Assessing the natural ventilation cooling potential of office buildings in different climate zones in China

This paper presents an investigation of the natural ventilation cooling potential (NVCP) of office buildings in the five generally recognised climate zones in China using the Thermal Resistance Ventilation (TRV) model, which is a simplified, coupled, thermal and airflow model. The acceptable operative temperature for naturally conditioned space supplied by the ASHARE Standard 55-2004 has been used for the comfort temperature setting. Dynamic simulations for a typical office room in the five representative cities, which are Harbin, Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming and Guangzhou, have been carried out. The study demonstrates that the NVCP depends on the multiple impacts of climate, the building's thermal characteristics, internal gains, ventilation profiles and regimes. The work shows how the simplified method can be used to generate detailed, indoor, operative temperature data based on the various building conditions and control profiles which are used to investigate the NVCP at the strategic design stage. The simulation results presented in this paper can be used as a reference guideline for natural ventilation design in China.

Recovering potential: factors associated with success in engaging challenging students with alternative pre-16 provision

The study focuses on a group of young people for whom conventional school placements had broken down and were attending vocational courses at an FE college while still of compulsory school age. The students had been excluded by, or had failed to attend, their schools or had achieved at very low levels in the academic curriculum. Over half successfully completed the vocational course at college. Many factors conventionally regarded as predictors for poor educational outcomes were not associated with completion and non-completion. For example, students who had been excluded, who had statements of special educational needs and had been involved with the criminal justice system were as likely to complete their courses as other students. However, students who had very poor attendance records at school also tended to drop out of college. The results suggest that the increased flexibility, guidance and elements of work-related learning promised in current 14 - 19 developments may help meet the needs of this group of students.