Análise de componentes arquitetônicos para potencialização da ventilação natural com ênfase em captadores de vento

The building envelope is the principal mean of interaction between indoors and environment, with direct influence on thermal and energy performance of the building. By intervening in the envelope, with the proposal of specific architectural elements, it is possible to promote the use of passive strategies of conditioning, such as natural ventilation. The cross ventilation is recommended by the NBR 15220-3 as the bioclimatic main strategy for the hot and humid climate of Natal/RN, offering among other benefits, the thermal comfort of occupants. The analysis tools of natural ventilation, on the other hand, cover a variety of techniques, from the simplified calculation methods to computer fluid dynamics, whose limitations are discussed in several papers, but without detailing the problems encountered. In this sense, the present study aims to evaluate the potential of wind catchers, envelope elements used to increase natural ventilation in the building, through CFD simplified simulation. Moreover, it seeks to quantify the limitations encountered during the analysis. For this, the procedure adopted to evaluate the elements implementation and efficiency was the CFD simulation, abbreviation for Computer Fluid Dynamics, with the software DesignBuilder CFD. It was defined a base case, where wind catchers were added with various settings, to compare them with each other and appreciate the differences in flows and air speeds encountered. Initially there has been done sensitivity tests for familiarization with the software and observe simulation patterns, mapping the settings used and simulation time for each case simulated. The results show the limitations encountered during the simulation process, as well as an overview of the efficiency and potential of wind catchers, with the increase of ventilation with the use of catchers, differences in air flow patterns and significant increase in air speeds indoors, besides changes found due to different element geometries. It is considered that the software used can help designers during preliminary analysis in the early stages of design