C07 -- Natural Convection Airflow in an Open-ended Isothermally Heated Building Shaft

In this study, the objective is to assess the feasibility of ventilating urban street canyons using building shafts having the external surface of their walls maintained at a temperature higher than the ambient temperature. The aim is to induce airflow by natural convection in an open-ended, isothermally heated building shaft whose length, width, and height are 3m × 3m × 32m (9.84 ft × 9.84 ft × 104.98 ft), respectively. The building in which the shaft is installed is an open-ground story building, and the shaft is an open space at the center of the building. A parametric study in which the temperature difference between the walls and the ambient is varied is performed. The six cases of temperature difference covered are 5C (41F), 10C (50F), 15C (59F), 20C (68F), 25C (77F), and 30C (86F). The key variables of interest investigated in this parametric study, are the wall heat flux and the mass flow rate in the shaft. The ultimate aim is to improve the ventilation conditions and increase the mass flow rate in the shaft by modifying the design parameters. This study is a numerical one, where ANSYS-Fluent is used to run the numerical simulations.