Performance Analysis of Wind Tower in enhancing indoor and outdoor thermal comfort in Oman

In recent years, natural ventilation has proven to be very effective as an energy saving measure for buildings. There are two fundamental principles of natural ventilation: natural draft by temperature differences, and wind force. An example of utilizing natural ventilation can be found in Omani vernacular architecture in form of Wind Towers or Wind Catchers, which can be seen in the Coastal region buildings of the country. It used to be considered the most important strategy for achieving indoor and outdoor human comfort in hot regions. However, they were replaced by air conditioning systems, which are responsible for more than half of the total energy consumption in the building sector. The purpose of the research is to analyse the existing wind catchers in Omani vernacular architecture and examine their proportions in order to define efficient wind catching geometries. These geometries would then be used as a guide for the design of a modern wind catcher that can easily be adapted by current architecture and thus contribute in energy use reduction. In addition to that, it is proposed in this research to build a full scale wind tower in an outdoor space of Sultan Qaboos University in order to monitor its contribution in enhancing outdoor thermal comfort level throughout the year.