Thermal Comfort Analysis in Naturally-Ventilated Handball Arena Utilizing CFD Techniques

This work investigates the feasibility and thermal comfort of using natural ventilation in order to achieve thermal comfort in a handball arena with realistic dimensions and a full occupation of 4300 persons in the Gulf area. The work numerically simulates the temperature and velocity fields inside the full arena using computational fluid dynamics techniques at different internal loads, prevailing wind speeds, prevailing wind temperatures and prevailing wind angles. The work generates certain air opening configuration to be used for natural ventilation and the results show that natural ventilation is feasible if the following conditions are met simultaneously: the occupation density is 25% or less, sitting in the prevailing wind side, the lighting load does not exceed 50% of its full capacity, the prevailing wind temperature does not exceed 30 °C and the prevailing wind velocity is in range 3-4 m/s, where the upper limit arises from the requirement to avoid high velocities in the playing area. These conditions can be met during the training time and during parts of the day and over parts of the year hours making this method conditionally feasible.