Case Study

Indoor and Built

Environment

Indoor Built Environ 2007;16;5:472481

Accepted: July 11, 2007

A Method for Calculating

a Ventilation Bypass Factor
Zhe Liu

Bin Zhao

Xudong Yang

Department of Building Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing, PR China

Key Words
Bypass factor E Particle tracking E CFD E Ventilation
effectiveness

Abstract
The ventilation bypass factor (marked as S) is a simple
and straightforward indicator describing the fraction
of the supply air that bypasses the occupied zone of
a ventilated room. Except for some special circumstances, this factor is very difficult to estimate
quantitatively. In this article, a method for calculating
S by computational fluid dynamics tools is proposed.
Fine particles with small inertia that can be regarded
as moving integrally with air are released at the air
supply inlet to represent the air path lines. S is
calculated by stating the trajectories of the particles
that enters/bypasses the occupied zone. A ventilation
situation is modelled numerically to demonstrate
the detailed procedure of the method. This new
method makes it possible to estimate quantitatively
the ventilation bypass factor and use it as a guide for
ventilation design.

Introduction
Indoor air quality (IAQ) problems pose one of the
most serious environmental risks world-wide today.
However, these are not problems without a solution.
Improvement of the air quality in a room, or other indoor
SAGE Publications 2007
Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore
DOI: 10.1177/1420326X07082793
Accessible online at http://ibe.sagepub.com
Figure 11 appears in colour online.

space, can be achieved by either contaminant source

control or effective ventilation. An effective way of
improving IAQ is to completely eliminate contaminant
sources. However, since buildings may contain many
synthetic materials and furnishings that emit a wide
variety of pollutants including a range of volatile organic
compounds [1], it would be difficult to remove all the
contaminants by controlling source emissions. Therefore,
providing effective ventilation becomes the surer way of
maintaining acceptable IAQ. At the same time, requirements for energy saving and occupant comfort, such as the
minimum noise and air velocity, restrict the ventilation
supply rate. Therefore, it is necessary to design effective
ventilation systems which utilise limited supply air volume
to guarantee acceptable IAQ.
Many different concepts and parameters have been
suggested to guide and evaluate ventilation system design
[2,3]. Among them, the bypass factor (marked as S), which
was proposed in ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62-1999 [4].
This is simply a straightforward parameter, S, defined as
the fraction of the supply air that bypasses the occupied
zone of the ventilated room, indicting directly how much
supply or fresh air is not used to dilute the occupied zone
of the room. A similar concept was also used by some
researchers before ANSI/ASHRAE 62-1999 [57].
The newest ASHRAE standard, 62.1-2004 [8], does not
use the concept of the bypass factor, introducing instead
the Air Distribution Effectiveness, which is directly
related to the bypass factor.
Apparently, the smaller the S, the more supply air or
fresh air is used to dilute contaminants in the occupied
Xudong Yang
Department of Building Science, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University,
Beijing 100084, PR China Tel. 86 10 6278 8845; Fax 86 10 6277 3461.
E-mail xyang@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn

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Air supply inlet

Outlet

Vs

Vs

2
Vsz

zone and so, to some extent, the more effective the

ventilation system. Therefore, a correct (small enough) S is
the goal engineers have to seek when designing a
ventilation system. However, since the value of S depends
on the characteristics of a particular system, such as the
locations of the air supply inlet and exhaust, the inlet
velocity, the size of occupied zone and the room, and
the airflow pattern, it is very difficult to determine the
value of S for any ventilation system by a simple formula
or by experiment. A reliable and feasible method for
determining the value of S is therefore required before this
parameter can be used in design.
The method of computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
has been used as a useful tool to analyse indoor air
problems. For instance, Chen et al. [9] employed computer
programs to simulate air movement and contaminant
distribution in a ventilated room. They used ventilation
efficiency and temperature efficiency to evaluate indoor air
quality and energy consumption. Niu and van der Kooi
[10] used a two-dimensional numerical simulation to
predict air movements and temperature distributions in
an office room with cooling systems. Hayshi et al. [11]
used CFD to analyse characteristics of contaminated
indoor air ventilation and evaluate the effects of contaminant inhalation by a human occupant. Yang et al. [12]
and He et al. [13] employed CFD to model and simulate
the velocity, temperature and pollutant concentration
distributions in a mock-up office and evaluated the
performance of different ventilation methods in removing
pollutant from the office. CFD provides a useful and
powerful tool to predict the airflow, temperature and
contaminant distribution in indoor environments. It is
much more convenient and economical than experimentation and its preciseness has been proved to satisfy
engineering requirements.
In this article, a method for calculating S is proposed
and verified on the basis of the results of a CFD
simulation. We then applied the method to a mock-up
room with a mechanical ventilation system and calculated
the values of S for different definitions of the occupied
zone.

Occupied zone

Fig. 1. Schematic of two-dimensional model room.

realistic scenario. According to the definition of S in

ANSI/ASHRAE 62-1999, the value of S in this case can be
calculated by:

S 1

Vsz
Vs

Calculation Principle
Figure 1 shows the schematic of a two-dimensional
model room with one air supply inlet and one outlet
created as an example. The selection of an occupied zone is
optional and should be determined by the requirement of a

where VS is the entire amount of supply air flowing into

the room through the supply air inlet and VSZ is the
amount of supply air reaching the occupied zone. Since the
value of VS is specified in advance, or can be measured
easily, to obtain the value of S, it is necessary to obtain the
value of VSZ or that of VSZ/VS. Though it is difficult to
trace and measure directly how much supply air reaches
the occupied zone, we can model this by adding
hypothetical particles into the supply air at the inlet and
tracing those particles. If a property of the particles
released is that their inertia is small enough so that their
movement is indistinguishable from that of molecules in
the supply air, the particles will move integrally with the
supply air and the trajectories of the particles will
represent the airflow. This is just like performing particle
image velocimeter measurements on a computer.
Therefore, S can be calculated by stating the fraction of
the particle trajectories that enter/bypass the occupied
zone. For instance, when 100 particles are released
uniformly into the supply air at the inlet and these
particles move with the supply air, every single particle can
represent a fixed part of the supply air. If 60 particles
enter the occupied zone, for example, the proportion of the
supply air reaching the occupied zone, compared to the
entire supply air is 60/100 and thus S equals 0.4.
The procedure of selecting the proper particles, releasing
the particles uniformly and counting the number of

Calculating a Ventilation Bypass Factor

Indoor Built Environ 2007;16:472481

Methods

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473

1 m/s
3

2
Y

2
Y

1
1
0

0
0

Fig. 3. Particle trajectories of 10 particles.

Fig. 2. The calculated airflow pattern.

2
Y

particles entering the occupied zone can all be done

by CFD tools. Furthermore, it is necessary to release
different numbers of particles in trials, up to the point the
fraction does not vary and reaches a constant. This is
a little like the grid independence check in a CFD
calculation.

474

Fig. 4. Stream lines of the supply air.

2
Y

Calculation Details and Verification

Based on the introduction above about the method,
the details for calculating S in the case of the model
represented in Figure 1 is now discussed.
In this study, the commercial CFD software, FLUENT
6.1 [14], was employed for computing the airflow distribution and the particle tracks. For this study, the finite
volume method (FVM) with a Semi-Implicit Method
for Pressure-Linked Equations (SIMPLE) algorithm was
adopted to solve the governing equations. Numerical
computation of the flow was performed with a standard
k-" turbulence model. The energy equation is not included,
for simplification, that is to say, this is assumed to be an
isothermal case. The hypothetical model room (2-D) was
5 m long and 3 m high with a 0.5 m long air supply inlet
and outlet symmetrically located on the top of the room.
Based on the dimensions of the room, 6500 mesh grids
were generated in total, which was proved to be sufficient
through a grid independence check. Supply air entered the
room from the inlet at a velocity of 1.0 m
s1. Figure 2
shows the airflow patterns in the room.
Before releasing a large number of particles into
the supply air to calculate S, 10 particles were tested to
examine whether the particles can represent the movement
of supply air, namely, whether the particle trajectories
were consistent with stream lines or path lines of the
supply air. The density of the particles is taken to be

2
X

Fig. 5. Path lines of the supply air.

the same as that of air. Figures 35 respectively show the

10 particle trajectories, the stream lines and path lines of
the supply air. The particle trajectories are quite similar
with the steam lines and path lines, indicating that the

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Z. Liu et al.

S
W

Lamp
Outle

2
Hum

2
1.5

1
4
0.5

3
Z

Fig. 6. Particle trajectories of 200 particles released at air supply

opening.

Table 1. Values of S when different numbers of particles are

released
Number of particles released

OZ1

OZ2

OZ3

OZ4

200
300
500
1000

0.245
0.247
0.248
0.248

0.46
0.46
0.462
0.461

0.85
0.85
0.854
0.854

0.89
0.89
0.892
0.893

2
1
0

Y
Inlet

Fig. 7. Sketch of the room configuration.

to the defined four occupied zones when more particles

were released. This demonstrates that the result from the
release of 200 particles is satisfactory enough.

Application in a Ventilation Case

With the same method, when the part of the room

whose distance from the floor is less than 1.5 m is defined
as occupied zone 2 (marked as OZ2), S equals 0.46. And
if the occupied zone is defined as the left corner (marked
as OZ3) or right corner (marked as OZ4) as displayed
in Figure 6, S equals 0.85 or 0.89, respectively.
Theoretically, the more particles released, the more precise
is the result. Table 1 shows the values of S corresponding

Case Description
A mock-up room (4.8  4.2  2.43 m) with detailed
measured data of velocity and temperature distribution
described in the literature [15] was selected as an example
so that the CFD model could be validated firstly and
then used to calculate S. Figure 7 shows the configuration
of the mock-up room.
The HVAC system, located outside of the office,
supplied a constant amount of air into the office through
two air supply inlets, which were placed on the floor.
The outlet was located in the centre of the ceiling. The
office also included 4 human simulators and 6 overhead
fluorescent lights. All the internal objects and their
location co-ordinates, sizes and heat flow rates are listed
in Table 2. Thermal boundary conditions are significant
for the accuracy of the simulation result. Heat was
transferred mainly by convection and radiation since the
mock-up room had excellent insulation and similar
temperature to the surrounding environment. Radiation
was not calculated in the simulation but this was taken
into account indirectly by setting the wall temperatures
instead. In this case, the ventilation rate was
0.0944 m3
s1 and here we assumed that the supply air
was discharged uniformly into the room. According to the
measurements, the incident angles were 908 and 758 from
the X direction and the estimated turbulence intensity
was 10% and 15% for air injection from the north and

Calculating a Ventilation Bypass Factor

Indoor Built Environ 2007;16:472481

movements of this kind of particle can indeed represent

that of supply air.
To calculate the value of S, 200 particles were released
at the inlet uniformly. Figure 6 shows the trajectories of
all the particles released. Compared with the velocity
distribution in the room, Figure 6 seems quite reasonable
since fewer particles reach the lower part of the room
and corners where the air flow was weaker or in the
form of an eddy. If we define the part of the room
whose distance from the floor is less than 2 m as occupied
zone 1 (marked as OZ1) and because 151 particles
pass the line which is 2 m above the floor, S can be
calculated as:

S 1

151
0:245
200

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475

Table 2. Configuration of internal objects

Name

Location (m)

Human 1
Human 2
Human 3
Human 4
Lamp 1
Lamp 2
Lamp 3
Lamp 4
Lamp 5
Lamp 6
North inlet
South inlet
Outlet

Size (m)

Total heat (w)

x

y

z

1.00
1.00
3.40
3.40
0.75
0.75
0.75
2.88
2.88
2.88
0.78
3.78
2.275

0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
2.35
2.35
2.35
2.35
2.35
2.35
0.00
0.00
0.00

0.40
3.40
0.40
3.40
1.15
2.22
3.13
1.15
2.22
3.13
1.98
1.98
1.975

0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
1.20
1.20
1.20
1.20
1.20
1.20
0.25
0.25
0.25

1.10
1.10
1.10
1.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.00
0.00
0.00

0.40
0.40
0.40
0.40
0.15
0.15
0.15
0.15
0.15
0.15
0.25
0.25
0.25

100
100
100
100
64
64
64
64
64
64
-

Table 3. Thermal boundary conditions

Name
Temperature (8C)

Ceiling

Floor

South wall

North wall

East wall

West wall

North supply

South supply

25.7

23

25.0

24.9

25.5

25.3

20.4

19.9

south inlets, respectively. Other thermal boundary conditions are listed in Table 3.
Comparison Between CFD and Experimental Data
To simulate the air flow and temperature distribution
of this case using CFD, a total number of 665,000 meshes
were used and the standard k" turbulence model was
employed. Figure 8 shows the calculated velocity and
temperature results at two important sections of the room.
In the model system, seven measuring positions were
selected, which were marked V1, V2, V3, V4, V5, V6 and
V7 as shown in Figure 9. The simulation results of velocity
and temperature were compared with the measurement
data given by reference [15] at the seven positions in
Figure 10.
As shown in Figure 10, the air velocity in most of the
space was lower than 0.1 m
s1 and the hot-sphere
anemometers used for measurements might fail to give
accurate results. For the temperature profiles, there were
small differences at some positions such as V7; the
predicted temperature was a little lower than the measured
data. Overall, the predicted velocity and temperature
profiles matched the measured data quite well. The
agreement between simulated and measured velocity and
temperature suggests that the CFD model predicts the
airflow with reasonable accuracy, which thus could be
employed to calculate S next.

476

Calculation of S
To calculate S in this case, 121 particles with the same
property as those used in the two-dimensional cases
discussed above were released at the two inlets respectively. Their tracks are displayed in Figure 11 and different
occupied zones were defined as shown in Figure 12. The
particle counts entering the five occupied zones are listed
in Table 4 as well as the values of S obtained. The two
inlets are in OZ1 and supply air moves from OZ1 to outlet
on the ceiling, no supply air bypasses the zone and S for
OZ1 thus appears to equal zero. More supply air enters
OZ4 than OZ5 since the air injection from south inlet is
not vertical but has an angle towards the south wall.
Overall, the room has quite good ventilation effect since
most of the supply air reaches the four human simulators.

Conclusion
S is a terse parameter describing the proportion of
supply air bypassing the occupied zone to the total air sent
into a room. It indicates how much supply air is not used
for controlling the air quality of an occupied zone and that
engineers should design proper positions for and form
of air supply inlets and outlets to obtain a small enough S.

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Z. Liu et al.

Fig. 8. Velocity vector plot and temperature contours at: (a) Z 2.1 m (the room centerline) and (b) X 3.6 m (two human simulators).
0
V7
0.6

1.2
V6
1.8
V4

2.4

V3

V5

V2
3.6

4.2
V1
4.2

3.6

2.4

1.8

1.2

1.6

4.8 Y

Fig. 9. Horizontal room section and measuring positions (V1, V2, V3, V4, V5, V6 and V7).

Calculating a Ventilation Bypass Factor

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477

(a) 1.0

1.0

1.0

0.8

0.8

0.8

0.6

0.6

0.6
Z

Z
0.4

0.4

0.4

0.2

0.2

0.2

0.0
0.0

0.2

0.4

V3

V2

V1
0.0
0.0

0.6

0.2

0.4

0.0
0.0

0.6

1.0

1.0

0.8

0.8

0.8

0.6

0.6

0.6

0.4

0.4

0.4

0.2

0.2

0.2

V4
0.2

0.4

0.6

0.6

0.4
V

1.0

0.0
0.0

0.2

V5
0.0
0.0

0.2

0.4

V6
0.0
0.0

0.6

0.2

0.4

0.6

V
1.0

0.8

0.6
Z
0.4

0.2
V7
0.0
0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

Fig. 10. Comparison of measured data with the simulation results. Symbols: measured data from Reference [15], Lines: simulation from
this study. (a) Z Z0/H, Z0 is the vertical location along the measure positions (m), H 2.26 m is the height of the room, V is the local
velocity (m
s1); (b) T is the local air temperature (8C).

478

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Z. Liu et al.

(b) 1.0

1.0

1.0

0.8

0.8

0.8

0.6

0.6

0.6

Z
0.4

0.4

0.4

0.2

0.2

0.2

20.0

25.0
T

30.0

V3

V2

V1
0.0
15.0

0.0
15.0

35.0

20.0

25.0
T

30.0

0.0
15.0

35.0

1.0

1.0

1.0

0.8

0.8

0.8

0.6

0.6

0.6

Z
0.4

0.4

0.4

0.2

0.2

0.2

25.0
T

30.0

30.0

V5

V4
20.0

25.0
T

0.0
15.0

35.0

35.0

0.0
15.0

20.0

20.0

25.0
T

30.0

35.0

V6
0.0
15.0

20.0

25.0
T

30.0

35.0

1.0

0.8

0.6
Z
0.4

0.2
V7
0.0
15.0

20.0

25.0
T

30.0

35.0

Fig. 10. Comparison of measured data with the simulation results. Symbols: measured data from Reference [15], Lines: simulation from
this study. (a) Z Z0/H, Z0 is the vertical location along the measure positions (m), H 2.26 m is the height of the room, V is the local
velocity (m
s1); (b) T is the local air temperature (8C). (Continued).

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479

(a)

OZ3
OZ2

OZ4
OZ5

North
wall

North
wall
Human 1
Human 3

(b)

Fig. 12. Definition of different occupied zones. OZ1: the part

of room whose distance from the floor is 51.2 m (the lower part
of the room); OZ2: the part of room whose distance from the west
wall is 51.8 m (the west part of the room); OZ3: the part of
room whose distance from the east wall is 51.8 m (the east part of
the room); OZ4: a 1.2  1.2  1.2 m cubic area with human 1 in
its centre; OZ5: a 1.2  1.2  1.2 m cubic area with human 3 in
its centre.
Table 4. The particle counts reaching occupied zones and
values of S
North
wall

Fig. 11. The tracks of particles coloured by residence time.

(a) 121 particles released at the south inlet; (b) 121 particles released
at the north inlet.

This case study presents a useful method to calculate S

by tracing particles released at the supply air inlet. When
particles are released that have the right properties,
something which is easy to realise in a CFD simulation,
they can move with the air passively and their trajectories
can represent the movement of the air they move with.
This method is easily carried out with CFD tools. In this
way, tracing air movement, which would otherwise be
difficult to measure, can be achieved.

Particles reaching the

zone (released at
south inlet)

Particles reaching the

zone (released at
north inlet)

121
69
76
62
12

121
63
60
20
45

0
0.45
0.44
0.66
0.76

OZ1
OZ2
OZ3
OZ4
OZ5

Acknowledgement
This project was financially supported by the Specialized
Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education
of China, Approval Number 20060003065.

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