A parametric study of the interlocking stack effect ventilation with building thermal mass in commercial buildings

The interlocking stack effect ventilation with building thermal mass is the strategy that takes advantage of natural phenomenon and building structure in purpose of providing passive heating and cooling benefits. It has been successfully used in many buildings, particularly for residential-scale buildings. However, for the diverse loads of larger scale commercial buildings, the benefits of interlocking naturally derived convective heat transfer with building mass needs more in-depth study.; This study investigated the potential energy benefits of a ventilated sunspace that is interlocked with building structural mass. Firstly, the study uses fundamental equations from ASHRAE 2000 to determine the relationship between the factors of stack effect phenomenon such as ventilated space height, indoor to outdoor temperature differences, and the area of inlet and outlet openings in the ventilated space. The limits and significance of these valuables will be determined for commonly used sunspace, ventilation and structural system. The two strategies of this interlocking concept used in the investigation are night ventilation during cooling seasons and the passive solar heating for under-heated seasons. The Crowther's procedure (Crowther, 1980) and the fundamental equation from ASHRAE 2000 are applied to investigate the performances of the interlocking idea for both strategies in different climates.; The results of this study describe the physical limitations of an exterior wall airspace interlocked with building thermal mass in different time of the year for each climate. The conclusion of this study, theoretically, extends the knowledge of interlocking idea in architectural design.