Balcony design and surrounding constructions effects on natural ventilation performance and thermal comfort using CFD simulation: a case study

Despite natural light, near-facade structures' impact on Natural Ventilation (NV) performance, reducing cooling demand, is usually ignored by designers. This article aims to characterize interactions between balconies' design features (i.e. depth, unit level, and wind incident) and near-facade buildings on single-sided NV performance in a case study, representing medium to high-rise apartments in dominant cooling climates, utilizing validated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. Results show that nearby buildings, even small structures close to the facade, significantly impact windward flow regime and indoor air movements. Nearby blocks might result in less air entering, which could be moderated by designing deeper balconies. Perpendicular wind incidents to the balcony opening may enormously improve single-sided NV performance. In contrast, wind incidents within higher degrees from perpendicular strongly reduce NV performance. This study provides designers with a method to characterize balcony design features' effects on NV performance in apartments and improve it concerning urban design.