Investigating the Effect of Balcony Types on the Naturally-Ventilated Buildings

Natural ventilation is application of natural drift power of wind. Wind can enter and exit buildings through the openings on facades. Hence, Form of facades can impact the air flow behaviour and consequently natural ventilation because they can change the pressure distribution on facades. Moreover, wind pressure difference between windward and leeward facades of buildings is the most important factor affecting natural ventilation. So, it is worthy to focus on facade details in order to enhance natural ventilation. Particularly, geometrical details of facades such as protrusions and indentations e.g. balconies can be considered effective elements on average pressure distribution on both windward and leeward facades, changing pressure difference between these facades. This difference can drive the air flow towards interior spaces significantly. Although this basic rule has been used by different researchers in order to increase natural ventilation buildings, the most research has been studied buildings with flat facades. Therefore, this study aims to investigate effects of balcony types on the natural ventilation. Three types of balcony are simulated and the wind pressure distribution on the windward and leeward facades are analysed. All these simulations are carried out for normally (perpendicular) and obliquely incident wind. This study is performed with Ansys Fluent 18 for all simulations. The results showed that balcony types can affect the pressure distribution on the windward and leeward facades of buildings, leading to the more or less pressure difference between these two facades. These results show that protrusion (protrusive balcony) can cause more complicated pattern of the wind pressure on facades than the others. Also, Re-entrant balcony causes the more pressure differences between the windward and leeward facades and enhances natural ventilation of buildings more considerably than the protrusive one.