A study on the development and application of the E/V shaft cooling system to reduce stack effect in high-rise buildings

This study suggests the E/V(Elevator) shaft cooling system as a new approach to reduce the stack effect and the related problems in high-rise buildings. The basic characteristics on its application were analyzed with some simulations in this study. Moreover, the system was applied to an actual building and its performance was evaluated through the measurements.The system can reduce the stack effect itself and the related problems simultaneously and it can reduce the pressure and the air flow rate in each part of a building in the same ratio. These features were shown in the results of the simulations; for the examples, when all the E/V shafts were cooled from 22 °C to 12 °C, the stack effect and the pressure in each part of the modeled building were decreased by about 27%.In the field measurements, the wind velocity through the E/V door was decreased effectively in the whole building; its reduction ratio at the lobby floor was about 25% and at the upper floors (37F, 38F) about 10% respectively. But, the neutral pressure level at the E/V shaft was moved by the vertical temperature difference in the E/V shaft because of the inflow ducts concentrated in the lower part of the E/V shaft. This movement was also shown in another simulation on the same conditions as the measured ones. It is very important to minimize the vertical temperature difference in the E/V shaft to maximize the reduction effects on the problems.