Energy efficiency design of an airport terminal building

Indoor natural wind environments, annual natural temperature distributions and annual energy consumptions under two different opening areas of the glass curtain wall are studied for an airport terminal building in order to investigate the potential of using natural ventilation. The numerical simulation results show that: when the opening ratio of the glass curtain wall is increased from 10% to 30%, the ratio of the uncomfortable area to the whole occupied region area inside of the airport terminal building averagely decreases 55% and the air change rate averagely increases 25 times/h. If 10% opening area of the glass curtain wall is opened completely all through the year, there are at least 2707 hours in which air conditioning is not needed. But when 30% opening area is opened completely in a whole year, there are at least 5398 hours in which air conditioning is not needed. In addition, in a whole year, if air conditioning is run to make heat or cool when indoor natural temperature is less than 16°C or higher than 29°C, opening 30% of the glass curtain wall at the time that air conditioning is not run can save 13% heating/cooling energy consumption compared with the case that 10% of the glass curtain wall is opened at the time that air conditioning is not run. 30% adjustable opening of the glass curtain wall is recommended for the studied airport terminal building. If the opening area of the glass curtain wall can not arrive at 30%, it is advised to use adjustable mechanical ventilation to assit natural ventilation and adopt the louvre on the inner wall to improve the indoor wind environment and save energy for the studied airport terminal building.