Enhancing thermal comfort and natural ventilation in residential buildings: A design and assessment of an integrated system with horizontal windcatcher and evaporative cooling channels

In this study, researchers investigated the efficacy of natural cooling in a residential building employing a horizontal windcatcher alongside a direct evaporative cooling system featuring a cross-flow pattern. ANSYS Fluent was used to model the three-dimensional airflow, while MATLAB measured the system's thermal performance. The study assessed thermal comfort and natural ventilation in accordance with the Adaptive Thermal Comfort Standard (ATCS) and ISO/EN7730 Standard. The impact of environmental conditions and window aperture on the hybrid system's functionality was scrutinized, culminating in design guidelines dictating the acceptable range of window openings to ensure compliance with thermal comfort conditions. The passive system demonstrated the capability to maintain thermal comfort within the test building under a maximum cooling load of 12,000 W (ATCS) and 6000 W (ISO/EN7730). Moreover, the natural cooling system decreased hourly electricity consumption during hot seasons in Tehran, Iran, by 0.0155 (kW/m2) compared to split air conditioners and 0.00087 (kW/m2) compared to evaporative coolers. The study also investigated the influence of neighboring buildings positioned at specific distances relative to the test building on the system's performance. Furthermore, adopting the suggested horizontal windcatcher instead of conventional vertical windcatchers resulted in a 50 % reduction in energy consumption. [Display omitted] •A novel system for natural ventilation and cooling of residential buildings is presented.•A design guideline determining the allowable windows opening range is proposed.•Thermal comfort is obtained for a maximum of 12,000 W cooling load in the test building.•The system can decrease hourly electric energy consumption by about 0.0155 kW h/m2.