EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL GEOMETRY ON WINDFLOW FOR ACTIVATING NATURAL VENTILATION IN BUILDINGS

Natural ventilation is hugely reliant on microclimatic conditions of an environment. In urban setting, this is often influenced by wind movements and air temperatures. The correlation between building heights and their proximity to each other and presence of physical structures that form the urban geometric elements are known to influence the incoming and outgoing wind speeds. This in turn impacts on the quantity and quality of air available for wind driven natural or hybrid ventilation. In this paper, field study was carried out on selected building and its immediate surroundings within Baze University Campus in Nigeria. This study aims to identify and evaluate the behaviors of air flow as well as analyze the impacts of environmental geometric elements on the natural ventilation potential within the environment. For this purpose, a field survey was conducted on a non-rainy day in November 2025 during the peak class periods of the day (10am to 4pm), in order to generate indoor and outdoor temperature and wind velocity data using Infra-red Sensor-type temperature and air flow monitoring equipment. The study utilized both observatory analysis and CFD simulation to analyze and synthesize the findings. The result showed a decreased wind velocity closer to the building walls, due to obstructions caused by the presence of trees in close proximity to the buildings. The general conclusion is that the surrounding street elements like trees and landscaping structures prevail in the diversion and consequent reduction of wind speed needed for natural indoor ventilation.