Transparent Elemental Facade with an Integrated Ventilation Unit for a High-Rise Building – Development and Experimental Verification

The article documents the development of a modular transparent elemental facade. The cooperative development was realized in two areas, i.e., the development of facade ventilation units for an under-pressure ventilation system and experimental verification in a laboratory of a facade panel and optimization of its acoustic parameters. The task of controlled ventilation in modern residential buildings is to ensure the optimum quality of the interior environment and fulfill hygienic and thermal technical requirements that guarantee the comfort of the users. The paper discusses the development and experimental verification of atypical vertical ventilation units of an under-pressure controlled ventilation system for a residential high-rise building. A recommended concept for the facade´s details has been developed in relation to the ventilation system. Conceptual designs of alternatives to the air inlet openings of an under-pressure controlled ventilation system for the apartments with an atypical vertical geometry were proposed. An optimized alternative to air inlet openings in the bottom level of a vertical pilaster with the function of an air distribution channel for a ventilation system has been selected and developed. Laboratory experiments have verified the physical properties of the optimized alternative ventilation units of the under-pressure controlled ventilation system in their development cycle. The hydrodynamic regime of the air inlet openings of the controlled ventilation system has been verified by experimental research in a laboratory large rain chamber. The aerodynamic regime of a naturally controlled ventilation system was verified by experimental research in a large laboratory pressure chamber. The acoustic properties of the naturally controlled ventilation system were verified by experimental research in a laboratory´s acoustic chambers. The verified parameters of the ventilation units of the under-pressure controlled ventilation obtained by the experiment were compared with the design parameters. An experimental assessment of the mechanical, thermal and acoustical parameters of the elemental modular facade was carried out in a laboratory. At the end of the article, the results and conclusions of the laboratory experiment are summarized.