LES Simulation of Oscillating Natural Ventilation Driven by Vortex Shedding in Isolated Buildings

A recently published study presented a new type of natural ventilation (NV) flow, named pumping ventilation. The oscilatory mechanism of vortex shedding that occurs at the wake region of an isolated building drives this new type of ventilation in rooms with two (or more) openings facing the leeward or windward side of an isolated building. This paper presents a validated Large Eddy Simulation (LES) study of oscillating/pumping NV in an isolated building using three different separations (s') between its two windows. LES is validated using an experimental database from measurements performed at the University of Gavle boundary layer wind tunnel (WT). The measurements use a cubic model with 0.45m side representing a three-story building at a 1/20 scale that allows the use of bottom-hung windows. LES results show a good agreement with the measured non-dimensional ventilation rates. A dimensionless analysis shows the dominant frequencies of the pumping flow, are close to the Strouhal frequency.