mechanical ventilation system may
not only save the electric cost but also contribute to the reduction of the pollutants that are
generated during the electricity production stages. The effects of window position in vertical
direction on the wind driven natural (WDN) cross ventilation of a full scale building has been
investigated using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique after validating the
numerical methodology through a satisfactory comparison with an experimental work when RNG
k-ε has been chosen to resolve the turbulence phenomenon. The numerical results have been
completely analysed and it is found that ventilation performance is significantly influenced by the
vertical window position.

Keywords: window position; natural ventilation; zero-energy; computational fluid dynamics;

CFD; turbulence.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Bangalee, M.Z.I. (2015) ‘Effects of window
position in vertical direction on wind driven natural cross ventilation’, Progress in
Computational Fluid Dynamics, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp.177–185.

Biographical notes: Md. Zavid Iqbal Bangalee is serving as an honourable member of the
faculties in the Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He
received his MSc in Applied Mathematics and BSc in Mathematics from the University of
Dhaka. He received his PhD in Engineering from the Department of Aeronautics and
Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Taiwan in 2012. He is a recipient of the
NCKU Distinguished Post Graduate Scholarship. His research interests are in the analysis of both
physical experiments and computational methodology for problems in bluff-body aerodynamics,
convective heat transfer and applied mathematics.

1 Introduction that buildings were needed to be designed with natural

ventilation in mind to minimise the use of fossil fuel energy.
Ventilation system is required for physical comfort and
The different wind pressure along building faces and/or
healthy indoor environment. An average person spends 90%
the different temperature between indoor and outdoor air
of his time indoors (Jantunen, 2000). Therefore, the indoor
induces a circulation of flow and establishes natural
air in residential buildings, offices, schools or any other
ventilation in buildings through openings. The intricate
populated spaces are of great importance for public health.
natures of the flow field as well as the temperature field in
Nowadays, the purpose is mostly served by using the
natural cross ventilation have been studied and reported by
mechanical ventilation systems which consume huge
many researchers (Khan et al., 2008). The experimental
electricity. Awbi (2003) reported that ventilation consumed
observation (Cermak et al., 1984) and the numerical
30% to 60% of the total energy consumption in modern and
computation (Ayad, 1999) are common approaches to
retrofit buildings. The main sources of world electric power
investigate the physics of WDN ventilation as well as BDN
are fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas 68%), nuclear plant
ventilation. Recently, Karava et al. (2011) reported the
(14%), renewable energies (wind, hydro, and solar power
experimental study of basic wind-driven cross ventilation
17%) and others (1%). All forms of electric power
flow based on particle image velocimetry (PIV) method in a
generation have some level of environmental impact (CO2
boundary layer wind tunnel.
emissions). Burning of fossil fuels plays the worst role in
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were extensively
this enhancement of CO2 emissions and the global warming.
applied due to its informative result, low labour and low
Therefore, a reduction of fossil fuel-based electricity
cost. In addition to this, computer costs decrease
consumption is required. Fordham (2000) recommended
continuously while labour and materials costs rise. Having

Copyright © 2015 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

178 M.Z.I. Bangalee

these advantages a plenty of research efforts was applied to effect on wind driven natural ventilation through two
study the natural ventilation using CFD. Earlier CFD identical square-shaped cross windows. The dimension of
approaches to study the room ventilation can be found in each window was 0.75 m × 0.75 m (i.e., 3.33% wall
Nielsen et al. (1978) where finite difference method was porosity). The position of windows were varied in the
used to discretise the two dimensional governing equations vertical direction i.e., the distance between the centre of the
whereas the more advanced recent CFD application in window and the ground (Cw) was varied [Figure 1(a)]. A
predicting natural ventilation were reported by Blocken sufficiently large computational domain [Figure 1(b)]
et al. (2010), Caciolo et al. (2012), Ramponi and Blocken around the building was considered to create nearly natural
(2012) and Bangalee et al. (2012, 2013a, 2013b). Although, condition around the building. The surrounding domain was
CFD approach was applied extensively in predicting the modelled according to the recommendations of Tominaga
flow behaviour especially in the last two decades, the proper et al. (2008), and Hargreaves and Wright (2007). The
application of CFD in wind engineering field is always blockage ratio was 1.79%. The top and the lateral
challenging and some guidelines (Franke et al., 2004) boundaries were located 5 H far from the roof and the
should be followed to minimise the inaccuracy. corresponding side walls of the building. The inlet and
The induced indoor air through opening/window is outlet boundaries were located 3.6 H and 10 H far from the
physically three dimensional (3D). The 3D cross ventilated front wall and the rear wall of the building, respectively.
flow field of a building like shape was studied and analysed
by researchers mostly based on their specific building Figure 1 Front wall of the building and the computational
models where the positions of the windows (centre) were domain (see online version for colours)
fixed. However, Visagavel and Srinivasan (2009)
considered 2D model to investigate the natural ventilation
where the width and the position of window were varied. It
is to be noted that any 2D assumption for a ventilation
system is contrary to the concept of natural ventilation
system because the replacement of the internal air with the
external air is the main purpose of ventilation system that
can be achieved only through the valid 3D prediction of the
internal air characteristics.
Natural ventilation can be considered as the effective
and useful ventilation system to save the fossil fuel-based
electricity consumption and cost. The green energy (e.g.,
wind and solar) provides the driving mechanism in this
ventilation system (Khan et al., 2008, Khanal and Lei,
2011). No research has been reported so far where the effect
of windows’ position in the vertical direction were analysed.
However, this position effect on the ventilation performance
should be well understood by the architect before designing
any naturally ventilated building. This study is to provide
the effect of windows’ position in the vertical direction on
the cross ventilation performance. In this study, the wind
driven natural ventilation of a full scale building through
two identical cross windows having variable positions has
been investigated extensively using CFD after validating the
methodology through the satisfactory comparison with the
experimental results of Karava et al. (2011). RNG k-ε
turbulence model (Yakhot and Orszag, 1986) has been
chosen to model the turbulence flow in the package
software ANSYS CFX. Finally, the converged results have 3 Solution steps
been obtained and the effects of the windows’ vertical
position on the present ventilation system have been 3.1 Grid distribution and turbulence model
analysed where the basic flow phenomena are also
The flow was assumed Newtonian (air), steady, three-
discussed in brief.
dimensional, viscous, turbulent, incompressible and
isothermal. It is evident that structured mesh provides better
prediction in ventilation system (Horan and Finn, 2005).
2 The studied model The non-uniform structured mesh, 1.8–1.9 million
A full scale building of dimensions 4.5 m (length) × 4.5 m hexahedral elements with stretching factor 1.2 was
(width) × 3.75 m (height) and thickness of 0.25 m was generated. The grid distribution on a vertical plane (from
considered to investigate the windows’ vertical position inlet to outlet) inside the building has been shown in
 Effects of window position in vertical direction on wind driven natural cross ventilation 179

Figure 2. The smallest spacing of the grid was 1 mm, was ∂ ∂ ⎡ μ ∂k ⎤

set to the near wall to capture the boundary effect on the ρ (U j k ) = ⎢⎛⎜ μ + T ⎞⎟ ⎥ + Pk − ρε (4)
∂x j ∂x j ⎣⎝ σ k ⎠ ∂x j ⎦
flow field. A sufficient number of grid points were
introduced within the boundary layer thickness (δ), that was ∂ ∂ ⎡ ∂ε ⎤ ε
(U j ε ) = ⎢⎛⎜ μ + T ⎞⎟ ⎥ + ( Cs1 Pk − Cs 2 ρε ) (5)
μ
estimated from the turbulence boundary layer thickness ρ
∂x j ∂x j ⎣⎝ σ ε ⎠ ∂x j ⎦ k
0.16 L
along a flat plate δ = 1
(White, 2006). The grid
Re 7 where
independence tests were carried out utilising meshes with up
⎛ ∂U ∂U j ⎞ ∂U i
to 3.8 million elements and the results revealed that the Pk = μT ⎜ i + (6)
discrepancy in the ventilation rate (volumetric flow rate) ⎝ ∂x j ∂xi ⎟⎠ ∂x j
through the inlet was below 2%. As Reb >> 2 × 104 and
Rew >> 300, the flow was fully turbulent (Cermak et al., Pk
η= (7)
1984). It was concluded by Chen (1995) that RNG k-ε ρC μRNG ε
model might be the best based on the investigations of eight
different turbulence models to study indoor airflows. The η(4.38 − η)
Cε1 = 1.42 − (8)
present study has applied RNG k-ε model to capture the 4.38 (1 + β η3 )
turbulent nature of the flow. It was also found in the present
study that RNG k-ε turbulence model predicted the flow Figure 3 Monitored velocity at the indicated points (see online
field with a specified accuracy that was discussed in version for colours)
Section 3.3.
1.6
Upstream
Figure 2 Mesh distribution on a plane inside the building Front window
(see online version for colours) Rear window
1.4 Inside the building
Velocity [m/s]

1.2

1.0

0.8

0.6
300 600 900 1200 1500 1800
Iterations

3.2 Flow equations

The governing equations (Evola and Popov, 2006) are given
by
• Continuity:
∂
(U j ) = 0, j = 1, 2, 3 (1)
∂x j

• Momentum:

∂ ∂p ∂ ⎡ ∂U ⎤ In the above equations Cμ, Cε2, σk, σε and β are 0.085, 1.68,
ρU j (U i ) = − + ⎢( μ + μT ) i ⎥ (2)
∂x j ∂xi ∂x j ⎣ ∂x j ⎦ 0.7179, 0.7179 and 0.012, respectively. 1.5 m/s uniform
resultant velocity was imposed on the inlet of the
The transport equations for k and ε are: surrounding domain. The top and lateral boundaries of the
k2 computational domain were set as openings at atmospheric
μT = C μ ρ (3) pressure. The downstream boundary was set as outlet with
ε
zero gauge pressure. Ground boundary and all walls of the
building were set as no-slip walls. The following high
180 M.Z.I. Bangalee

resolution scheme provided by ANSYS CFX-Solver was Figure 4 Comparison of experimental and simulation results
used: (see online version for colours)
JJG 5 % porosity
φip = φup + βΔφ.Δr (9) 0.9 Experiment
SST
where φip is integration point (IP) value of φ, φup is the value 0.8 RNG k-ε
G
at the upwind node and r is the vector from the upwind k-ε
0.7 k-ω
node to the IP. The high resolution scheme used a technique
for computing β as close to 1 as possible (ANSYS 12.0, 0.6
http://www.ansys.com). The recipe for β is based on the
0.5
boundedness principles used by Barth and Jesperson (1989).

Ux/Uref
Formally, β = 0 and β = 1 represented first and second order 0.4
upwind difference scheme (UDS), respectively. The
0.3
converged, grid independent and fourth-order accurate
numerical solution of the WDN cross ventilation was 0.2
obtained by using the software ANSYS CFX 12.0 to solve
0.1
the governing equations along with the boundary conditions
at each grid of the computational domain. Furthermore, the 0.0
flow velocities at some specific points (at the mid-line of the
-0.1
X axis) are monitored due to analyse the convergence -0.4 0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6
behaviour and the solver was stopped if the flow seemed to X/D
be steady for a wide range of iterations. The monitored
velocities at the indicated points are depicted in Figure 3. (a)
The velocity at all points except at upstream (2 m far from
the front wall) shows small fluctuations with respect to the
mean value. However, this fluctuation quantity is limited to
1.5% from the corresponding mean value. Therefore, the
total uncertainties of the results that arise from the mesh
distribution, velocity fluctuations and the specified residual
target are believed to be limited by 5%. This uncertainty is
always kept in mind while analysing the present simulated
results.

3.3 Validation of methodology

Wind-driven cross ventilation flow based on PIV method in
a boundary layer wind tunnel was reported by Karava et al.
(2011). The 2 mm thick reduced scale model was 10 cm
(length) × 10 cm (width) × 8 cm (height), was tested with
different window arrangements. Among the total nine (b)
experimental cases (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, D1, D2, E1),
one case (case E1) with porosity 5% and 10% which is more
close to the present study was solved numerically in order to
justify the present methodology. The interested readers are
referred to the original experimental work (Karava et al.,
2011) for more information. Figure 4(a) shows the
non-dimensionalised velocity component in the downstream
direction on a line through inlet and outlet for different
turbulence models. At 10% porosity, the computational
velocity vector field [Figure 4(b)] on a vertical centre plane
was compared with that of the experiment [Figure 4(c)] and
was found satisfactory. It should be noted here that a similar
comparative result was reported by Ramponi and Blocken
(2012). The present study chose RNG k-ε model that
provided the converged results faster than SST turbulence
model did. Therefore, the present simulation approach with
RNG k-ε turbulence model was found capable to predict the
(c)
ventilation flow field with a satisfactory accuracy.
 Effects of window position in vertical direction on wind driven natural cross ventilation 181

4 Results and discussion of the flow just passes the indoor distance (from inlet to
outlet) directly whereas the rest is diffused from the direct
The air speed in nature is abundant for serving the natural
path that actually ensures the mixing level of the ventilation
cross ventilation through the building. The ventilation
system (Figure 6). Therefore, the 2D numerical approach is
system in this study is effective if it may replace the whole
failed to capture the mixing level of the ventilation system
internal air in about 40 minutes (ASHRAE, 2001). In that
that eventually influences the steady flow structure and the
case, the minimum approaching wind speed, 0.05 m/s is
ventilation rate as well. Figure 6 shows the velocity
required for providing the necessary living conditions to the
streamlines inside the building. As we see, a larger portion
occupants. In cross ventilation cases, the turbulent nature of
of air particles just travels the distance from inlet to outlet
the flow is also desired as it enhances the mixing of the
directly without mixing with the internal air. It is interesting
entered air with the indoor air. The flow field around and
that, although cross ventilation system with face to face
inside the present building may be turbulent if the velocity
window arrangements may not be very effective design
of the approaching wind is larger than 0.08 m/s. In most
from the natural ventilation point of view, it is still the most
cases, this minimum wind speed is available throughout the
common wind driven natural cross ventilation design. The
whole year. Once the flow is found turbulent, the next job of
wind force is balanced by the friction force when the steady
the ventilation designer may be to check the sensitivity of
condition is achieved. The relative positions of the windows
the wind speed over the ventilation. The way it may be done
with respect to the ambient condition, wind angle, wind
is to check the Reynolds number independence of the flow.
speed, depth of the building, porosity, etc. are the key
The concept of Reynolds number independence reveals that
factors for balancing those forces. It is found that if the
if the flow speed is changed in a limited range, the flow
position of the window is varied vertically, the overall flow
structure and mechanism are nearly unchanged.
structure also changes (Figure 7). When the window is
This phenomenon is depicted in Figure 5 where the
located at higher or lower elevation from the centre of the
non-dimensional ventilation rate is found nearly constant at
corresponding wall (Cw/Hin = 0.5) the magnitudes of the
⎛ ρU ref H ⎞ vertical velocity component (w) gets stronger in the region
different Reynolds number ⎜ Re = .
⎝ μ ⎟⎠ from inlet to outlet. Figure 7 represents the velocity vector
distribution on vertical plane passing through inlet and
Figure 5 Effects of Reynolds number on ventilation rate outlet at different window positions.
1.1
Figure 6 Streamline inside the building (see online version
1.0
for colours)

0.9

0.8
Q/Qref

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3
1 3 5 7 9 11 13
Reynolds No. ( x 10 5)

The induced indoor flow field of a room is complicated. As

natural ventilation system cannot be controlled explicitly,
the design appropriateness plays the major role in the
performance. If the windows are located face to face, a part
182 M.Z.I. Bangalee

Figure 7 Distribution of velocity vector on the vertical plane at different window position (see online version for colours)

Figure 8 Velocity distribution on a horizontal line from inlet to field is not only influenced by the relative internal condition
outlet (see online version for colours) but also by the relative ambient conditions. The indoor pick
H=0.11 velocity is generally located at the height of the window
1.0 H=0.29
H=0.5
centre. The non-dimensionalised velocity profile along a
0.9
H=0.89 mid-vertical line that is located at the centre of the building
is shown in Figure 9. As the centre of the window is located
0.8 higher, the position of the pick velocity moves upward as
well. The velocity profile on this vertical line in the zone
0.7
above the window centre is similar to that is in the zone
0.6 below the window centre. Therefore, it can be stated
U/Uref

(Figures 6 to 7) that the core area from inlet to outlet is

0.5
influenced by the window position significantly whereas the
0.4 flow pattern in the vertical direction is similar unless the
scrutiny of velocity quantity and location of incidents are
0.3 not concerned.
0.2
Figure 10 represents the simulated ventilation rate for
different window locations. The most important
0.1
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
parameter for any ventilation system is the volumetric
Y/D flow rate (Q = Aw Uw). It is also considered as the
ventilation rate in literatures. The semi empirical relation
Figure 8 depicts the effect of the window position on the Q = Cd Aeff U bh ΔC p is often used to calculate the
non-dimensionalised velocity profile along a mid-horizontal
line from inlet to outlet. The line connects the centre of the discharge coefficient if the mean pressure coefficient
inlet to the outlet. The shape of the velocity profile changes difference across the building is known. In this study, the
with the change of window location. When the centre is at value of discharge coefficient (Cd) is found 0.66–0.73 for all
H = 0.11 the window is located adjacent to the building window locations. However, Dascalaki et al. (1995) stated
floor whereas H = 0.89 locates the window adjacent to the that for large external openings the values of Cd was found
building roof. Therefore, these two cases are geometrically in the range 0.6~1.0. The ventilation rate increases with the
symmetric with respect to the mid horizontal line of the increase of vertical window positions up to nearly mid
building. However, the velocity profile at the case of height of the building and then it decreases as the window is
H = 0.11 is not the mirror image of that at H = 0.89 because located above the mid building height. The performance
the position is no more symmetric with respect to the curve of the ventilation rate is shown in Figure 11. The
ambient condition (e.g., the ground of the surrounding). efficiencies of the systems for all the window positions are
Therefore, the effect of window location on ventilation flow found in the range of 53% to 77%. Almost 24% efficiency
 Effects of window position in vertical direction on wind driven natural cross ventilation 183

can be increased by choosing the right window location in Figure 11 Ventilation efficiency at different window position
the vertical direction. The windows located in the vicinity of 80
the floor and the roof are found less efficient that may be
attributed to the influences of adjacent floor and roof walls
75
on the balanced steady conditions. The efficiency is larger if
the windows are located nearly mid height of the building.
At H = 0.43 (below the mid height), the system provides the 70

Efficiency [%]
largest efficiency (77%) among all considered cases in this
study. Although the effects of vertical window position have 65
thoroughly been investigated based on the validated
numerical results that are achieved by following the
60
standard steps regarding CFD, experimental investigations
are expected to be carried out in future to validate the
discussed phenomena with more reliable evidence. 55
However, the present three-dimensional numerical approach
is believed to be the first step in investigating the effect of
50
vertical window position on naturally cross ventilated one 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

story building. Cw/Hin

Figure 9 Velocity distribution on a mid-vertical line (see online

version for colours) 5 Conclusions
H = 0.11
H = 0.29 The present study takes the full advantages of standard CFD
1.0 H = 0.50 calculation that is capable of solving a lot of cases and
H = 0.89
0.9 provides the detailed flow quantities in a reasonably short
time. Based on the valid methodology, more than
0.8
25 computations have been carried out to predict the
0.7 ventilation performance at each window’s position. The
0.6
change of window position is subject to the change of the
relative conditions. It is found that the core area from inlet
U/Uref

0.5 to outlet is influenced by the window position significantly

0.4 whereas the flow pattern in the vertical direction is similar if
the velocity quantity and the location of incidents are not
0.3
scrutinised. The efficiency is found 53%~77% when the
0.2 vertical positions of windows are varied from floor to roof.
The ventilation system with windows at H = 0.43 (below the
0.1
mid height) exhibits the maximum ventilation performance.
0.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 The required time to replace the whole internal air for all
Z/Hinner positions of windows was varied in the range of 1.4 minutes
(H = 0.43) to 2.1 minutes (H = 0.79) when the vertical
position of window is varied. Therefore, it can be concluded
Figure 10 Ventilation rate at different window position
that the amount of fresh air that enters the building is
0.70
influenced by the vertical position of the window. The
investigated results presented in this article may attract the
0.65
attention of the interested researcher to study the window’s
position effect further as it may be an important factor for
0.60
the overall wind driven ventilation performance.
Ventilation rate [m3/s]

0.55

Acknowledgements
0.50
The author wish to appreciate the computational facilities
0.45 provided by the Department of Mathematics, University of
Dhaka, Bangladesh and the Department of Aeronautics and
0.40 Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.
The author would like to thank Dr. San-Yih Lin and
0.35 Dr. Jiun-Jih Miau, Professor, DAA, NCKU, Taiwan for
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
their invaluable supports. The author also wishes to extend
Cw/Hin
184 M.Z.I. Bangalee

his appreciation for the valuable suggestions given by the Horan, J.M. and Finn, D.P. (2005) ‘CFD reliability issues in
anonymous reviewers. analysis of naturally ventilated buildings’, Passive and Low
Energy Cooling for the Built Environment, pp.53–58, Greece.
Jantunen, M. (2000) ‘When and where are people exposed to
pollutants’, Human Responses and Building Investigations
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Franke, J., Hirsch, C., Jensen, A.G., Krus, H.W., Schatzmann, M.,
Qref Reference flow rate [m3 s-1]
Westbury, P.S., Miles, S.D., Wisse, J.A. and Wright, N.G.
(2004) ‘Recommendations on the use of CFD in wind Reb Reynolds number at building [-]
engineering’, Proceedings of the International Conference Rew Reynolds number at window [-]
Urban Wind Engineering and Building Aerodynamics,
von Karman Institute, Belgium. U Velocity [ms–1]
Hargreaves, D.M. and Wright, N.G. (2007) ‘On the use of the k-ε Uref Reference velocity [ms–1]
model in commercial CFD software to model the neutral x, y, z Cartesian coordinates [m]
atmospheric boundary layer’, Journal of Wind Engineering
and Industrial Aerodynamics, Vol. 95, No. 5, pp.355–369.
 Effects of window position in vertical direction on wind driven natural cross ventilation 185

Nomenclature (continued)
Greek symbols
μ Viscosity [kgm–1 s–1]
ρ Density [kgm–3]
ε Turbulence dissipation rate [m–2 s–3]
σ Turbulence model constant [-]