ARCH 635: Ambient Airflow Analysis By Sam Zimmerman

Jae Chang
May, 14th

Project
2019

For the last project in this course I challenged myself

with cooling a large glass enclosed structure ambientely.
I selected a library design from a friends’ studio and be-
gan coming up with different ways to cool it that did not
use any kind of mechanical AC system.

Objectives
The main goal was to come up with some kind of design
that cooled the building and kept it comfortable for oc-
cupants without using an HVAC system or AC units. To
do this I tried opening windows, adding fixed exterior
louvers and finally a solar chimney. The solar chimney
worked the best so I did about five different iterations
of it. In order to keep the building design essentially the
same I had to add vents on every floor to assist the so-
lar chimney. Cooling a large open space with just a solar
chimney turned out to be very problematic because the
concept of the solar chimney does not lend itself well to
an open design. However, with the modification of vents
it performed excellently and I am most pleased with the
outcome.
Iteration #1: People
Iteration #1: W/o People

Process
At the beginning of this project I modeled the main glass
section of the building and added sections of people to
see how adding occupants effected airflow through the
building. This is demonstrated on the left.

Iteration #1: People

Iteration #2: Louvers - Temp
Iteration #3: Solar Chimney - Temp

Process
Next, I added fixed louvers to the outside of the building
to see if additional shading would do anything for the
temperature inside. Unfortunately it was still very hot on
the third floor, about 100 degrees, so I went back to the
drawing board. Next I tried a solar chimney.

Iteration #2: Louvers - Speed

Iteration #4: Solar Chimney
Iteration #4: Solar Chimney - Temp

Process
A solar chimney is a chimney designed to pull hot air out
of a structure as the building circulates cool air in. My first
version created a large chimney in the center of the open
atrium raised about 5 feet up off the floor.

Iteration #3: Solar Chimney - Speed

Iteration #4: Solar Chimney - Temp
Iteration #5: Solar Chimney (adjusted)

Process
The next change I did was to lower the chimney opening
to about three feet off the floor and also lower the roof of
the chimney. I also added vents in the walls of the chim-
ney corresponding to each balcony level inside the build-
ing.

Iteration #5: Solar Chimney (adjusted)

Iteration #6: Solar Chimney W/ Vents
Process
Airflow throughout the space decreased as I add-
ed vents in the chimney but temperature lowered.
It still wasn’t enough. My next idea was to add
vents on each floor level all around the structure.
In the image above, you see my final iteration
where interior temperature remains almost en-
tirely in the high 60s to low 70s.
Iteration #6: Solar Chimney W/ Vents
Conclusion
The Journey towards this final iteration was long and slightly frustrating.
Working with FLO-Vent is not easy. I learned a lot about how to challenge my-
self in order to learn something. Discovering how to make a project without
having a studio was problematic but in the long run I enjoyed running simula-
tions on this library and challenging myself to cool it ambientely. In edition to
improving my skills in FLO-Vent, I also gained practice in making digital port-
folio presentations and documenting project progress. With so many iterations
in this project it was important to take renders every time I ran a simulation.
Finally, I learned a lot about solar chimneys. Before this class I knew nothing
about them and now they have become incredibly fascinating to me. In future
projects I plan to explore the possibilities even more.