Urban development is accompanied by large-scale construction of
midrise and high-rise projects. Along with this is the need to power these
buildings, most often through mechanical means. Consequently, the building
and construction industry are accountable for 36% of the global energy
consumption and 40% of CO2 emissions.
This study aims to address this issue through exploring the application
of a biomimetic approach to building ventilation. The concept of biomimicry
has come from the concept that nature has confronted similar problems
faced by the human society, and it has created sustainable solutions that
have been filtered through millions of years of evolution. The main objective
of the study is to analyze the efficiency of a natural ventilation system design
inspired from the solar-powered African termite mounds (ATM) for varied
building configurations using a computer simulation software (IES VE 2019).
The simulation results of the study show that air movement in the
ATM-inspired natural ventilation system design did not coincide with the
expected results following the solar heat-driven ventilation mechanism in
termite mounds. The results of the CFD simulation for interior wind velocity
show that there are slower wind velocities in the ATM-inspired simulation
models compared to the conventional model, from 0 to 0.55 mLs and greater
than 1.2 mLs in some areas. The operative temperature in the interior
hallways of the ATM-inspired design models are significantly lower than
those in the conventional model.
From the data gathered, it can be concluded that the diurnal thermal
cycles of air flow in African termite mound do not occur similarly in midrise
and high-rise buildings incorporated with ventilation system inspired from
African termite mounds. Although interior wind velocity is greater in the
conventional models for all building footprints, the ATM-inspired natural
ventilation system design resulted to lower temperatures in the interior
hallways of the building with no exterior openings.