A numerical investigation into the feasibility of integrating green building technologies into row houses in the Middle East

Atraditional rowhouse was re-designed to be adapted to the hot and arid climate of the Middle East. The vernacular design features include a number of cooling devices such as an open courtyard, wind towers and heat-storing building materials to reduce overheating during the summer months. This paper reports on the results of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling study of the performance of a wind tower incorporated into the row house to replace the traditional ventilation devices. The study investigated the ways in which the resulting natural air flows in the house operated using the ANSYS Fluent CFD tool to develop a numerical model of an optimized wind tower system. Achieved ventilation rates and temperature distribution inside the structure were investigated. The results demonstrated that the proposed wind tower configuration was able to increase the average indoor air velocity by 63%. An improved airflow distribution is observed inside the modified row housing model.