Impact of windcatcher on building thermal and CO2 concentration: numerical simulation in Muscat
Hayder Khan, Manal Masoud Al-Mamariyah, Saleh Al-Saadi
كلية الهندسة-جامعة السلطان قابوس · عمان
Globally, building sector contribute highly to energy consumption andpollutant release in the form of 𝐶𝑂ଶ emissions. The share of housing in energyconsumption increases as the residential construction sector is growing faster thanother buildings sectors in Oman and other GCC countries. This high percentage ofenergy consumption and production not only raises the expense of building energybut also has a negative influence on the environment. Native population has adoptedvariety of techniques to improve thermal conditions in buildings. Courtyard, urbanlayout, wall thickness etc. are examples of such techniques. Among those techniqueswas the windcatcher which found in hot climates where it was necessary to cool thespace. In this research, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool is used to evaluatethe airflow in the windcatchers under various parameters. Those parameters are theimpacts of wind speeds and angles. In addition, different windcatcher designs werecarefully examined for a traditional building. The findings of this study givewindcatcher designers crucial knowledge on key design factors such as geometricaland environmental factors. It was found that a four-sided windcatcher is bettercompared to one-sided and two-sided windcatcher because of wind angles.Furthermore, squared windcatcher with an X-blade configuration is the optimumdesign for the studied location. In addition, blades can increase the average air velocityof the windcatcher by 42% in a southwest wind. Although the windcatcher in thetraditional house was able to improve the Indoor Air Quality of the house, the 𝐶𝑂ଶconcentration is still high. However, adding more windcatchers in the house was ableto reduce it by more than 70% and return it to an acceptable level. Moreover, addinga windcatcher in a modern house was able to enhance the thermal comfort, and reducethe 𝐶𝑂ଶ concentration. Results shows that a windcatcher constructed with an angle of30 degree from the north able to increase the average air velocity inside the spacemore than windcatcher rotated by 0, 45, and 60 degrees. The difference betweenaverage air velocity inside the space without a windcatcher and within a windcatcherwith a rotation of 30 was found to be more than 55%. Although that the windcatchercouldn't reach thermal comfort during the studied month, it was able to reduce the𝑃𝑀𝑉ௗ by 6.9%, and the 𝑃𝑃𝐷ௗ by 10.7%. In addition, a windcatcher in a modernhouse was able to reduce the 𝐶𝑂ଶ concentration by 45% compared to a house withoutwindcatcher.