CFD investigation of the effect of building passive design strategy on energy efficiency and wind comfort in extreme weather conditions in Astana, Kazakhstan

There is a distinct lack of building design literature specific to the Central Asian region. This perhaps, could be one of reasons for the only slight improvement of new building designs and construction. One does observe the highly glazed buildings are a particularly popular feature here in Astana, as like anywhere else in the world. However, excessively glazed surfaces combined with the weather extremes leads to adverse internal conditions and skyrocketing energy bills. The work presented in this paper is a part of continuing efforts to identify analyze and promote the design of 'low energy, green and sustainable buildings with special reference to the Kazakhstan locality. In the present context, low energy buildings' refers to buildings inherently low energy consuming by careful passive design, utilizing intelligent building technologies to automate building services and minimize wastage of energy and by incorporation of renewable technologies for its energy supply. Demonstration of improved environmental conditions and impact on energy savings will be outlined through a cause study incorporating application of passive design approach and detailed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis for an existing building complex. The results indicated that there is a considerable influence of passive design and orientation on energy efficiency, wind comfort and safety.