Assessing Façade-Mounted Windcatcher Supply Outlet Height's Influence on Indoor Air Quality in Residential Bedrooms

The optimum location of a windcatcher supply outlet on the facade of a building in relation to the occupant breathing zone in the context of indoor air quality (IAQ) is imperative. This study attempts to determine the optimum location of the windcatcher supply outlet on the facade of a bedroom for enhanced IAQ. The building model was created using Design Builder software while computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was employed for the parametric simulation using air change effectiveness (ACE) as the optimization objective function. The height of the windcatcher supply outlet was varied from 0.2m to 2.4m step 0.2m above the floor level. The results show that higher values of ACE in the occupants’ breathing zone were obtained at lower heights of the windcatcher supply outlets with the best ACE of 1.13 obtained at 0.4m. This information could help engineers to optimally position the windcatcher supply outlet on the façade of a bedroom building or any other building with similar attributes.