Modeling ventilation in naturally ventilated double-skin facade with a venetian blind

Double-skin facade (DSF) is widely used in commercial buildings, and naturally ventilated DSF with venetian blinds is the most common type in hot summer and cold winter areas. However, economical and practical computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods suitable for modeling ventilation in naturally ventilated DSF with venetian blinds have not yet been developed, due to the complicated influence of meteorological conditions and the large number of meshes near the venetian blind slats in CFD models. In this paper, the CFD method using a porous media model is proposed to solve this problem. Both the driven forces of thermal buoyancy and wind pressure were taken into account in the CFD simulations. Field experiments were performed for validation. The porous media model showed good computational accuracy, and at the same time, greatly reduced the mesh number and computing time, compared with the explicit slat model. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.