US3899960A

US3899960A - Wind-neutralizing passage

Info

Publication number: US3899960A
Application number: US468754A
Authority: US
Inventors: Paul W Howells
Original assignee: Syracuse University
Current assignee: Syracuse University; Syracuse University Research Corp
Priority date: 1974-05-10
Filing date: 1974-05-10
Publication date: 1975-08-19
Anticipated expiration: 1992-08-19

Abstract

A passage serving as an entrance or exit has spaced airfoilshaped, vertically extending louvers forming the passage sidewalls adjacent the opening to the outdoors. Wind directed toward the passage through the opening is aspirated outdoors by the louvers.

Description

United States Patent 1 Howells i 1 WlND-NEUTRALIZING PASSAGE Paul W. Howells, Morrisville, NY.

[73] Assignee: Syracuse University Research Corporation, Syracuse, NY.

[22] Filed: May 10, 1974 [2]} Appl. No.: 468,754

[75] inventor:

[52] U.S. Cl v. 98/32; 98/37; 98/l2l R; 52/204; 52/303 [5] Int. Cl F24l 13/02 [58I Field of Search 98/29, 32, 37, I10, l2l R; 52/204, 302, 303, 633

{56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 655,585 8/1900 Shantz 98/37 Aug. 19, 1975 Deyo i 52/303 Box H 98/l2l R Primary ExaminerWilliam F, O'Dea Assistant E.wm1'nerRonald C, Capossela Attorney, Agent, or FirmBruns & Jenney [57] ABSTRACT A passage serving as an entrance or exit has spaced airfoibshaped, vertically extending louvers forming the passage sidewalls adjacent the opening to the outdoorsw Wind directed toward the passage through the opening is aspirated outdoors by the louvers.

6 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures WI'ND-NEUTRALIZING PASSAGE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to Iouvered walls for diffusing air from passageways having an open end exposed to wind. More particularly. it relates to a wall structure for preventing wind from blowing into a building through an exit or entrance passage.

Heretofore where entering and exiting traffic is heavy, winds are prevented from entering a building by providing a vestibule in which the air pressure is increased by blowing large quantities of air therein. This is costly and usually results in large loss of heat in cold weather.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is proposed to construct comparatively long and narrow passageways at entrances and exits to structures where heavy traffic necessitates a substantially constant opening to outdoors thereby exposing the interior to winds blowing toward the opening. The sidewalls of the passageways comprise spaced vertically extending louvers, the louvers having an airfoil cross-sectional shape. This shape may be of the bent metal type having parallel but curved sides or may be of a more complicated airfoil shape having sides curved about difi'erent centers.

Each curved louver has a leading edge facing the out door opening and the curved sides adjacent this edge make a small angle, approaching with a line along the inner side of the passage sidewall and the sides curve thereafter toward the outdoor side of the sidewall.

The leading edge of each louver is spaced transversely of the passage from the trailing edge of the louver next adjacent to it toward the outdoor opening. The trailing edge of a first louver may be transversely opposite the leading edge of the next louver in each sidewall or the successive louvers may overlap for preventing complete free passage of air through the sidewall when the wind is blowing transversely of the passage.

The louvers may be secured at their top and bottom ends to members extending longitudinally of the passage. Intermediately of their ends the louvers may have their edges secured to longitudinally extending reinforcing members on either side of the sidewall.

It has been found that, for any given width of outdoor opening, the wind-disturbance in a passage with louvered sidewalls falls to zero at a distance of about four times the openig width away from the opening.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAINING FIG. 1 is an end view and FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of a passageway having sidewalls according to the invention;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view on the line 33 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 showing a modified form of sidewall louver; and

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatical view ofa passageway illus trating the operation of the sidewalls thereof in the wind.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 a passageway is shown having the usual roof II and floor I2, the passageway leading from a building or other structure 13, shown fragmentarily in FIG. 2, to an opening 14 to the outdoors.

The sidewalls IS of passageway 10 are comprised mainly of spaced, airfoil-shaped louvers 16 extending vertically. The cross-sectional airfoil shape of the louvers are best seen in FIG. 3 and it vn'll be understood that each louver extends from an upper longitudinally extending member 17 to which it is secured in each side wall to a similar lower member I8 to which it is also secured. Each sidewall may have a vertical end member 19, defining therebetween the opening 14, and louverreinforcing members 20 may extend along each sidewall at selected levels, as shown in FIG. 2.

The louvers 16 have parallel curved sides in that both sides are curved about the same center. They can easily be made out of flat metal stock by simple rolling and shearing techniques. Upper and

lower members

17 and 18 may also be of metal and the ends of the louvers I6 are welded thereto. Reinforcing rods 20 may also be of metal, one rod at each level being welded to each louver leading edge 21 and the other rod being welded to the trailing edges, the leading edge being the one facing opening I4, as shown in FIG. 3.

It will be noted that each louver leading edge 2] is at a substantially zero angle with the attached rod 20, the louver sides being substantially parallel with the passage axis or wall side. The curvature of the louvers is toward the outer side of the wall for deflecting wind, represented by the arrows 23, blowing in toward the opening 14 toward the outside and the curvature is gentlev This minimizes leading edge turbulence and noise.

Referring to FIG. 4, the louvers 16 are more aerodynamically shaped being thicker in part for strength and rigidity and more efficient as air-foils but more costly to manufacture.

Referring now to FIG. 5, a passageway 10 is shown having an opening 14 and louvers 16. Wind, represented by the arrows 24 blows into the opening l4. Wind, represented by the arrows 25, also is blowing past the outer sides of the passage. Wind in the opposite direction is not considered as the passage in that case is protected by the building to which it is connected, as at 13, FIG. 2.

Since the wind at 24 meets air in the passage, the pressure in the passage rises and causes air to be aspirated at the walls between the louvers, as shown by the arrows 26. According to Bemoullis theory, this air at the arrows 26 has a lower pressure than the air in the passage causing the air in the passage to be deflected toward the walls as indicated by the arrows 27.

It has been found that, as this movement of air progresses farther away from opening 14 there comes a point of zero-movement or a dead spot which is about 4 times the width of opening 14 from the opening.

The gently curved air-foil shape of the louvers is important so as to allow air at the arrows 26 to be deflected and escape without creating increased pressure as would be the case with flat louvers.

The wind-neutralizing passage described herein is peculiarly adapted for use with enclosed ways for small vehicles such as described in co-pending application Ser. No. 4IO,I65. by Paul W. Howells et al. now US. Pat. No. 3,831,526, issued Aug. 27, I974 in which the way has downhill sections where the vehicles may coast or pass under power and uphill sections where the vehicles, such as bicycles or small electrically powered vehicles, are towed uphill by electrically powered lifts. In such ways each way is unidirectional so the wind neutralizing passages need be only at the exits. At the entrances, wind directed at the entrance opening assists the progress of the vehicles and wind-neutraliyatzon is not needed. Wind blowing at an entrance assists the vehicles entering and proceeding along the wayv At an exit, the entering wind is neutralized and the following wind from any entrance is aspirated through the exit louvered walls along with the air brought by the wind directed at the exit.

It will be apparent from the above description that a wind-neutralizing passage with only one sidewall louvered as described will be effective in the same way, only less efficiently, the passage length being required to be comparatively longer with respect to the width of opening 14.

I claim:

1. In a structure having oppositely facing entrances and exits each terminating in a passage having one end permanently open to the outdoors, whereby wind blowing toward one outdoor opening is unobstructed from blowing through the structure, at least one passage being a windmeutralizing passage having at least one sidewall including a plurality of longitudinally successive vertically-extending louvers, each louver comprising an elongated narrow strip of sheet material. the successive strips being spaced longitudinally of the passage and each strip being of curved airfoil-shaped cross section. the leading edge of each louver strip facing the outdoors opening, each louver strip being curved from a portion extending substantially along the line of the inner side of the sidewall and curving away from the leading edge toward the outer side of the sidewall to a trailing edge facing away from the outdoor opening for aspiration of wind-blown air from the passage through the spaces between the louver strips.

2. The passage defined in claim 1 wherein the trailing edges of the louver strips of the sidewall are aligned along a line extending along the outer side of the sidewall, the trailing edge of each successive louver strip in the sidewall extending away from the passage Ollluutll' opening a distance at least equal to the distance of the next adjacent leading edge of the next adjacent louver strip from the outdoor opening.

3. In a structure having oppositely facing entrances and exits each terminating in a passage having one end permanently open to the outdoors, whereby wind blowing toward one outdoor opening is unobstructed from blowing through the structure. at least one passage being a wind-neutralizing passage having roof, floor, and sidewalls, each sidewall comprising a plurality of longitudinally spaced louvers extending substantially from floor to roof; each louver comprising an elongated, relatively narrow and thin strip of substantially rigid material; the successive strips being spaced longitudinally of the passage, each strip having a curved airfoil-shaped cross-sectional shape and having a leading edge facing the passage outdoor opening and a trailing edge facing away from the outdoor opening, each strip having a side surface adjacent the leading edge substantially aligned with the inner side of the sidewall and curved sides curving toward the outer side of the sidewall, the trailing edges of the strips in the louvered sidewalls being aligned along the outside of each sidewall, each successive strip of each louvered sidewall having its leading edge no farther from the passage outdoor opening than the trailing edge of the next adjacent strip toward the outdoor opening, each louvered sidewall extending a distance from the outdoor opening at least four times the width of the outdoor opening.

4. The wind-neutralizing passage in the structure defined in claim 3 wherein both sides of each strip are curved about the same center.

5. The wind-neutralizing passage in the structure defined in claim 3 wherein the sides of each strip are curved about different centers and the cross-sectional shape of the strip conforms to an aerodynamic design.

6. The wind-neutralizing passage in the structure defined in claim 3 wherein the curved surfaces of each strip intersect the line along the outside of the respective sidewall at an angle smaller than 45.

Claims

1. In a structure having oppositely facing entrances and exits each terminating in a passage having one end permanently open to the outdoors, whereby wind blowing toward one outdoor opening is unobstructed from blowing through the structure, at least one passage being a wind-neutralizing passage having at least one sidewall including a plurality of longitudinally successive vertically-extending louvers, each louver comprising an elongated narrow strip of sheet material, the successive strips being spaced longitudinally of the passage and each strip being of curved airfoil-shaped cross section, the leading edge of each louver strip facing the outdoors opening, each louver strip being curved from a portion extending substantially along the line of the inner side of the sidewall and curving away from the leading edge toward the outer side of the sidewall to a trailing edge facing away from the outdoor opening for aspiration of wind-blown air from the passage through the spaces between the louver strips.

2. The passage defined in claim 1 wherein the trailing edges of the louver strips of the sidewall are aligned along a line extending along the outer side of the sidewall, the trailing edge of each successive louver strip in the sidewall extending away from the passage outdoor opening a distance at least equal to the distance of the next adjacent leading edge of the next adjacent louver strip from the outdoor opening.

3. In a structure having oppositely facing entrances and exits each terminating in a passage having one end permanently open to the outdoors, whereby wind blowing toward one outdoor opening is unobstructed from blowing through the structure, at least one passage being a wind-neutralizing passage having roof, floor, and sidewalls, each sidewall comprising a plurality of longitudinally spaced louvers extending substantially from floor to roof; each louver comprising an elongated, relatively narrow and thin strip of substantially rigid material; the successive strips being spaced longitudinally of the passage, each strip having a curved airfoil-shaped cross-sectional shape and having a leading edge facing the passage outdoor opening and a trailing edge facing away from the outdoor opening, each strip having a side surface adjacent the leading edge substantially aligned with the inner side of the sidewall and curved sides curving toward the outer side of the sidewall, the trailing edges of the strips in the louvered sidewalls being aligned along the outside of each sidewall, each successive strip of each louvered sidewall having its leading edge no farther from the passage outdoor opening than the trailing edge of the next adjacent strip toward the outdoor opening, each louvered sidewall extending a distance from the outdoor opening at least four times the width of the outdoor opening.

6. The wind-neutralizing passage in the structure defined in claim 3 wherein the curved surfaces of each strip intersect the line along the outside of the respective sidewall at an angle smaller than 45*.