Publications

As a result of the global energy crises and the increase in collective awareness of sustainability, it has become necessary to investigate passive strategies that provide thermal comfort to users and energy saving to buildings. In this context, in hot climates, as in most of the Brazilian territory, the use of strategies related to natural ventilation is important.  Solar chimneys are one of the devices that provide ventilation. They have great potential to increase air renovation and intensify thermal comfort in buildings,  they do not create noise,  have low-cost features and do not require electricity. However, for the correct application of these devices, it is necessary to analyze the construction parameters and the environmental variables.  Therefore, the objective of this work is to investigate the parameters and potential of a  solar chimney for thermal comfort and air renovation in classrooms and office spaces in the Brazilian climate. For this research, energy performance simulation with  EnergyPlus was adopted as the main method.  Three methods of simulating solar chimneys in the software were evaluated,  then statistical indicators and benchmarks have been identified for comparison between annual air flows. After a  first analysis,  a  solar chimney model, Brise-Chaminé-Solar®, was evaluated in two rooms: classrooms and offices, with variations of constructive parameters, as the height of the devices, the number of them and the orientation in which they were installed. When the simulated cases for each climate were compared, the results presented differences of up to 80% in the number of hours in thermal comfort. These values reinforce the importance of the analysis of the climate in where it is intended to install a solar chimney. From the results obtained in the analyzed cities, it was shown that the device increased the number of hours in thermal comfort to between 20 and 30%, and the best results were obtained in  ZB1  to  ZB5  cities, That means that these bioclimatic zones have a favorable potential for a Brise-Chaminé-Solar® utilization.