Wind-environment-performance-oriented design of exterior entrance forms for commercial buildings in cold regions

Air infiltration through building entrances significantly affects the energy consumption and occupant comfort of commercial buildings. To improve the resistance of entrances to air infiltration, this study identifies and evaluates four typical entrance exterior entrance forms of commercial buildings in cold regions. With utilizing the FLUENT platform, multi-directional wind simulations are conducted to assess the performance of these entrance types. A novel metric, “comprehensive velocity”, is introduced to quantify and compare their effectiveness under different wind conditions. Results show that under windward conditions, a concave entrance is more effective than a flat entrance, whereas under leeward conditions, a semi-convex-near entrance is preferable to a semi-convex-far entrance. When the dominant wind directions are 90°, 180° and 270°, any entrance form may be selected; however, under variable wind directions, the concave entrance demonstrates the best performance, with the flat entrance performing the worst. Based on these findings, this study proposes optimization strategies and improvement methods for the exterior design of entrances to enhance their performance under diverse wind conditions.