Download Low-energy building ventilation

Project B: Low-energy building ventilation
Over the last quarter of a century the fundamental principal of driving the ventilation of buildings
by exploiting the flow established by natural forcing, e.g. wind-induced pressure differences or the
buoyancy force from otherwise incidental heat sources, has been well established. Adoption of such
strategies offer real opportunities to lower energy usage, thereby lower running costs. Moreover,
there is increasing evidence that more significant benefits of such ventilation strategies arise due to
improved air quality, especially when applied to large office spaces. The resulting increase in
employee satisfaction and productivity can be dramatic and as such novel ventilation strategies are
increasingly appealing to multi-national corporations.
This PhD research will investigate fundamental aspects of fluid mechanics relevant to low-energy
ventilation flows. These might include the role of confinement and geometry on entrainment and
mixing, the mixing provided by wall plumes generated by traditional building ‘radiators’, the
effects of changing the ratio of localised to distributed sources, and the effects changing the balance
between buoyancy and momentum sources. The research will utilise the unique experimental
facilities for Industrial Fluid Mechanics at the Department of Civil Environmental Engineering,
Imperial College London. In addition, a theoretical framework will be developed to enable
comparison of the relative success and efficiency of physically and fundamentally different
ventilation strategies – a long desired aim of the building ventilation community which, with recent
theoretical advances, now seems within reach.
Candidates
Potential candidates will be expected to hold a high class degrees (ideally to Masters level) from
top-ranking universities in either Engineering, Physics or Mathematics. Successful candidates will
receive a world-class schooling in research (including courses from the Imperial College Graduate
Schools) whilst gaining experience in a wide range of experimental and imaging techniques, such as
shadow graph, synthetic schlieren, in addition to optical measurement techniques, such as light
attenuation techniques , light-induced fluorescence and particle image velocimetry.
For further details please email [email protected]