Evaluation of Wind Power Application for Natural Ventilation in Cities of Fars Province

Air ventilation to provide human comfort with the use of fossil fuels in addition to its cost has caused air pollution and climate change. This paper tries to evaluate natural ventilation using wind power, which has a long history in Iranian architecture, by investigating the temperature characteristics, wind speed and direction, and the location of cities in relation to their surrounding topography in Fars Province. The study of speed and direction of prevailing wind and the position of the cities in relation to the topography creates the possibility to use the air in these regions for natural ventilation by designing the buildings and their components specifically for natural ventilation in the direction of the highest mountainous areas and other micro-climate factors. The gradient of minimum and maximum temperature in warm seasons (spring and summer) show they are increasing from northeast to southwest over the province. It seems that, except for Shiraz Station, there is no coordination between the prevailing wind direction and the location of high mountainous areas. However, the appropriate direction of structures can be utilized to make use of ventilation when outside temperature is at its minimum and the adverse directions can be sued for tackling dust, hot wind or other environment hazards.