A study of air flow and heat transfer in building-wind tower passive cooling systems applied to arid and semi-arid regions of Mexico

Wind towers have been traditionally used as passive climate solution in Middle East countries. They are massive structures that capture local wind mainstream in order to force fresh air to circulate inside the building promoting thermal comfort to occupants. This work analyzes air flow distribution in five different configurations of coupled systems building-wind tower. The objective is demonstrating this concept is technically feasible for producing thermal comfort in popular houses built in arid and semi-arid climate conditions in Northern Mexico. The study is based on numerical simulations, conducted with RANS method on a commercial program Fluent. Simulations of conjugate coupled solutions between air flow and heat conduction through ceiling, floor and walls were carried out in steady state and turbulent regime with appropriate boundary conditions. Analysis of results focused on air flow circulation inside the building lead to selecting the best configuration, which was tested by conjugated flow distribution and heat transfer in buildings located in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. Contours of velocity and temperature for the selected configuration demonstrate an environment of comfort for the specific site climate conditions. The remainder is devoted to emphasize that wind-tower as passive cooling method enables electricity savings, otherwise spent in conventional air conditioned systems in Monterrey.