CFD analysis of natural ventilation in large semi-enclosed buildings - case study: Amsterdam ArenA football stadium

Large modern sports stadia are often multifunctional buildings that are not only used for sports purposes but also for other events such as concerts, conferences and festivities. Some of the stadia that have been built in recent years in north-western Europe are equipped with a semi-transparent roof that can be opened and closed, depending on the weather conditions and on the type of event. Whereas the roof is often open for sports events, it is often closed for concerts, conferences and festivities. This allows sheltering the indoor stadium environment from wind, rain and snow. A matter of concern related to such facilities is the natural ventilation, since HVAC systems are often not incorporated. This paper presents a numerical (CFD) and an experimental analysis of natural ventilation in a large semi-indoor multifunctional stadium in the Netherlands. CFD validation is performed based on full-scale wind speed measurements. Different alternative ventilation configurations are studied, including widening the existing openings and adding new openings at a few positions. It is shown that adding small openings near roof-height can increase the natural ventilation rate by up to 43%. A particular feature of this study is the coupled simulation of the wind flow in the urban environment around the stadium and the air flow inside the stadium on a high-resolution grid.