Dynamical and Thermal Modelling of PDEC: using traditional

chimney in Moura and new dwelling in Castelo Branco as case

studies

Ana Cláudia Martins de Melo

Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

ABSTRACT: The present paper is a study on the importance of thermal and dynamic simula-
tion of Passive Downdraught Evaporative Cooling (PDEC) towers once applied to both new
dwellings and refurbishments in hot-dry areas. The first step was an experiment using PDEC in
a hot-dry area in Alentejo where a PDEC shower system was introduced and tested on an exist -
ing brick chimney traditionally used for summer ventilation through “chimney” effect. The next
step was to validate the collected data with mathematical, thermal and Computer Fluid Dynam-
ics (CFD) models. Finally the results helped dimensioning a PDEC tower for a private house in
Castelo-Branco where this evaporative cooling system was applied in a complex volumetric
room. In this case a tridimensional CFD was used to ensure a good particle routine inside the
whole room thus revealling efficiency of PDEC maintaining thermal comfort conditions in-
doors.

1 INTRODUCTION

PDEC originates from the vernacular architecture of the middle-east [1] and is still a common
cooling device in hot-arid regions worldwide. It is a low cost and passive/low energy consump -
tion cooling system that can improve thermal comfort and reduce CO2 emissions [2].
The device consists of single or multiple towers equipped with a water/vapour supply placed
on the top. During the constant injection of water, droplets descend through the tower and con -
ditions close to saturation persist throughout its length. Cool air descends the tower and exits at
its base where it is delivered to the adjacent spaces..
The concept is based on the relatively large amount of energy required to convert water from
its liquid form to its gaseous form within a local thermal imbalance with subsequence differ -
ences in air density. This leads to the movement of air from a zone of high pressure, where air is
hot and less dense (top of the tower) to a zone of lower pressure, where air is colder and denser
(bottom of the tower).
When the system uses only passive means, and the local thermal imbalance is caused by “free
convection”, it is considered passive downdraught. The movement of air inside an evaporative
cool tower may occur as a result of a “forced convection”, produced when air is deflected by a
solid object or driven by mechanical means such as an electric fan. The system is no longer
passive.
Since PDEC is a natural and ventilated system is important to ensure that air flow rates are
vertically and horizontally balanced to ensure uniform suppplies of fresh and thermally treated
air. This is specially important to verify humidity stratification and local air movement to reduce
risk of Legionella, condensation and microbiological growth in stagnant zones that can lead to
fabric deterioration and air contamination. It is also important to prevent from high rates of exit
air speed that occur as the result of draughts produced when water downdraught is activated.
The best way to solve the Navier-Strokes (N-S) problem of conservation of energy, move-
ment and mass of the fluid is using a computacional program, such as a CFD. Today there are
few programs that allow a PDEC simulation because there is the need to recognize top-down
airflows and driven forces. PDEC is often described as a “reverse chimney” because the column
of cool air falls. STAR-CCM+ is a CFD program that analyses particle routine of the water and
air inside the PDEC tower and adjacent room in a tridimensional way. A bidimensional CFD
program can also be used altough it does not reproduce the interior environment in such an ac-
curate way.
In order to evaluate thermal and dynamical modelling of PDEC two case studies were used to
nalyse cooling and air routine efficiency of PDEC in two hot-arid regions of Portugal: in Moura
(38º13N:07º13W), a PDEC shower system was introduced on an existing traditional chimney
adjacent to a regular room with a dense occupancy. In Castelo-Branco (39º43’N:07º15’W), a
PDEC system was proposed as a cooling device in a private house with complex geometry and
architectural form but low internal gains.
On the first case measurements and collected data were first validated through Givoni’s math-
ematical model [3] and tested conditions were reproduced on a thermal and a CFD model. On
the second case, a thermal model helped defining thermal performance of the building thus help-
ing dimensioning PDEC with Givoni´s and Perlmutter et al [4] mathematical models and definig
envelope conditions. Such conditions were inputed in a CFD model to evaluate cool air move-
ment within the room. In both cases internal conditions were reproduced according to an occu-
pancy pattern (number of users of the space/building, heat gains from people, machinery, etc)
and physical properties of the construction (envelope, heat losses from envelope, etc). More in-
vestigation on case study 2 will include a CFD simulation of downdraught evaporative cooling
effect inside the tower.
Results led the author to argue about the importance of PDEC as a cooling and ventilation
system in buildings that should be protected from such an extreme natural evironment.

2 CASE STUDY 1 – MOURA´S TRADITIONAL CHIMNEY

The chimney object of the case study is located on the first floor of
ATENEU MOURENSE, a small cultural centre in Moura.
It has a cylinder shape measuring 4,8 m in height (measured from the
floor of the room) and 0,9 m in diameter. It is located on the first floor
adjacent to a room with approximately 19 m 2 floor area and 63 m3 of
volume. The room has tree old wooden doors (two interior and one ex-
terior), and one north-facing window with single glazing and alumin-
um frame. Internal and external walls are 60 cm thick, made from
adobe and finished with lime. The chimney walls are in adobe 0,30 m
thick. On the upper limit there are a few openings. There is no lime
rendering on it. The chimney is adjacent to a fireplace that has its own smoke conduct. This con-
firms its use as a ventilation tower producing coolness by stack effect.

2.1 PDEC inertial shower

FIELD REPORT

A single shower was placed 4,5 m high above floor plan, with coarse water. The water
was provided from an existing tap on the exterior that could be easily controllable. The water
flow rate was 10,5 l/min.
Water did not circulate continuously in order to
1–exterior warm air avoid flood problems and the shower operated for
replacement 2-inertial
shower 3-lower exit air only a few minutes. Testing conditions were not
temperature from ideal, especially due to the use of coarse instead of
downdraught cooling 4- fine spray.
infiltration/leakage due to
opening gaps
Figure 1 – Plant and Section of the
chimney and adjacent room

0 0,5 1 2m
 0 0,5 1 2m

0,33 0,9

2.2 Measurements

0 0,5 1 2m

The measurements took place in the 6th of August, every hour, between 11:30 and 15:30.
The room´s exterior and interior atmospheric conditions are registered on row 1 and 2 of Table
Measured Parameters / time (hour) 11:30 12:30 13:30 14:30 15:30 1. The drop of temperature and relative hu-
1 Exterior conditions
midity registered at 12:30, is due to a breeze.
1.1 Air Flow Velocity (m/s) 0,15 0,3 0,2 0,15 0,15
1.2 Dry Bulb Temperature (ºC) 40 37,1 42,3 41,8 40,7 Results show that after the shower system
1.3 Relative Humidity (%) 19,7 23,4 14,2 15,5 17,2 was activated, both exit air temperature and
2 Room conditions before evaporative cooling shower
2.1 Air Flow Velocity (m/s) 0,2 0,15 0,15 0,2 0,2
RH were not stable on the measured
2.2 Chimney Temperature (ºC) 31,2 28 31,5 32,3 33,6 periods . Temperature ranged from 22 oC to
2.3 Chimney Relative Humidity (%) 46,7 53,6 43,7 39,8 34,8
2.4 Room Temperature (ºC) 28,8 27,9 30,4 30,8 32,6 26.6.oC and RH from 62 % to 95.5 %.
2.5 Room Relative Humidity (%) 48,5 50,3 42,2 39,6 31,9
3 Room conditions after evaporative cooling shower
To validate the experiments measured
3.1 Air Flow Velocity (m/s) 0,5 0,6 0,6 0,6 0,5 values, the outdoors climatic data and chim-
3.2 Chimney Temperature (ºC) 26,5 25,5 22,0 26,6 23,4 ney physical properties were first tested
3.3 Chimney Relative Humidity (%) 62 79,7 95,5 74 94,2
3.4 Room Temperature (ºC) 26,6 25,3 22,2 25,2 23,7
3.5 Room Relative Humidity (%) 56,6 75 Table
91,7 78,6 92 1-Collected data
on Givoni´s inertial shower mathematical
model [3]. Values obtained are very similar with the ones measured, except for those registered
at 13:30. The differential is more than 4oC, when the remaining is approximately 0.5oC .

2.3 Modelling

2.3.1Thermal Model

TAS 8.4 was used to create a thermal model with an envelope similar to Moura´s chimney
and adjacent room. It was tested according to the weather profile of the experimental day with
input data from 4 people.
The program does not include Moura´s weather
data, so a place with similar climatic conditions was
used: Phoenix, Arizona, USA because of its hot dry cli-
mate and similar latitude(33º26N:112º01E). Also, the
test day was not the 6 th of August but 29th of July, more
similar to the climate parameters measured on the ex-
periment day. Output data was similar to those verified
on the field report.

Figure 2 – Section (not on scale) and output data from TAS model
 2.3.2 CFD Model

AMBIENS is a CFD two dimensional Cartesian grid system, in which a transversal “slice”
1m tick including exit air from chimney, was modelled. The grid represents the computational
cells that will be the basis of the simulation. Building elements were not placed reproducing
reality thus maximizing output information to better understand indoors thermal comfort. There-
fore window and outlets (corresponding to doors gaps) are placed in the same plan, although
this does not happen in any 1m slice.
Features represented are:
a) one window b) one cooling source (air inlet) c) two door gaps (air inlet and air outlet)
Please note that inlet air volume should equal outlet air volume.
Definitions of modelling included:
a) each pixel is equivalent to 0.1m height or width and 0.1m 2 area b)4 pixels for each
opening, equivalent to 0.41m2 assuming 2.5m2 in reality
Input data for modelling included:
a) 63m3 of room volume b) 2 ACH of infiltration, equivalent to 0.035m3/s of Airflow Rate
in the whole room, therefore 5.83 x 10 -3m 3/s in the “slice” c) air speed of 1 pixel equivalent to
0.0075m/s at 0.6m/s or 8 pixels at 0.3m/s i.e., “slice” volume divided by area of each pixel d)
0.6m/s definition of exit air speed, either 4 pixels
Temperature surface (obtained from TAS model) included:
roof - 34o; floor - 31oC; walls - 32oC ; window - 40oC

Figure 3–Relative Hu-

70% 80% 90% 100%
midity Figure
4–Air Temperature Figure 5 – Air Speed

2.3.3 Results

According to AMBIENS model, there is an excessive production of humidity inside the

chimney (between 90% - 100%) than can lead to mold growth, Legionella and fabric corrosion
inside chimney. Junctions of chimney walls and ground are especially affected and water
particles that did not fully evaporate before reaching the ground can warmer situation on the
bottom PDEC tower. Air beside a window has a higher RH than the rest of the room, excluding
the chimney since its surface has a higher temperature. (Figure 4). Here risk of condensation is
higher. However, air is distributed in a very satisfactory way within the room, and door gaps are
important to help extract “old” air.
Exit air openings can play an important role defining water flow rate. Results also show that
even though thermal comfort benefits from reducing on exit air speed, increase of temperature
penalizes it. By reducing the water flow rate by 2.5l/min, exit air temperature will increase 1 oC.
Regarding ventilation supply, the system is efficient since 25 people require approximately 13
ACH (assuming 8l.person.second), and the system can supply 38 ACH.
 3 CASE STUDY 2 – CASTELO BRANCO PRIVATE HOUSE

This building is located in a rural area of Caste-

lo-Branco. It includes a private house and ateliers for
sculputure and peinture. PDEC is part of an holistic
environmental strategy for hot and dry periods that in-
cludes proper shading, a well insulated envelope and
high thermal mass on the walls. Ground works as a
temperature stabilizer therefore there is no insolation
or slab on it.

Figure 6 – Aerial view of the building

The object of this study is the living room located on

the southwest part of the building. It has a sitting romm 4.4 m heigh, a dinning room and kitchen
2.4 m heigh and a corredor 4.4 m heigh that ends on stairs and a door and links to the rest of the
dwelling. It has a zenital window on it.

Floor Area 90 m2 Volume – 311 m3

Figure 7 – Scheme of ground floor and upper floor of the living room

3.1 Thermal Model

First thermal performance of the build-

ing was tested on RCCTE whose results
led to an estimation of energy con-
sumption of 11.46 Kwh/m2.year.
Ecotect was used to create a thermal
model to obtain thermal performance of
the room on an extreme hot-dry condi-
tion. Since there was no valid metere-
ological data for Castelo Branco it was
used Cáceres (39º5N:06º5W) with
similar latitude. Test day was 21st of
August, an extreme hot-dry day.It was
assumed 4 occupants.
Figure 8 – Ecotect thermal model
Input data includes:
a) u - value external walls 0.43 W/m2ºC b) u-value floor 0.79 W/m2ºC c) u-
value roof 0.27 W/m2ºC d) u-value windows 2.7 W/m2º e) 5 and 7 w/m2 sens-
ible and latent heat gains
 3.2 Dimensioning PDEC tower

Table 2 – Input parameters for dimensioning PDEC

Minimum diameter of chimney 0,8 m Height of shower 6 m

Minimum area of chimney 0,5 m2 Water flow rate 6,66667 l/min
Velocity of air flow 0,5 m/s Exit opening 1 m2
Outdoor temp 42 degC Air flow rate 1800 m3/hr
Desired exit temp 25,36 degC Volume of room 311,5 m3
outdoor wetbulb temp 23 deg C ACH 5,77849
Indoor max RH% 70 %Rh Water consumption

Abs Hum ambient air temp t 10 g/Kg Energy consumption per year 1035 kwh
Abs hum max at that temp 18 g/Kg Money savings per year €

Expected wet bulb depression 13,3 degC Water Consumption l/min

Water Consumption (13 h) m3/day
Delivered power in ambient conditions 3,765216 kW Water Consumption (7 h) m3/day

Further developments of PDEC in Castelo Branco should detail design of the tower. It should
include a recycling water system from domestic sources since in PDEC all types of water can be
used .
In a first stage and taking in account energy consumption from RCCTE [5] and Ecotect it was
assumed an aluminium frame cilindrical inertial shower PDEC tower according with parameters
from Table 2. A pond needs to be placed at the bottom to collect non evaporated water particles.

3.3 CFD Model

3.3.1 Validation

STAR-CCM+ was first subject to a verification exercise whereby a heated cavity flow was sim-
ulated. Experimental measurements were taken from Cheeswright R, King KJ, Zini S [6] who
took a cavity with a 5:1 aspect ratio and a temperature difference between the longer vertical
sides of 45.8 º. The top and the bottom of the cavity were assumed to no-slip adiabatic walls.
The other sides are set to a simetry condition.

3.3.2 STAR-CCM + Model

Radiant temperature from building envelope was necessary to build STAR-CCM+ model and
this values where obtained from ECOTEC. It was assumed always the same temperature for
each building element since variations ac-
cording to solar orientation were negli-
gible. Therefore glazing - 30ºC; walls-
27.5 ºC , roof 29ºC . It was assumed floor
was adiabatic since it uses earth as a tem-
perature stabilizer.
It was used 42ºC as a standard outdoor
temperature and it was assumed that all
the top windows would be 30% open, ex-
cept UW1 and ZW1 window, that would
be tottaly open. UW4 was disregarded.

Air Flow [7] on each window (Figure 7)

UW1 – 0.08 m3/s UW2 – 0.05 m3/s UW3
– 0.25 m3/s
Figure 9 – STAR CCM+ model
Figure 10 (clockwise) – Temperature, Relative Humidity, Air Speed, Air Speed

The model included a mesh with 123280 cells and 655088 interior
faces. The working fluid was air, taken as an ideal gas. The Reynolds-
averaged form of the Navier-Stokes equations was solved with the
Realizable K-Epsilon turbulence model implemented in STAR-
CCM+. Buoyancy was considered via the inclusion of an additional
acceleration term in the momentum equations, something which is
already an option in STAR-CCM+. Relative humidity was simulated
as a passive scalar, to insure conservation and efficiency reasons. A
second-order accurate discretization scheme was employed on all
convective terms.

3.3.3. Results

Regarding STAR CCM+ results, a clear stratification of the indoor air happens on account of
the window openings. Due to the PDEC a good mixture of the lower layer is also achieved, as
can be seen in the streamline plots. Please note that the streamlines in the air coming from the
windows is colored red to better show the layering. Altough this air does not mix with fresh air
from PDEC it act as a “buffer” (with lower RH and higher T) helping maintaining stable and
comfortable conditions (26ºC T and 70% RH) on the thermal comfort zone. This “buffer” also
protects roof from excessive production of RH thus fabric detioration due to condensation, cor-
rosion and microbiological growth. Zenital window is important to extract “old” air. Here air
velocity is high (0.8 m/s) but this phenomena occurs above thermal comfort zone. This is due to
its placement on a “corner” of diferent walls with different heights that act as obstacles. Also air
in contact with higher temperature increses its velocity. Results sugest zenital window should
be placed on the end of the stairs corredor to minimize air turbulence. This kind of turbulence
occurs in all the room but with air velocities much slower (0.08 m/s – 0.2 m/s) than the maxim-
um recommend (0.5 m/s) [8].
Results also show that exit air from PDEC has a high speed. Therefore pavement and walls sor-
rounding tower and pond need to be impermeable and protected from water droplets that may
not evaporate before reaching the ground.

4 DISCUSSION

In both studies simulation led to argue about PDEC advantages and disadvanatges helping
making some decisions about tower design. Simulation proved that PDEC provides appropriate
rates of coolled and ventilated air at the bottom of the rooms where it can be mixed with ambi-
ent air within the thermal confort zone. Efficiency of PDEC depends on the replacement air
cycle since it deals with high rates of humidity and indoor environment can easily get saturated,
i.e., air can not hold more moisture. Therefore an exaust (like an uper window or an electric fan)
should always be placed opposite to PDEC tower to extract “old” air thus renewing the air and
creating a replacement cycle. Also placement of an microbial bio film on all tower surfaces in
contact with water is essential , since these films can consume certain inhibitors and prevent ac-
cess of inhibitors;
Neverthless in such an extreme environment (hot-dry) PDEC seems an excellent way to nat-
ural ventilate a room. As an example, cross ventilation is not recommended since opening a
window would induce warm exit air and increase interior air temperature. No ventilation at all
should be avoided since internal environment becomes stagnant and no renewall of air causes
thermal discomfort.
Also in PDEC natural replacement air is introduced at a high heigh where air is cleaner than
in at the pedestrian level thus minimizing introduction of dust and other particles. Please note
that the tower can be used as well as for night cooling through chimney or Venturi effect without
PDEC activation.
However PDEC is a specific technique can help reducing the impact of global warming thus
providing thermal comfort in building and occupants. In 2004 the annual temperature of Por-
tugal increased 0.6 ºC[ 9] and recent studies predict that the dry condition will affect 1/3 of
the Portuguese territory [ 10] .

5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author is gratefull to Nelson Marques, MechEng, PhD, from blueCAPE, for his
support concerning STAR CCM+ modelling.

6 REFERENCES

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to Hot Arid Climates , UNU, 1986
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Prediction of Two-Dimensional Buoyant Cavity Flllows” in ASME Winter Annual Meeting Ana-
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7. Q = A Cd (2 ΔT H g) / (273 + T)
 where Q= air flow rate (m3/s); A (m2)= area of the window; Cd = 0.61; ΔT (ºC)= 12; H (m) =
height of window mesured from its center ; g (m/s)= 9.81; T(º)= 42
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London, 1999ASHRAE STANDARD - ASHRAE Guideline12-2000, Minimizing the Risk of Le-
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Refrigerating, and Airconditioning Engineers, Inc.
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Joanna I. House , Susanna Kankaanpää , Richard J. T. Klein , Sandra Lavorel , Marcus
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Mark Rounsevell , Santi Sabaté , Stephen Sitch , Ben Smith , Jo Smith , Pete Smith , Martin
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