Natural air ventilation is the most important passive strategy to provide thermal comfort in hot-humid climates, also promoting a reduction in energy consumption on air-conditioning. However, architects tend to resist using it because it is a less reliable solution for thermal comfort problems than air conditioning systems in conventional buildings. Hence, the aim of this study is to investigate ways to predict the performance of natural ventilation in buildings, using computer-modelling tools to support decision making in architectural design. A typical pre-fabricated building of the City of Natal, State Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. The study emphasized the use of a computational fluid dynamics software to simulate the airflow outside and inside the building, and a thermal and energy simulation program. The article focuses on a discussion of the procedures required to allow the analysis of natural air ventilation, showing how the method had to be adjusted to the complexity of different approaches, leading to simplification and compromising the reliability of results. Some results of the simulations are presented in order to illustrate the approach. Finally, the limitations and potential advantages of the method are discussed, based on the characteristics of the simulation codes used, the simulation conditions and the representativeness of the models.
Natural ventilation; Computer simulation; Architectural design
