Energy and Buildings 108 (2015) 365372

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Energy and Buildings

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Wind-driven natural ventilation for buildings with two openings on

the same external wall
Chia-Ren Chu a, , Y.-H. Chiu b , Yi-Ting Tsai a , Si-Lei Wu a
a
b

Department of Civil Engineering, National Central University, Taiwan

Department of Urban Development, University of Taipei, Taiwan

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 22 July 2015
Received in revised form
11 September 2015
Accepted 16 September 2015
Available online 21 September 2015
Keywords:
Natural ventilation
Wind-driven ventilation
Single-sided ventilation
Wind tunnel experiment
Tracer gas technique

a b s t r a c t
This study uses wind tunnel experiments to investigate the wind-driven ventilation for buildings with
two openings on a single wall. The exchange rates are measured by the tracer gas decay method under
different external wind speeds, directions and opening sizes. The experimental results indicate that the
time-averaged pressure difference across the openings is much larger than the uctuating pressure when
the wind direction is  = 22.545 , and the ventilation rate can be predicted by the orice equation.
When the wind direction is  = 0 and 67.5180 , the pressure difference across the openings is insignificant and the uctuating pressure entrains air across the openings. The exchange rate is proportional
to the root-mean-square of the pressure uctuation. Furthermore, the dimensionless exchange rate of
the shear-induced ventilation (wind is parallel to the openings) is found to be independent of the wind
speed, opening area and location. The exchange rate for buildings with an internal partition is lower
than that without a partition when the wind direction is  = 090 . A semi-empirical prediction model
is proposed to calculate the exchange rate by incorporating the time-averaged pressure difference and
pressure uctuation. The application of the prediction model to compute the air change rate (ACH) is also
discussed.
2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

equation can be used to calculate the steady ow rate of winddriven ventilation through the building openings:

The air exchange between a building and the external air plays
a vital role in determining the indoor air quality and thermal environment of the building [1,2]. The frequency of air exchange can be
dened as the air change rate [3]:

I=

Q
V

(1)

where V is the volume of internal space and Q is the air ow rate.

The air change rate per hour is also known as ACH, unit in [h1 ].
Wind-driven natural ventilation can improve indoor air quality
and comfort, as well as reduce the energy consumption by mechanical ventilation. However, wind-driven ventilation is dependent on
the pressure difference across the openings. Based on Bernoullis
hypothesis of incompressible and inviscid ow, the orice

Corresponding author at: Department of Civil Engineering, National Central

University, 300 Jhong-Da Road, Jhong-Li, Taoyuan 32001, Taiwan.
E-mail address: crchu@cc.ncu.edu.tw (C.-R. Chu).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2015.09.041
0378-7788/ 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

 2|P P | 1/2
e
i

Q = Cd A

(2)

where A is the cross-section area of the opening; Cd is the dimensionless discharge coefcient;  is the density of the air; and Pe and
Pi are the exterior and interior pressures of the opening, respectively. Eq. (2) is frequently used in multi-zone models to calculate
the ventilation rate, and the typical discharge coefcients given in
the literature are in the range of 0.600.66 for sharp-edged openings in high Reynolds number ows [4,5].
However, several studies [68] have pointed out that the orice
equation cannot be used to predict the ow rate of buildings with
a single opening. The time-averaged
  pressure difference across
the opening is close to zero, P  0, for buildings with a single opening, regardless of wind direction. Warren [6] used the
tracer gas technique to study wind-driven ventilation with a single opening on the windward facade. His experimental results
showed that the dimensionless exchange rate was in the range of
Q* = Q/UA = 0.0230.026 in a smooth ow (low turbulence ow),
and Q* = 0.035 in a grid-generated turbulent ow. The British
Standard [8] proposed the an empirical formula to predict the

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C.-R. Chu et al. / Energy and Buildings 108 (2015) 365372

Notation
cross-section area of external opening (m2 )
A
Aw
area of external wall (m2 )
Cd
discharge coefcient of opening (dimensionless)
Cp = (PPo )/0.5U2 external pressure coefcient of opening
Cprms = Prms /0.5U2 root-mean-square of internal pressure
coefcient
H
height of the building (m)
air change rate (h1 )
I = Q/V
Iu =  u /UH turbulence intensity (dimensionless)
Po
reference pressure (Pa)
Pe
external pressure near the opening (Pa)
Pi
internal pressure (Pa)
root-mean-square of internal pressure (Pa)
Prms
Q
exchange rate (m3 s1 )
Q* = Q/UH A dimensionless exchange rate
r = A/Aw wall porosity ratio (dimensionless)
UH
external wind speed at building height (m/s)
air density (kg/m3 )


wind direction ( )

kinematic viscosity of air (m2 s1 )
Subscript 1, 2 opening one and opening two

exchange rate with a single opening on the windward side of the

building:
Q =

Q
= 0.025
UA

(3)

where U is the external wind speed, and A is the opening area.

Kato et al. [9] utilized wind tunnel experiments and tracer gas
technique to measure the air exchange rate across a single opening
when the wind direction is parallel to the opening (wind direction
 = 90 ). Their results demonstrated that when the wall porosity
ratio r = A/Aw = 6.25%, the dimensionless exchange rate:
Q =

Q
= 0.015
UH A

(4)

where UH is the wind speed at the building height and Aw is the area
of the external wall. However, the dimensionless exchange rate is
Q* = 0.020 when the wall porosity ratio r = 12.25%.
Larsen and Heiselberg [10] employed a full-scale model and the
tracer gas technique to study the airow rate of single-sided ventilation. Their experimental conditions included wind-driven and
buoyancy-driven ventilation under various wind directions. Their
results indicated that whether wind or buoyancy was the dominant
driving force depended on the wind direction and the ratio between
the driving forces. The prediction error of their model was in the
range of 1828%.
The above studies only investigated single-sided ventilation for
buildings with one opening. Hu et al. [11] used a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) model to simulate the wind-driven ventilation for
buildings with two openings on two opposite walls, each with one
opening. They studied two different kinds of ow conditions: (1)
Cross ventilation, where the external wind direction is normal to
the windward and leeward openings; and (2) Shear ventilation,
where the wind direction is parallel to the openings on the two lateral walls. They observed bi-directional, unsteady air ows across
the lateral openings, but did not quantify the exchange rate of the
shear ventilation.
Chu et al. [12] used wind tunnel experiments and the tracer
gas technique to investigate the shear-induced ventilation for one
and two openings. They found that the uctuating pressure dominates the shear ventilation, especially when the time-averaged

pressure difference across the opening is close to zero, P  0.

Their experimental results demonstrated that the dimensionless
exchange rates, Q*, of the shear ventilation for openings on singleand two-sides are Q* = 0.0175 and Q* = 0.077, respectively.
Wang and Chen [13] used a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) model
and a physical model to predict the single-sided ventilation rate
in buildings. They applied spectrum analysis to derive a physical
model to account for the inuences of pulsating ow and eddy penetration on the mean and uctuating ventilation rates. Their results
demonstrated the ventilation rate of single-sided ventilation to be
linearly correlated with the external wind speed.
Ji et al. [14] used the tracer gas technique to investigate the
wind-driven cross-ventilation under a uctuating wind direction,
and they found that the maximum airow rate and the diluting ow
rate (DFR) were inuenced by the wind speed, the opening size and
the wind direction. The DFRs of the uctuating cases were lower
than the theoretical maximum airow rate of a xed wind direction, but the external fresh air mixed with the indoor contaminant
and it was dispelled more efciently than in the xed cases.
Nikolopoulos et al. [15] used the tracer gas decay method and the
k-w turbulent model to investigate the wind-driven ventilation of
a real-size building under different incidence angles. Their results
revealed the ventilation process to be governed by the unsteady
ow close to the inlet and outlet openings for a large incidence
angle. The spatial distribution of the air change rate inside the
building was strongly dependent on the incidence angle and mixing
inside the building.
Chu and Wang [16] developed a resistance model for cross ventilation. The dimensionless exchange rate Q* can be calculated as:
Q
1
Q =
=
UH A1
A1

Cp1 Cp2
1 + i + 2

1/2
(5)

where Cp1 and Cp2 are the pressure coefcients near the external
openings; and  1 ,  2 and  i are the resistance factors of the external and internal openings, respectively. The resistance factors of
external openings  1 and  2 are equal to:
1 =

2 =

Cd2 A21

1
Cd2 A22

(6)

where A1 and A2 are the cross-sectional areas of the openings, and

the dimension of resistance factor is in [L4 ]. Eqs. (5) and (6) can
be used for buildings with openings of different sizes. The opening
area A1 outside the angle bracket in Eq. (5) is due to the dimensionless exchange rate was dened as Q* = Q/UH A1 . This resistance
model has been successfully applied to partitioned buildings [17],
buildings with large internal obstacles [18], and long buildings [19].
For buildings with small obstacles, the internal resistance,  i , is negligible,  i 0, and Eq. (5) will be identical to the ventilation model
of Chu et al. [4] and Karava et al. [20].
The above studies did not investigate the ventilation process of
a building with two openings on a single wall. However, it is rather
common to have a single-zone building (or one oor of a high-rise
building) with two openings on the same external wall (see Fig. 1).
This kind of ow condition belongs to single-sided ventilation [12],
where the time-averaged pressure difference across the opening is
small and the pressure uctuation is fairly substantial. It is necessary to quantify the exchange rate for buildings with two openings
on the same wall, especially due to the uctuating pressure.
For buildings with two equal-sized openings (A1 = A2 ), the crossventilation rate through the openings can be derived from the
continuity equation and orice equation [4,20]:

 |P| 1/2

Q = Cd A

(7)

C.-R. Chu et al. / Energy and Buildings 108 (2015) 365372

367

and the contribution of the uctuation pressure to the exchange

rate can be neglected, Cprms 0. Eq. (10) will be the same as the
ventilation models of Chu et al. [4] and Karava et al. [20]. However, when the time-averaged pressure difference |P| 0, such as
for two openings on the same external wall, the ventilation will
be dominated by the uctuating pressure. The exchange rate is
equal to:

Q = Cd

kCprms
2

1/2
(12)

This study conducted a series of wind tunnel experiments to

measure the exchange rates of a model building with two openings
on the same wall. The inuences of wind speed, wind direction and
opening area on the exchange rate and pressure coefcients were
systemically studied. Furthermore, this study also measured the
exchange rates of a building with an internal partition. The experimental results were analyzed to demonstrate the capability of
the above semi-empirical model to predict single-sided ventilation
with two openings.
2. Experimental setup
The experiments were carried out in an open-circuit, blowingtype wind tunnel. The total length of the wind tunnel was 8.3 m;
the test section was 1.5 m in length, 1.2 m in width and 0.60 m in
height. The length, width and height of the cubic building model all
were 0.40 m. The surfaces of the model were made of smooth acrylic
plate (thickness 4.8 mm). The building model was positioned on the
centerline of the test section, and the distance from the leading edge
of the test section to the building model was 0.75 m (see Fig. 2).

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of single-sided ventilation with two openings on the same
wall.

where P  = P1 P2  is the time-averaged pressure difference

between the two openings. Taking the uctuating pressure into
consideration, the exchange rate of the building should be:

 |P| + kP

rms

Q = Cd A

1/2
(8)

where k is an empirical coefcient to quantify the inuence of uctuating pressure on the air exchange across the opening, and Prms is
the root-mean-square (rms) value of the uctuation of the internal
pressure:


 n
1

2
Prms =
[P(t) P]
n

(9)

i=1

where n is the total data number. By dividing Eq. (8) by UH A, one

can get the dimensionless exchange rate:

Q = Cd

|Cp | + kCprms
2

1/2
(10)

where Cp  = Cp1 Cp2  is the difference of the time-averaged

pressure coefcients between two openings; and Cprms is the rootmean-square of the internal pressure coefcient:
Cprms =

Prms
2
0.5UH

(11)

When the difference in the pressure coefcients across the

openings
 is much larger than the coefcient of uctuating pressure,
Cp   Cprms , the air exchange is driven by the pressure difference

Fig. 2. (a) Photograph of the model building in the test section of the wind tunnel;
(b) schematic diagram of the locations of openings and pressure taps for opening
area A1 = A2 = 40 mm 40 mm.

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C.-R. Chu et al. / Energy and Buildings 108 (2015) 365372

Table 1
Dimensionless exchange rate of a building with single opening.

partition
wall

Wind
A1

Reference

 ( )

Q*

Warren [6]
British Standard [8]
Present study
Kato et al. [9]
Larsen and Heiselberg [10]
Chu et al. [12]
Present study

0
0
0
90
90
90
90

0.0230.026
0.025
0.0265
0.0150.020
0.025
0.018
0.020

A2
transient evolution of the spatially-averaged concentration C(t)
inside the model building was used to calculate the exchange rate
Q by the following equation:

Q =

Top view

Unit: mm

400

Wind

A1

partition

Ai

400

A2

360
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of single-sided ventilation with two openings and internal partition.

There were two square-shaped openings on the same external

wall of the building model, and the areas of the two opening were
the same: A1 = A2 = 40 mm 40 mm (wall porosity ratio r = 1.0%
for each opening) and A1 = A2 = 20 mm 20 mm (r = 0.25% for each
opening). The locations of the openings were symmetrical along
the centerline of the external wall (see Fig. 2). The wind direction is
dened as the incidence angle of the approaching ow to the facade
with the openings (see Fig. 1). The external wind speed was normal
to the opening facade when the wind direction was  = 0 ; and the
wind speed was parallel to the openings when the wind direction
was  = 90 .
The external and internal pressures were measured by a multichannel high-speed pressure scanner (ZOC33/64PX, Scanivalve
Inc.) The measuring range of the pressure sensor was 2758 Pa,
with a resolution of 2.2 Pa. The sampling frequency was 250 Hz
and the sampling duration 65.5 s. The pressure scanner was connected to the pressure taps (diameter 1.5 mm, ush to the wall)
with plastic tubing (length 0.3 m). The external pressures were
measured 30 mm above the edge of the external openings and the
internal pressure tap was at the center of the ceiling.
The exchange rates of the model building were measured by
the tracer gas decay method. The tracer gas technique is the most
widely used method to measure the ventilation rate of buildings
[2124]. The tracer gas CH4 , measurement instrument and procedures used in this study were identical to those used by Chu et al.
[12]. There were four sampling tubes (inner diameter 1 mm, length
200 mm) evenly distributed inside the model, and the tracer from
the sampling tubes were mixed by an air-pump and connected a
Gas Chromatography (China Chromatography, TurboGC-800). The

ln C(t2 )/C(t1 )
t2 t1

(13)

where V is the interior volume of the model building. The resolution

of the Gas Chromatography was 5 ppm, at a sampling frequency of
100 Hz.
This study also investigated the exchange rate of a building with
an internal partition (see Fig. 3). The space inside the model was
separated equally into two zones by an acrylic plate (thickness
4.8 mm). The height of the internal partition wall was h = 390.4 mm
(the same as the interior height) and the width was 360 mm. There
were two external openings on the external wall, one on each side
of the partition wall. The opening areas were the same A1 = A2 . The
locations of the openings were identical to that of without the partition wall (see Fig. 2). The external wind direction was parallel to
the internal partition when the wind direction was  = 0 .
In order to determine the standard deviation of the measured exchange rate, the same ow condition (single opening
A = 40 mm 40 mm at the center of the windward facade under the
wind speed UH = 4.20 m/s and wind direction  = 0 ) was repeated
ve times. The measured exchange was Q = 0.359 0.024 L/s, making the uncertainty of the measured exchange rate 6.71%.
In addition, the results of the present study were compared
with the results of previous studies of one opening to validate the
accuracy of the tracer gas technique. Table 1 compares the dimensionless exchange rate Q* = Q/UH A under the wind direction  = 0
and 90 with the results of previous studies. For wind direction
 = 0 , the dimensionless exchange rate, Q* = 0.0265, of the present
study was very close to the value suggested by the British Standard
[8] and the experimental results of Warren [6]. For wind direction  = 90 , the exchange rate Q* = 0.020 of the present study was
close to the result of Larsen and Heiselberg [10]. The good agreement between the present study and previous studies validated the
accuracy of the tracer gas technique used in this study.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Inuence of wind direction
This study rst investigated the inuence of wind direction
on single-sided ventilation in a building with two openings on
the same wall. The areas of the two openings were identical
A1 = A2 = 40 mm 40 mm (wall porosity ratio r = 1.0%). The external wind speed was set at UH = 2.32 m/s, and the wind direction
was in the range of  = 0180 for every 22.5 . Fig. 4 shows the
relationship between the dimensionless exchange rate, Q*, and the
wind direction. As can be seen, the exchange rates of wind direction  = 22.567.5 were larger than those of other wind directions.
In addition, a comparison of the values of Q* in Fig. 4 and Table 1
showed that the exchange rates of the two openings were larger
than that of a single opening, regardless of wind direction.

C.-R. Chu et al. / Energy and Buildings 108 (2015) 365372

369

0.25

0.20

Q*

0.15

0.10

0.05
Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of the separation shear layer under wind direction
 = 67.5 .

0.00
0

30

60

90

120

150

180

1.0

(Deg)
Fig. 4. Dimensionless exchange rate Q* as a function of wind direction  for singlesided ventilation with two openings. The external wind speed UH = 2.32 m/s, and
wall porosity ratio r = 1.0%.

0.6

(a)

1.2

0.8

0.4

Cp1
Cp2

0.8

Cpi

0.2

0.4

Cp

0.0
0

0.0

30

60

90
(Deg)

120

150

180

Fig. 7. Variation of coefcient k with wind direction.

-0.4

-0.8
0

30

60

90

120

150

180

120

150

180

(Deg)

(b)

0.5

0.4

Cprms

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0
0

30

60

90
(Deg)

Fig. 5. Pressure coefcients of single-sided ventilation with two openings under

different wind directions. The wall porosity ratio r = 1.0% (A1 = A2 = 40 mm 40 mm).
(a) Time-averaged external and internal pressure coefcient; (b) rms of internal
pressure coefcient.

Fig. 5(a) shows the time-averaged external and internal pressure

coefcients for single-sided ventilation with two openings under
different wind directions. For wind directions  = 22.5 and 45 , the
pressure coefcients were Cp1 > Cpi Cp2 . The pressure difference

across two openings, P  = P1 P2 , caused external fresh air to

ow through the high-pressure opening, A1 , into the building and

the tracer gas to leave the building from the low-pressure opening,
A2 . The circulation ow inside the building mixed the fresh air and
tracer gas, resulting in a faster decay rate of the tracer concentration and a higher exchange rate. However, the pressure difference
was quite small for wind directions  = 0 and  = 67.5180 . Also, it
was noted that the pressure coefcients, Cp1 , Cpi and Cp2 , were all
negative when the openings were on the lateral or leeward side of
the building (wind direction  = 67.5180 ).
The root mean square of the internal pressure coefcient, Cprms ,
under various wind directions is shown in Fig. 5(b). The maximum
value of Cprms occurred at wind direction  = 67.5 . This was because
the openings were within the separation shear layer (see Fig. 6) of
the building corner. The unsteady vortex shedding from the building corner generated a large pressure uctuation on the side wall.
In this kind of ow condition, the uctuating pressure dominated
the exchange process across the building openings.
By substituting the measured exchange rate Q*, rms pressure
coefcient Cprms and the discharge coefcient Cd = 0.65 into Eq.
(10), the value of coefcient k can be determined for wind directions  = 0 and  = 67.5180 . As Fig. 7 illustrates, the computed
coefcient k was in the range of 0.280.64. The average value of
coefcient k was 0.457. For wind direction  = 22.545 , the pressure difference was much larger than the pressure uctuation,
Cp  Cprms . Therefore, the exchange rate could be predicted by the
pressure coefcients Cp1 and Cp2 and discharge coefcient Cd = 0.65
using Eq. (10).
In order to simplify the prediction model, the constant coefcient k = 0.457 was used to predict the exchange rate, Q*p . The
measured and predicted exchange rates are compared in Fig. 8. The
relative error of the prediction is dened as:

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C.-R. Chu et al. / Energy and Buildings 108 (2015) 365372

Top view
(a )

Wind

(b )

A2

A1

A1

A2

0.30

(14)

where Q*m and Q*p are the measured and predicted exchange rates,
respectively. The average prediction error was 13%, and the coefcient of determination was R2 = 0.969. The accuracy was better than
the models of Larsen and Heiselberg [10] for single-sided ventilation with one opening.

0.15

Qm

0.20

Error =



Qm Qp 

Two openings on single-side, r = 0.25%

Two openings on single-side, r = 1.0%
Chu (2011), Two openings on two-side, r = 1.0%
Chu (2011), Single opening on single-side, r = 1.0%
Larsen and Heiselberg (2008), Single opening
Kato et al. (2006), Single opening

0.25

Fig. 8. Comparison of measured and predicted dimensionless exchange rate for

single-sided ventilation with two openings.

0.10
0.05
0.00

3.2. Shear ventilation

3.3. Internal partition

This study also investigated the single-sided ventilation of
a partitioned building (see Fig. 3). The exchange rates with an
internal partition under different wind directions were measured by the tracer gas technique. The wall porosity ratio was
r = 1.0% (A1 = A2 = 40 mm 40 mm) and the external wind speed
UH = 2.32 m/s and 3.56 m/s. The wind direction varied in the range
of  = 0180 for every 22.5 .

10

12

UH (m/s)
Fig. 9. Schematic diagram of shear ventilation with two openings (wind direction
 = 90 ). (a) Two openings on two opposite walls; (b) two openings on a single lateral
wall; (c) relationship between dimensionless exchange rate Q* and external wind
speed UH for shear ventilation. The experimental condition of Larsen and Heiselberg
[10] and Kato et al. [9] is shear ventilation with a single opening.

0.25
No partition, UH = 2.32 m/s
With partition, UH = 2.32 m/s

0.20

With partition, UH = 3.56 m/s

0.15

Q*

In this part of the experiment, the exchange rate of the wind

direction parallel to the two openings on the same side of the lateral wall (wind direction  = 90 ) was studied. There were two sizes
of openings: A1 = A2 = 20 mm 20 mm (wall porosity ratio r = 0.25%)
and A1 = A2 = 40 mm 40 mm (r = 1.0%). The external wind speed
was in the range of UH = 2.3210.73 m/s under the xed wind direction  = 90 .
Fig. 9 shows dimensionless exchange rate Q* as a function of
external wind speed UH for single-sided ventilation with two openings. The results of Chu et al. [12] were also plotted in the gure for
comparison. Notice that the ow condition of the present study was
different from that of Chu et al. [12]. In their experiments, the two
openings were on two opposite walls, each wall with one opening
(see Fig. 9). While the openings of the present study were on the
same lateral wall. In spite of the locations of the opening, the values
of Q* were very close. This indicated that the shear-induced ventilation was independent of the opening location. The dimensionless
exchange rate, Q* = 0.087, of two openings was several times higher
than that of shear ventilation with a single opening, Q* = 0.018.
Furthermore, the dimensionless exchange rate Q* of the shear ventilation was independent of opening area A and external wind speed
UH . Since the dimensionless exchange rate of single-sided ventilation with two openings was not related to the opening location, it
was concluded that Eq. (10) can be used to predict the exchange
rate of the shear ventilation with two openings on opposite walls.

0.10

0.05

0.00
0

30

60

90

120

150

180

(Deg)
Fig. 10. Dimensionless exchange rate Q* for buildings with or without internal partition under various wind directions. The wall porosity ratio r = 1.0%, external wind
speed UH = 2.32 m/s and 3.56 m/s.

Fig. 10 compares the dimensionless exchange rates Q* for buildings with and without an internal partition under various wind
directions. As expected, the exchange rate, Q*, without the partition was larger than that with the partition for wind direction
 = 090 . However, the exchange rate, Q*, was not affected by the
internal partition when the openings were located on the leeward
side ( = 112.5180 ). In addition, the dimensionless exchange
rates of wind speed UH = 2.32 m/s and 3.56 m/s were very close.
This indicated that for buildings with an internal partition, the

C.-R. Chu et al. / Energy and Buildings 108 (2015) 365372

371

0.3

10

Without partition

1:1

With partition

8
0.2

i/1

Qp*
4

0.1

Average i/1 = 7.128

2

0
0.0

0.0
0.0

22.5

45.0

67.5

0.1

90.0

Fig. 12. Comparison of measured and predicted dimensionless exchange rate of

single-sided ventilation for buildings with and without internal partition. The wall
porosity ratio r = 1.0%.

dimensionless exchange rate was independent of the external wind

speed.
This phenomenon can be explained by a modied version of
the resistance model of Chu and Wang [16]. The dimensionless
exchange rate can be predicted by:

1 + i + 2

(15)

where the numerator, |Cp | + kCprms , in the above equation is the

driving force for the air exchange. The coefcient k = 0.457 can be
used for buildings with and without an internal partition.
When the openings were on the windward side of the building (0 <  < 90 ), the pressure difference between the two openings
caused the external air to ow through the openings, but the internal partition was an extra resistance for the air ow to overcome.
The resistance factors,  1 and  2 , of the external openings, A1 and
A2 , can be computed by Eq. (6), while the resistance factor,  i , of
the internal partition can be computed by the measured exchange
rate, Q*, and pressure coefcients Cp1 and Cp2 .
Fig. 11 depicts the dimensionless resistance factor of the internal partition,  i / 1 , for wind direction 090 . The average value
of the resistance factor was  i / 1 = 7.128. For wind direction
 = 112.5180 , the pressure difference was |Cp | 0, the inuence
of an internal partition on the exchange rate was insignicant and
the internal resistance was  i = 0. By substituting this resistance factor and measured pressure coefcients Cp1 and Cp2 into Eq. (15),
exchange rate Q*p can be predicted. Fig. 12 compares the measured and predicted exchange rates of buildings with and without
an internal partition under various wind directions. The average
prediction error was 7.54%, and the coefcient of determination
was R2 = 0.964.
Fig. 13 compares of the dimensionless ventilation rates, Q*, for
buildings with and without an internal partition under wind direction  = 90 . The opening areas were: A1 = A2 = 40 mm 40 mm (wall
porosity ratio r = 1.0%) and A1 = A2 = 20 mm 20 mm (r = 0.25%). As
can be seen, the dimensionless exchange rate Q* was independent
of the external wind speed and opening area. However, the average
exchange rate, Q* = 0.048, for a building with an internal partition
was lower than the exchange rate, Q* = 0.087, for a building without a partition. In other words, the air exchange inside the building
became difcult because of the obstruction effect of the partition
wall.
To apply the results of this study to a real building, a singlezone building with the length 10 m, width 10 m and height 3.0 m
was used as an example. By assuming the external wind speed

Without partition, r = 0.25%

Without partition, r = 1.0%
With partition,
r = 1.0%

0.15


1/2

Cp  + kCprms

0.20

0.10

1
Q =
A1

0.3

Qm*

(Deg)
Fig. 11. Dimensionless resistance factor  i / 1 of the internal partition as a function
of wind direction.

0.2

0.05

0.00

10

12

UH (m/s)
Fig. 13. Dimensionless exchange rate Q* of shear ventilation (wind direction  = 90 )
for building with and without internal partition under different wind speeds.
Table 2
Air exchange rate of different opening congurations.
Conguration

Wind direction

Single opening
Two openings
w/o partition

( )

Q*

Q (m3 s1 )

ACH (h1 )

0.018

0.054

0.65

0.075

0.224

2.69

22.567.5
90
112.5180

0.183
0.087
0.056

0.550
0.261
0.167

6.60
3.13
2.00

0.041

0.122

1.46

0.093
0.048
0.050

0.279
0.145
0.152

3.35
1.74
1.82

Two openings
with partition

Exchange rate

22.567.5
90
112.5180

The interior volume V = 300 m3 , and the opening areas A1 = A2 = 1 m 1 m. The

dimensionless exchange rate Q* was averaged over the measured values of Q* under
different wind directions.

UH = 3.0 m/s, the interior volume was V = 300 m3 , and the opening
area A1 = A2 = 1 m 1 m (wall porosity r = 3.33% for each opening).
The computed exchange rate Q and ACH of different opening congurations were listed in Table 2. The air change rate of single opening
was only ACH = 0.65, while ACH = 6.6 when the two openings were
on the windward facade (22.567.5 ) and ACH = 2.0 when the openings were on the leeward facade (112.5180 ). As expected, the
value of ACH with the partition was lower than that without the

372

C.-R. Chu et al. / Energy and Buildings 108 (2015) 365372

partition under the same wind direction. In other words, open up

one more window can signicantly increase the air change rate and
the internal partition will reduce the air change rate.
4. Conclusions
This study used wind tunnel experiments to investigate the
inuence of wind direction, wind speed and opening area on the
exchange rate of buildings with two openings on the same external
wall. The exchange rate of the model building was measured by the
tracer gas decay method, and the external and internal pressures
were measured by a high-frequency multi-channel pressure scanner. The experimental results revealed that the time-averaged
pressure difference was much larger than the root-mean-square
of the internal pressure uctuation, |Cp |  Cprms , when the wind
direction was  = 22.545 . The exchange process was dominated
by the pressure difference |Cp | across the openings. However,
when the wind direction was  = 0 and 67.5180 , the pressure
difference across the opening was close to zero, |Cp | 0 and the
air exchange was mainly generated by the uctuating pressure. This
study has proposed a semi-empirical prediction model to account
for the time-averaged pressure difference and pressure uctuation
to calculate the exchange rate. The average error between the measured and predicted exchange rates under various wind speeds and
directions was 13%.
In addition, it was found that when the dimensionless exchange
rate Q* = Q/UH A of the shear-induced ventilation (wind direction
 = 90 ) of a building with two openings was several times larger
than that of a building with a single opening. In other words, open
up one more window can signicantly increase the air change rate.
The dimensionless exchange rate of shear ventilation was independent of the external wind speed, opening size and location. But the
air change rate (ACH) is linearly correlated with the wind speed and
opening area.
Furthermore, the exchange rate for a building with an internal partition was lower than that of a building without an internal
partition for wind direction  = 090 . For openings on the leeward
facade (wind direction  = 112.5180 ), the inuence of the internal
partition on the exchange rate was insignicant and the internal
resistance factor was  i = 0. The exchange rates with the internal
partition were predicted using a modied version of the resistance
model of Chu and Wang [16].
Acknowledgment
The nancial support from the Ministry of Science and
Technology of Republic of China, Taiwan, under grant no. 103-2221E-008-104 is gratefully appreciated.

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