Natural ventilation potential strategies in warm winter climate zones — A case study of Dubai

In this study, the potential of using different natural ventilation strategies has been investigated based on a single-story, mixed-use building at Dubai. The outdoor investigations of the influence of external wind speed and pressure on the external building envelope was done using Autodesk Flow Design Software. The indoor ventilation CFD simulation (Micro-Flow analysis) was generated using IES virtual Environment software to detail the wind circulation inside the building and demonstrate the adopted strategy towards enhancing the indoor climate conditions. Cooling load calculations and energy modelling was investigated using Carrier Hourly Analysis Program (HAP) to check the energy savings due to the adopted natural ventilation strategies. It was found that the comfort conditions inside the building can be met at the 4 winter months (November-February) only by utilizing the passive cooling natural ventilation strategy without switching on the HVAC system. Hence, saving almost 21% of the annual building cooling load and almost 18% of the total annual energy used in the building.