Abstract
This paper presents a climatic analysis of a naturally ventilated geodesic-type dome building situated in a hot climate. A comprehensive review of the literature was conducted to provide an overview of previous related research on dome-type-roof buildings. The two-floor geodesic dome building assessed in this study was based on a 3V icosahedron type and had a roof vent for natural ventilation. The airflow and temperature distributions inside the building were simulated using computational fluid dynamics modelling with the standard k-d turbulence model. The computational modelling was verified using sensitivity analysis and flux balance analysis. Validation was carried out by using a similar dome-shaped building model from the literature. The atmospheric boundary layer flow was simulated in the computational domain for a more realistic prediction of wind conditions. The thermal comfort level was assessed using the predicted mean vote method. The results showed that the integration of the roof vents was advantageous and could reduce the indoor temperature and introduce fresh air, particularly during winter. The results also revealed that natural ventilation using roof vents could not satisfy the thermal requirements during summer periods, and potential cooling solutions that could be integrated into the system are discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 411-424 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Engineering Sustainability |
| Volume | 171 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| Early online date | 16 Nov 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 31 Dec 2018 |
Funding
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the University of Sheffield for providing the computational resource for this project.
Keywords
- buildings
- structures and design
- sustainability
- wind loading
- aerodynamics