Commissioning of a Coupled Earth Tube and Natural Ventilation System at the Acceptance Phase

Abstract

In this paper, the environment and energy performance of an actual coupled earth tube and natural ventilation system in a gymnasium was measured during the acceptance phase in two operation states: no ventilation and natural ventilation. From the measurement result, the authors found a design fault, which the airflow temperature from floor apertures on the north side was 3 degrees lower than from the floor apertures on the south side. By the use of the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) coupled analysis with natural ventilation method, the natural ventilation air volume and the indoor temperature in three outdoor air conditions have been calculated to perform commissioning. Several findings were obtained and informed to the operator.