Study of infiltration through sliding windows with respect to closing mechanisms and their locations in a building during winter season

Infiltration through windows accounts for a significant heat loss in buildings during winter, leading to the need to minimize uncontrolled air flow. Improvement of window air tightness is important for reducing heat loss by infiltration through windows. In this study, infiltration is measured for general sliding (GS), parallel sliding tilt (PST) and lift sliding (LS) windows according to ASTM E283, a standard for window infiltration measurement. Measured window infiltration data, pressure coefficients calculated with STAR-CCM+ and outdoor weather data of Seoul are used in CONTAM, a network based ventilation simulation program to estimate infiltration during winter season for three sliding window types and their locations in a building. The results show that infiltration is highest for east located general sliding type window, and lowest for west located parallel sliding tilt window. Monthly analysis shows that for an east located window, infiltration is highest during January and lowest during December.