Natural Ventilation Case Study

Buildings require ventilation and industrial shutter systems, otherwise known as louvres, are often used to help provide this. The client had designed a full wall of louvres for ventilation of a generator room but did not know whether this was sufficient to effectively transfer enough heat away from the generator by passively cooling the room. In particular the client wanted to gain confidence that potential localised heat spots behind the generator would be addressed and eliminated by the proposed room design before the full building design was confirmed.

Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Jesmond Engineering constructed a detailed CAD model of the generator room, parameterised to adjust louvre blade pitch for airflow sensitivity analysis. ​ The simulation incorporated both wind-driven and buoyancy-driven ventilation mechanisms, taking account of external air flow, internal air flow and generator temperatures. ​ The simulation demonstrated and visually illustrated airflow patterns and heat flux, showing the heat dispersion from the generator surfaces to the upper outlet region.

The CFD results provided by Jesmond Engineering confirmed that wind-driven ventilation would function as the primary cooling mechanism for heat dispersion, effectively cooling all generator surfaces and meeting operational requirements. It also showed that the designed louvre system would address concerns regarding potential localised heat spots. ​ The simulation results aligned well with client expectations from previous designs and showed that the proposed design successfully eliminated localised heat spots, providing assurance of the proposed louvre system’s performance and its ability to manage heat without mechanical systems.

The analysis provided by Jesmond Engineering gave the client the required assurance that the design would effectively cool the generator room without mechanical systems, therefore saving them additional cost for alternative systems.

It also gave confirmation that localised heat spots behind the generator would be mitigated and validated the proposed louvre system’s performance through the CFD analysis in advance of construction, giving the client confidence in the passive cooling system’s ability to meet operating constraints.