Predicting single-sided airflow rates based on primary school experimental study

Primary schools in Chinese cities are predominantly located in high-density urban environments with the majority of these schools lacking air conditioning systems. They are extremely dependent on buoyancy-driven natural ventilation because of their location in dense neighborhoods, where local wind velocity is low. This dependency is especially relevant in summer and season transitions, when the temperature difference is small and the relative wind velocity is close to zero. The current authors conducted 168 h of experiments that measured airflow rates in a primary school located in a high-density neighborhood in Beijing. Results from the experiments were used to verify existing correlations that predict airflow rates using meteorological parameters. Three out of the four existing correlations presented a satisfactory prediction when ΔT ≥ 1 °C. However, when ΔT < 1 °C, no correlation presented a usable prediction. Therefore, this paper proposes a new hypothetical correlation to predict airflow rates that can accommodate ranges for all temperature differences.