Natural ventilation design guidelines for green chemistry laboratories

Abstract

This study focuses on appropriate opening design of natural ventilation for green chemistry laboratories in Thailand. Even though natural ventilation is an alternative way to save energy from using air conditionings, nowadays, there is no design guideline to promote natural ventilation for chemistry laboratories in the country. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to simulate building models with various orientations and opening types. Then, a set of simulations was run to test the effect of lay-out designs and opening locations, in conjunction with the type of building models, such as single-loaded corridor, double-loaded corridor and atrium-loaded corridor, by comparing ventilation performance with 8 wind directions at the speed of 2 meters per second. Results show that the single-loaded corridor lay-out design and opening arrangement which angled at 180 degree of wind direction and average wind speed of more than 0.5 meter per second was the most suitable comfort for improved natural ventilation in chemistry laboratories. Natural ventilation helps in reducing energy consumption, improving quality of indoor environment and responding to the need of users, based on standards and principles of green chemistry laboratory design.