Francisco José Sánchez

Climatic applicability of downdraught cooling in Europe

This study describes the work on the development of climatic applicability maps of downdraught cooling in Europe; this work is presented as an extension of the work developed in the PHDC project, 2008–2010. The approach is based on a set of maps, which are based on two related climatic characteristics: dry bulb temperature–wet bulb temperature (DBT−WBT) and 25°C−WBT, and in the cooling requirements for each location. The meaning of the climatic characteristics will be explained in the text; as the first climatic characteristic represents the potential of using the evaporative systems to cool the air, and the second one shows the potential of cooling the building with a system that theoretically could supply the air in wet bulb conditions. The potential opportunity of using different types of downdraught cooling solutions, such as passive downdraught evaporative cooling and hybrid downdraught cooling, as an alternative to conventional air conditioning was assessed for different climate regions. A detailed version of a part of the Europe map will be done in order to take into account the particularities of a country like Spain. This set of maps will show the same parameters but with more resolution. Finally, six cities representing major climatic regions were selected for climatic analysis. This resulted in the identification of three climate zones for downdraught cooling application in Europe, and the suggestion of appropriate design strategies for each one of them.

The globe thermometer in comfort and environmental studies in buildings

The reasons for the inferior performance of many existing buildings and associated energy systems are diverse, but an important part-cause is insufficient attention to the influence of occupant behaviour. In smart buildings it is necessary to allow for the integration of human behaviour in the HVAC system. In addition, many researchers are limited in their investigation by not having low cost tools that can provide information for their studies. This article is a review of the present state of art about the globe thermometer. It describes how to build your own globe temperature sensor and describes experiments that illustrate the feasibility of using a black globe thermometer with 40 mm diameter.

Ventilación natural: estudio aerodinámico mediante CFD de extractores pasivos y captadores de viento

La ventilacion natural se ha ganado protagonismo en los ultimos tiempos como una medida de ahorro de energia para edificios. Los dos principios fundamentales de ventilacion natural son el tiro natural por diferencia de temperatura, y la fuerza del viento. El articulo pretende analizar la aerodinamica de los captadores y extractores de viento mediante fluido-mecanica computacional, optimizando las geometrias de estos elementos, y dando como producto del trabajo un modelo simplificado para poder tenerlos en cuenta el calculo aeraulico de las instalaciones de ventilacion y climatizacion de los edificios. Concretamente, se caracteriza una base de geometrias de captacion de viento, y se elabora una guia para el diseno de geometrias de extraccion ofreciendo varias de ellas como producto del trabajo realizado.In recent years, natural ventilation has won popularity as an energy saving measure for buildings. There are two fundamental principles of natural ventilation: natural draft by temperature differences, and wind force. The purpose of the article is to analyze the aerodynamics of windcatchers and wind-extractors by means of computational fluid mechanics, optimizing the geometries of these elements, and giving a simplified model as a result of the work, so as to include it in the aeraulic calculation of the buildings’ air conditioning systems. Therefore, a base for wind catching geometries has been characterized, and a guide for the design of extraction geometries has been developed; several of them are offered as a result of the work undertaken.

Natural ventilation: CFD aerodynamic study about passive extractor and windcatcher

La ventilacion natural se ha ganado protagonismo en los ultimos tiempos como una medida de ahorro de energia para edificios. Los dos principios fundamentales de ventilacion natural son el tiro natural por diferencia de temperatura, y la fuerza del viento. El articulo pretende analizar la aerodinamica de los captadores y extractores de viento mediante fluido-mecanica computacional, optimizando las geometrias de estos elementos, y dando como producto del trabajo un modelo simplificado para poder tenerlos en cuenta el calculo aeraulico de las instalaciones de ventilacion y climatizacion de los edificios. Concretamente, se caracteriza una base de geometrias de captacion de viento, y se elabora una guia para el diseno de geometrias de extraccion ofreciendo varias de ellas como producto del trabajo realizado.In recent years, natural ventilation has won popularity as an energy saving measure for buildings. There are two fundamental principles of natural ventilation: natural draft by temperature differences, and wind force. The purpose of the article is to analyze the aerodynamics of windcatchers and wind-extractors by means of computational fluid mechanics, optimizing the geometries of these elements, and giving a simplified model as a result of the work, so as to include it in the aeraulic calculation of the buildings’ air conditioning systems. Therefore, a base for wind catching geometries has been characterized, and a guide for the design of extraction geometries has been developed; several of them are offered as a result of the work undertaken.