• Wind and Structures
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.361-376
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• 2008

This paper considers internal pressure fluctuations for a range of building volumes and dominant wall opening areas. The study recognizes that the air flow in and out of the dominant opening in the envelope generates Helmholtz resonance, which can amplify the internal pressure fluctuations compared to the external pressure, at the opening. Numerical methods were used to estimate fluctuating standard deviation and peak (i.e. design) internal pressures from full-scale measured external pressures. The ratios of standard deviation and peak internal pressures to the external pressures at a dominant windward wall opening of area, AW are presented in terms of the non-dimensional opening size to volume parameter, $S^*=(a_s/\bar{U}_h)^2(A_W^{3/2}/V_{Ie})$ where $a_s$ is the speed of sound, $\bar{U}_h$ is the mean wind speed at the top of the building and $V_{Ie}$ is the effective internal volume. The standard deviation of internal pressure exceeds the external pressures at the opening, for $S^*$ greater than about 0.75, showing increasing amplification with increasing $S^*$. The peak internal pressure can be expected to exceed the peak external pressure at the opening by 10% to 50%, for $S^*$ greater than about 5. A dominant leeward wall opening also produces similar fluctuating internal pressure characteristics.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.370-376
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• 2005

For the purpose of investigating the effective removal of heating/cooling load from light-weighted building envelope, two air-conditioning systems, conventional parameter air-conditioning system and air-barrier system, are evaluated and compared by both experiment and simulation with six different cases during heating and cooling season. In addition, the characteristics of window-side building thermal load are assessed by varying supply air velocity in order to seek the optimal system operation condition. The results are as follows. 1) Air-barrier system is more effective to remove heating/cooling load at perimeter zone than conventional parameter air-conditioning system. Moreover, the better effectiveness appears during cooling season than during heating season. 2) The experiment during cooling season provides that indoor temperature of air-barrier system shows $1^{\circ}C$ less than that of the conventional system with similar outdoor air temperature profile, and indoor temperature distribution is more uniform throughout the experimented model space. It concludes that air-barrier system can achieve energy saving comparing to the conventional system. 3) The capturing efficiency of air-barrier system is 0.47 on heating season and 0.2 on cooling season with the same supply air volume. It results that the system performs effectively to remove building thermal load, moreover demonstrates high efficiency during cooling season. 4) The simulation results provide that capturing efficiency to evaluate the effective removal of building load from perimeter zone shows high value when supply air velocity is 1 m/s.