Effects of different internal designs of traditional wind towers on their thermal behavior

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of different internal designs of traditional wind towers on their thermal behavior numerically. Among the enormous variety of designs of internal partitions in traditional wind towers, which are used in hot and dry areas of Iran, five main important types were chosen. Calculations were done using evaporative cooling – wet partitions – and without it – dry partitions. In the modeling evaporative cooling, the partitions were considered as the wet surfaces which inject water droplets in the air in a very low speed. The CFD open source package – Open FOAM – was used to produce the current three-dimensional CFD simulation by adopting both the Eulerian approach for the air phase and the Lagrangian approach for the water droplets were adopted. The three dimensional plan of a building and its wind tower were simulated in an analytical space like a tunnel. In addition, to simulate the turbulence flow the k–ɛ standard model was used. The results were compared with some experimental data indicating that whenever the evaporative cooling is used in the best design condition, the air temperature decreases 6.5 K and reaches to 311.5 K while the temperature of the surrounding is 318 K.

► The 3D plan of a building and its wind tower are simulated. ► 3D CFD simulation has adopted both the Eulerian and the Lagrangian approaches. ► The room air velocity was increased by changing partitions’ numbers and arrangements. ► Lower air temperature was achieved by using internal partitions as wet surfaces. ► Higher relative humidity was achieved by using internal partitions as wet surfaces.