Applications of a simplified model for predicting air flows in multizone structures.

A simplified pocket calculator model has been developed which can simulate the air flow distribution in multizone structures. The model is based on lumped parameters and includes several assumptions to simplify the description of air flow due to wind and stack effect and their superimposition. This paper gives a brief overview of the model and describes several applications. Results obtained from a mainframe based research tool. The examples show that the simplified method can be used to predict air mass flows within reasonable accuracy for different types of buildings. We are able to calculate air flows due to wind or stack effect within a few percent difference from results calculated with a detailed model. We might expect larger differences when superimposing flows caused by different effects.