Naturally ventilated industrial sheds: an investigation about the influence of wind direction in flow rate efficiency in continuous roof vents

Natural ventilation portrays an effective technique for lowering the internal temperature, without spending electricity, and directly contributes to the renewal of indoor air by establishing a healthy environment for workers. Given this, it is usual to have air vent openings located at the top of the roof (continuous roof vents), in addition to those present on the facades of sheds. In naturally ventilated buildings, it is recommended to give due importance to the provision of these openings, since depending on the proposed arrangement, the wind may or may not help in the effectiveness of this strategy. In this work, it is evaluated via computer simulation (EnergyPlus, version 8.7.0), for the climatic conditions of the city of Belo Horizonte/Brazil, the influence of the wind direction in the flow rate of indoor air through the ridge vents, of the longitudinal and transversal type, present in industrial sheds endowed with an internal source of high-intensity heat release. The results obtained show that the flow rate has a symmetrical behavior in the openings of the longitudinal continuous roof vent, that is, when an opening is with the maximum outflow of the internal air, the opening opposite the predominant wind direction is acting as an entry point for the air external. The transverse continuous roof vents are more sensitive about the wind direction since they are positioned perpendicular to the building. The best result found is for the wind situation occurring parallel to the shed, obtaining a reduction in the internal temperature of up to 1°C, an increase in the rate of air changes per hour, in the internal environment, at 1acph, and an increase of up to 10,7% in the volume of air infiltrated into the shed.