Numerical study of the influence of internal heat source in naturally ventilated offices

The natural ventilation in a building performs a fundamental role in users' welfare and health, when used as a bioclimatic and architectural strategy, it can provide brighter projects. Increasing the indoor air speed ventilation has an important performance maintaining indoor air quality, contributing to thermal interactions between human body and environment, which can significantly reduce the building's energy cost. In this study, a numerical research of natural convection in single-sided and cross ventilation is developed using the finite volume method, taking account the internal heat sources influence. The numerical model is used to determine the effects of wind and thermal forces combined by analyzing the stream functions and temperature distribution within an office. The turbulence model is the two differential equations for the low Reynolds number. The building's internal heat sources influence is analyzed herein. The results show that the single-sided ventilation presents excellent conformity with the results obtained in literature. The influence of the internal heat source is considered and it has been observed that the best source position is near to the air exit for both single-sided ventilation and cross ventilation.