Proposing a New Approach to Optimize the Windcatcher's Performance

Subject Areas : Architecture

Mona Mohtaj ¹ , Mansoureh Tahbaz ² , Atefeh Dehghan Touran Poshti ³

1 - Ph.D. Candidate, Faculty of Architecture, West Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
2 - Associate Professor, Shahid Beheshti University, School of Architecture, Department of Cons‌truction, Tehran, Iran
3 - Department of Architecture, West Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

Received: 2023-08-28 Accepted : 2024-05-05 Published : 2024-06-09

Keywords: Natural Ventilation, Vernacular houses, Hot and Humid, Simulation, Thermal comfort,

Abstract :

Hot and humid climate is one of the robust climates in the world. Vernacular architecture in this area answer to climate conditions with solutions, one of these solutions are windcatchers. Nowadays most of these windcatchers are closed because they are not responsive to current thermal comfort conditions. The reduction of wind speed and the lack of control over the entering hot weather can be considered as two main weaknesses of the windcatchers in these areas. This research suggested to install Damper and Fan to improve the performance of windcatchers in vernacular houses of Bandar-Kong. five windcatchers have been selected as case studies and their performance has been simulated and measured in 24 different modes: open windcatcher (past method), closed windcatcher (current state), windcatcher with valve and windcatcher with fan are four general modes wich are divided to 6 subset. Design Builder 7.0.0.116 is used for simulations. operative temperature is calculated for each space in 24 different modes. The results show that using fan and damper, increase thermal comfort hours from about 43 to 52 percent. Besides using fans and dampers can obviously reduce temperatures over 35degrees.

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