Heat Fluxes and Airflow Patterns Through Roof Windows in a Naturally Ventilated Enclosure

Experiments were carried out to study the airflow and heat transfer through continuous vertical roof openings of a naturally ventilated greenhouse. The major goals of this work were to investigate the effect of ambient wind speed and direction with respect to the greenhouse on the mean and turbulent characteristics of the air velocity and heat transfer through openings with and without insect-proof screens. Air velocity and temperature were measured simultaneously at two edges of the opening using one-dimensional sonic anemometers and miniature thermocouples. It is shown that when the wind is not perpendicular to the plane of the openings there are outflow and inflow, at the windward and leeward edges of the openings respectively. A wind blowing from the back of the openings and nearly perpendicular to them reduced the mean air velocity at the two edges but did not change the turbulent velocity much. Over a considerable part of the day the mean and turbulent air velocities scale with the ambient wind; the total heat flux (mean plus turbulent) scales with the product of the ambient wind and temperature while the turbulent heat flux does not. The integral length scale of the inflow was approximately equal to the height of the opening and was larger than that of the outflow. Installing screens on the openings generated smaller scales and increased the spectral decay rate in comparison with openings without screens. A quadrant analysis enabled the determination of the events that significantly contribute to the turbulent heat flux. It is shown that at the outflow the turbulent heat flux is mainly due to eddies of cool air entering from the surrounding to the greenhouse while at the inflow it is due to both warm and cool eddies leaving and entering the greenhouse respectively.