Control of natural ventilation for aerodynamic high-rise buildings

The aim of the paper is to present a framework for the optimal control of natural ventilation. To account for the significant crossflow between zones, the notion of ASHRAE-equivalent airflow is proposed which is used to evaluate the quality of ventilation provided to different zones within a building. A model-based predictive control approach is developed which is used to simulate different ventilation strategies and select the most appropriate strategy. To this end, the rationale behind choosing an objective function that captures the goals of a ventilation system is described, and candidate objective functions are discussed. Finally, an illustrative example with an elliptical cross-section building is discussed in detail. The framework for model-predictive control developed in this paper is applicable beyond natural ventilation and high-rise buildings.