The airflow around and inside high-rise residential buildings in Hong Kong

The airflow around and inside high-rise residential buildings in Hong Kong has been studied, with focus put on four major aspects: pedestrian wind environment, air-conditioner heat rejection, natural ventilation, and indoor air movement. The pedestrian wind studies showed that CFD simulation is an appropriate and effective method essential to designs of estate layouts to avoid excessive wind amplification and stagnant regions. The heat rejection studies showed that the dimension of recessed spaces should be checked taking account of the positions of window-type air conditioners and the amount of the rejected heat to avoid energy wastage and cooling capacity loss. Methods have been proposed to mitigate the problem. The natural ventilation studies assessed availability of natural ventilation in a typical building design. The indoor air movement studies looked into the impacts of the installed location of a window-type air conditioner on the indoor air movement pattern and thermal comfort of occupants.