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Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The water utilized by passive air-conditioning systems in buildings is typically required at higher elevations. The thermally driven natural circulation water pump (TDNCWP) is a passively driven pumping system for delivering water from ground level against gravity to a higher elevation. It consists of a humid air closed duct loop to which a temperature difference is applied, resulting in a density gradient driven flow. A hot water evaporation tray inside the loop at ground level introduces water vapour to the loop air flow, and a cold condensation plate inside the loop at the elevated level removes this water vapour for passive airconditioning usage. In this thesis, a one-dimensional theoretical and numerical simulation model is developed. Experiments were conducted on two experimental TDNCWP set-ups of different cross sectional areas to evaluate the pump design and the theoretical model. It is shown in this thesis that the TDNCWP can provide water at varied elevations using non-mechanical, passive means. A temperature difference of 9 to 12.5 °C induced an average velocity of 0.4 to 0.6 m/s for a duct cross section of 100 mm2. For a larger cross section of 400 mm2, a temperature difference of 2 to 5 °C induced an average velocity of 0.25 to 0.3 m/s. An asymmetrical velocity profile was observed which varied at different points in the loop. A water delivery rate of 1.2 to 7.5 L/day was experimentally determined which compares well to the passive air-conditioning water requirements of a small building. The theoretical model over-predicted the delivery rate at increased duct cross sectional areas but fared well when compared to the smaller experimental model results. Further refinement of the numerical model and the TDNCWP design is required, and recommendations were made regarding this. It is clear however that the TDNCWP provides an alternative to a conventional water pump for low-volume water pumping requirements. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die water wat gebruik word deur passiewe lugversorgingstelsels in geboue word tipies benodig op hoër vlakte. Die termies gedrewe natuurlike sirkulasie waterpomp (TDNCWP) is ʼn passiewe gedrewe pomp stelsel vir die lewering van water vanaf die grondvlak teen swaartekrag na ʼn hoër vlak. Dit bestaan uit 'n vogtige geslote lug geut siklus waarop ʼn temperatuur verskil toegepas word, dit lei tot vloei gedrewe deur ʼn digtheids gradiënt. ʼn Warm water verdampings-pan binne die geut op grondvlak stel waterdamp aan die geut lugvloei toe, en ʼn koue kondensasie plaat binne die geut op die verhoogde vlak verwyder hierdie waterdamp vir passiewe lugversorgings gebruik. In hierdie tesis word ʼn eendimensionele teoretiese en numeriese simulasie model ontwikkel. Eksperimente is uitgevoer op twee eksperimentele TDNCWP stelsels van verskillende deursnee grootes om die pomp ontwerp en die teoretiese model te evalueer. Die tesis dui aan dat die TDNCWP water kan voorsien teen verskillende hoogtes op ʼn nie-meganiese, passiewe wyse. ʼn Temperatuur verskil van 9 tot 12.5 °C veroorsaak ʼn gemiddelde snelheid van 0.4 tot 0.6 m/s vir ʼn geut deursnit van 100 mm2.Vir ʼn groter deursnit van 400 mm2, het ʼn temperatuur verskil van 2 tot 5 °C ʼn gemiddelde snelheid van 0.25 tot 0.3 m/s veroorsaak. ʼn Asimmetriese snelheidsprofiel was waargeneem wat gewissel het op verskillende punte in die siklus. ʼn Water voorsienings tempo van 1.2 tot 7.5 L / dag was eksperimenteel waargeneem wat goed vergelyk met die passiewe water lugversorging vereistes van 'n klein gebou. Die teoretiese model het ʼn groter voorsienings tempo voorspel vir die groot deursneë, maar het goed gevaar in vergelyking met die kleiner eksperimentele model. Verdere verfyning van die numeriese model en die TDNCWP ontwerp word vereis, en aanbevelings is gemaak ten opsigte van hiervan. Dit is egter duidelik dat die TDNCWP ʼn alternatief is vir konvensionele lae-volume water pomp applikasies. / National Research Foundation (NRF)

The main task of the ventilation system in a building is to maintain the air quality and (together with the heating or cooling system) the thermal climate at an acceptable level within the building. This means that a sufficient amount of ventilation air at the appropriate temperature and quality must be supplied to satisfy thermal comfort and air quality demands and that this air is distributed to the parts of the building where people reside. Air movements caused by buoyancy forces can determine the distribution of ventilation air within buildings. The purpose of this thesis is to advance the state of knowledge of buoyancydriven air movements within buildings and to determine their importance both for ventilation air distribution and the maintenance of thermal comfort and air quality in buildings. The work is focused on studying thermally-driven air movements through large openings, both horizontal and vertical (i.e. doorways). The properties of a special type of thermally-driven currents, so called gravity currents, have also been explored. Large vertical openings like doorways are important for air exchange between rooms within a building. Air movements through doorways separating rooms with different air temperatures are often bidirectional and the buoyancy-driven flow rates are often greater than those caused by the mechanical ventilation system alone. Bidirectional flows through doorways can effectively spread contaminants, for example, from a kitchen or a hospital rooms, yet the results of this study indicate that the conversion of a thermally-driven bidirectional flow to a unidirectional flow via an increase of the mechanically forced flow rate requires forced flows that are more than three times greater than the thermally-driven flows. Experiments conducted in this project indicate that the resistance to buoyancy-driven flows in horizontal openings is significantly greater than that in vertical openings. Model tests have shown, however, that this problem may be mitigated if a simple model of a staircase located in the centre of the room (being ventilated) is linked to the horizontal ventilation opening. Gravity currents in rooms occur in connection with so called displacement ventilation as cool gravity currents propagate along the floor that are driven by the density difference of the ventilation air and the ambient, warmer air within the room. As these gravity currents easily pass obstacles and to a certain extent are self-controlling, they can effectively distribute the cool air within rooms in a building. Likewise, warm gravity currents occur when warmer air introduced in a room rises and spreads along the ceiling plane. One application where warm gravity currents may be used to advantage is when converting buildings from electric heating to district hot water heating thus, avoiding the introduction of an expensive hydronic heating system. This report includes a full-scale laboratory study of the basic properties of thermally-driven warm air gravity currents in a residential building and examines the possibilities of using the resulting air movements for the distribution of ventilation air as well as heat. Results from laboratory tests show that this conversion method may prove effective if certain conditions on the layout of the building are fulfilled. / QC 20100705

La ventilation joue un rôle important dans le confort thermique des occupants d'un bâtiment en climat chaud, en contribuant au rafraîchissement de l'air qui les entoure. Qu'elle soit mécanique ou naturelle, la ventilation doit être maîtrisée pour ne pas gêner l'occupant et respecter des normes ou réglementations en vigueur. Ces gênes sont liées à des vitesses d'air ou à une intensité turbulente trop élevée. Les concepteurs doivent alors faire appel à l'outil numérique pour une prédiction fine des écoulements d'air. La simulation de configurations à l'échelle du bâtiment peut se faire par une approche moyennée des équations de Navier-Stokes en complément d'un modèle de turbulence. Ces simulations sont utilisées par les chercheurs comme des outils de dimensionnement, ou encore, d'optimisation des composants de ventilation. De plus, la forme des bouches de ventilation peut contribuer passivement à l'optimisation de certains phénomènes aérauliques. L'amélioration de ces formes peut ainsi se faire par l'utilisation de méthodes d'optimisation de forme. L'optimisation topologique par ajout de matière permet de trouver des formes pour optimiser des fonctionnelles objectifs définies sur le fluide ou sur ses frontières. C'est sur cette méthode que ces travaux de thèse se concentrent pour proposer un outil de contrôle des écoulements d'air dans le bâtiment par la recherche de formes optimales de bouches de ventilation. Ces travaux de thèse proposent une contribution à l'optimisation topologique d'écoulements turbulents dans le bâtiment. Dans un premier temps, la méthode par ajout de matière est appliquée pour minimiser les pertes de charge dans une conduite d'aération en forme de Té. Le modèle adjoint développé est soumis à l'hypothèse de turbulence gelée. Dans un second temps le modèle adjoint complet est proposé pour le modèle de turbulence standard k-epsilon pour la réduction des pertes de charge d'une part et de l'intensité turbulente d'autre part. Enfin, ces outils sont appliqués à l'optimisation de forme de bouches de ventilation. Les résultats montrent ainsi un bon potentiel de l'optimisation topologique par ajout de matière pour l'orientation des écoulements d'air mais ne garantissent pas la maîtrise des vitesses d'air dans la pièce. De plus, la minimisation de l'intensité turbulente grâce à l'approche complète développée a contribué à la réduction du taux d'insatisfaction lié à une intensité turbulente trop élevée dans la pièce. / Ventilation plays a key role in thermal comfort of building's occupants in hot climates by refreshing air surrounding them. Mechanical or natural ventilation must be controlled for two reasons: do not disturb the bulding's occupants and comply with the regulations in force. Discomfort is linked to too high air velocities or turbulent intensity. Designers can use the numerical tools for a finer prediction of airflow. The simulation of configurations at the building scale can be done using averaged Navier-Stokes equations approach in addition to a turbulence model. These simulations are used by researchers as sizing tools or for the optimization of ventilation components. In addition, the shape of the ventilation nozzle can passively contributes to the optimization of some aeraulics phenomena. The improvement of these ventilation components can be achieved by the use of shape optimization methods. Topological optimization by addition of material makes it possible for the optimization of cost functions defined on the fluid or on its boundaries. The main objective of this manuscript is to propose a tool to control airflows in building by the search for optimal shape of ventilation nozzle. This work proposes a contribution to the topological optimization of turbulent flows in buildings. In a first step, topological optimization by adding material is applied to minimize pressure losses in a T-shaped pipe. The developed model is subjected to the hypothesis of the frozen turbulence. In a second step, the complete adjoint model is proposed for the standard turbulence model k-epsilon for the minimization of the total pressure losses on the one hand and the turbulent intensity on the other hand. Finally, these tools are applied to the shape optimization of ventilation nozzle. The results of topological optimization by adding virtual material show good potential for the orientation of the airflows but does not guarantee the control of the air velocities in the room. Moreover, the minimization of turbulent intensity through the complete approach contributed to the reduction of the dissatisfaction rate due to excessive turbulent intensity in the room.

La compréhension de la distribution de l'air intérieur accompagné du transfert couplé "chaleur-air-humidité" est essentielle à la conception des systèmes de ventilation des bâtiments. Parmi les méthodes de distribution d'air intérieur, la ventilation par mélange est l'une des plus couramment utilisées, dont la performance est déterminée par celle du jet d'air injecté. Au cours des dernières décennies, bien que de nombreuses recherches aient été menées sur les études des jets d'air, la majorité de ces études se sont concentrées sur une disposition symétrique des bouches de soufflage et d’extraction par rapport à la géométrie du local. En outre, les études traitant du transfert couplé "chaleur-air-humidité", qui inclut le phénomène de condensation sur la surface interne du local, sont encore limités dans la littérature. Ainsi, ce travail se concentre sur la problématique suivante : Quel est le comportement d'un jet d'air réaliste sous des effets d'interaction et comment caractériser de tels jets d'air ? Dans des conditions d'intérieur réalistes favorisant la condensation sur une surface froide, serait-il possible de quantifier le débit massique de condensation ? Les deux études sont expérimentées dans la cellule d’essais MINIBAT à l’échelle 1. La première partie consiste à caractériser un jet d'air turbulent au plafond dans une configuration d’écoulement intérieur réaliste. Les résultats expérimentaux montrent les effets d'interaction visibles des éléments architecturaux de la pièce sur le comportement du jet d'air tels que la déviation de la trajectoire du jet ainsi que la déformation des profils du jet. Les principales caractéristiques du jet, telles que le taux d’expansion, la décroissance de vitesse et de température, sont quantifiées. Une méthode graphique basée sur un indicateur de déformation est proposée pour quantifier la déformation des profils transversaux du jet.La deuxième partie de ce travail traite le phénomène de condensation sur une surface vitrée en reproduisant les conditions hivernales dans la cellule d’essais. L’apparition de la condensation et son mécanisme de croissance sont observés à l'aide d'une technique de macrophotographie. Le post-traitement de l'image permet d'estimer le débit de condensation. Les comparaisons entre les résultats expérimentaux et théoriques montrent un certain accord, ce qui pourrait valider la faisabilité des techniques d'imagerie dans les études de condensation à l’échelle 1. Des données expérimentales détaillées accompagnées de conditions aux limites bien connues issues de ce travail pourraient servir de test de benchmark pour la validation des modèles CFD, en particulier pour les configurations d’écoulement asymétrique, avec la présence de la condensation. / Understanding room air distribution with coupled heat-air-moisture transport is essential to the design of building ventilation systems. In the past decades, although numerous research have been undertaken on air jet studies, there are still some issues that deserve a consideration. In fact, the majority of these studies focused on a symmetric arrangement of supply and exhaust air outlets with respect the room geometry. Besides, studies dealing with room coupled heat-air-moisture transport, which includes the condensation phenomenon on the room inner surface, are generally lacking in the literature. Hence, this work focuses on the following problematic: What is the behavior of a realistic air jet under interaction effects and how to characterize such air jets? In realistic indoor conditions promoting condensation on cold surface, would we be able to quantify the condensate mass flow rate? The two studies are experimentally investigated in the full-scale MINIBAT controlled test cell. The first part consists in characterizing a ceiling turbulent air jet in a realistic indoor airflow configuration. The experimental results show visible interaction effects of the room architectural elements on the air jet behavior: they have deviated the jet trajectory as well as deformed the jet cross-sectional shape. The jet main characteristics such as the spread rate, the velocity and temperature decay are quantified. A graphical-based method is proposed to quantify the jet shape deformation using a so-called deformation indicator. The second part of this work treats the phenomenon of moisture condensation on a glazing surface by reproducing a winter condition within the test cell. The condensation appearance and its growth mechanism are observed using a macro-photography technique. The image post-processing enabled to estimate the condensation rate. Comparisons between experimental and theoretical results show some agreement, which could validate the feasibility of imaging techniques in full-scale condensation studies.Detailed experimental data accompanied by well-known boundary conditions from this work could serve as a benchmark test for CFD models validation, in particular for asymmetric airflow configurations, with the presence of the condensation phenomenon.

This master's thesis deals with project documentation of an office building with commercial premises, cafe, and canteen. The building is located in Žďár nad Sázavou, on plot 2197. The access road is from the north side. The building has 6 floors above ground and 2 underground floors. The building is designed as monolithic reinforced concrete frame with shear core. Basement consists of monolithic reinforced concrete walls. Whole building is based on reinforced concrete slab, which is supported by a system of piles. The external wall is designed from clay blocks. The facade is ventilated.