Effects of variability of local winds on cross ventilation for a simplified building within a full-scale asymmetric array: Overview of the Silsoe field campaign

The large body of natural ventilation research, rarely addresses the effects of the urban area on ventilation rates. A novel contribution to this gap is made by the REFRESH cube campaign (RCC). During 9 months of observations, the Silsoe cube was both isolated and surrounded by a limited asymmetrical staggered array. A wide range of variables were measured continuously, including: local, reference and internal flow, stability, background meteorological conditions, internal temperature, and ventilation rates (pressure difference techniques for cross ventilated cases). This paper tests the impact of the array on the relation between local and reference wind speeds as modified by wind direction and on cross ventilation rates. The presence of the array causes a 50%–90% reduction in normalised ventilation rate when the reference wind direction is normal to the cube. The decrease in natural ventilation varies with wind direction with large amounts of scatter for both setups. The relation between local and reference wind speeds for the array case had two characteristic responses, not explained by reference wind (speed or direction) nor sensitive to averaging period, turbulence intensity or temperature differences. Given the singular response of the CIBSE approach, it is unable to capture these conditions.