Paper 6
Investigating
Natural Ventilation Inside Walk-Up Housing Blocks in the Egyptian Desert
Climatic Design Region
T.
Gado 1 and M. Osman 2
1 Lecturer, Director of Environmental Design of Buildings Research Unit,
Dundee School of Architecture, University of Dundee, Matthew Building, 13
Perth Road, Dundee, DD1 4HT, United Kingdom
2
PhD student,
Environmental Design of Buildings Research Unit, Dundee School of
Architecture,
University
of Dundee (Teaching fellow on a sabbatical leave, Minia University, Egypt)
Abstract
This paper presents a study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of
natural ventilation strategies used in government dwellings in the
Egyptian desert climatic design region. Three government housing blocks,
built in the New Al-Minya city, were employed as case studies.
Autodesk-Ecotect and FloVent CFD software were used to simulate the
internal air movement and air temperatures. Theoretical analysis shows
that there is considerable cooling potential by natural ventilation, with
the thermal comfort potential being improved by up to 52% peak and 33.5%
average. Adding thermal mass improves comfort potential by up to 74.5%
peak and 66.4% average. However an analysis of the case study buildings
showed that theoretical performance could not be achieved. In particular
night purge ventilation was not effective as a passive cooling strategy
due to poor air circulation across the dwelling. Improved design to take
advantage of passive cooling is essential.
Key words: Egypt, natural ventilation, passive cooling, dynamic
thermal simulation, CFD.
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