Single-sided ventilated apartments have always been assumed to be inefficient in term of utilising natural ventilation in comparison to cross ventilated apartments. However, the ventilation performance of ‘single-sided’ apartments can be improved to achieve acceptable indoor air flow by adopting appropriate façade relief, for example, through incorporation of wing walls and balconies. Wing walls have been shown to be capable of improving indoor air flow for single-sided ventilated space, however, there is no specific study to investigate the relationship between balcony and indoor airflow for single sided ventilated apartments. The objective of the study is to investigate the impact of balcony configurations on the single-sided ventilated apartment. The method used is a numerical study using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technique. Based on the CFD simulations, comparisons are made of the indoor airflow impacts in single sided apartment resulting from incorporation of various façade relief elements normally associated with a balcony. The investigation suggests that the incorporation of typical balconies can significantly improve indoor air flow in single-sided naturally ventilated apartments.

Keywords: Balcony, Single-sided Natural Ventilation.