Building and Environment 45 (2010) 1923e1931

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Building and Environment

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Air distribution in office environment with asymmetric workstation layout

using chilled beams
Hannu Koskela a, *, Henna Häggblom a, Risto Kosonen b, Mika Ruponen b
a
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Lemminkäisenkatu 14-18 B, 20520 Turku, Finland
b
Halton Oy, Niittyvillankuja 4, 01510 Vantaa, Finland

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Air flow patterns and mean air speeds were studied under laboratory conditions representing a full scale
Received 28 October 2009 open-plan office. Three basic conditions were tested: summer, spring/autumn and winter. Chilled beams
Received in revised form were used to provide cooling, outdoor air supply and air distribution in the room. The heat sources had
6 February 2010
a notable influence on the flow pattern in the room causing large scale circulation and affecting the
Accepted 9 February 2010
direction of inlet jets. The maximum air speed in the occupied zone was higher than the
recommendations. The mean air speed was also high on at the floor level but low on at the head level.
Keywords:
The air speed was highest in the summer case under high cooling load. Results indicate that especially
Air distribution
Chilled beam
with high heat loads, it is difficult to fulfill the targets of the existing standards in practice. Two main
Thermal comfort sources of draught risk were found: a) downfall of colliding inlet jets causing local maxima of air speed
Office environment and b) large scale circulation caused by asymmetric layout of chilled beams and heat sources. The first
CFD-simulation phenomenon can cause local draught risk when the workstation is located in the downfall area. The flow
Full-scale measurements pattern is not stable and the position of draught risk areas can change in time and also due to changes in
room heat sources. The second phenomenon can cause more constant high air speeds on at the floor
level. CFD-simulation was able to predict the general flow pattern but somewhat overestimated the air
speed compared to measurements.
Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Organisational changes in most companies are continuous and
require flexible changes in work methods and workspaces. The
traditional one person office areas, or cells, and open offices, or
hives, seen in traditional offices are today changing into spaces that
are more suited to team work, referred to as dens or clubs [1].
In addition to this, information technology contributes to inde-
pendence of time and location, transforming offices more into
meeting places for sharing information. The office space must be
utilised efficiently, and therefore a dedicated workstation is no
longer deemed necessary for a worker who spends only a few hours
a day at the office. Working at several workstations and at customer
sites is becoming more common.
Efficiency demands have led to increased density of the work-
stations in modern offices. This development has also increased
internal heat loads in offices. The heat load from an office work-
station typically comes from PC, person and lighting. If we consider
a moderate occupant density of 12 m2/person and assume heat
loads of 80 W from person, 100 W from PC and 120 W from
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ358 30 4741.
E-mail address: hannu.koskela@ttl.fi (H. Koskela).
lighting, the internal heat load per floor area is 25 W/m2. When the
occupant density is doubled to 6 m2/person, the internal heat load
becomes 50 W/m2.
The external heat load comes from direct and diffuse solar load
and heat leakage through the windows. It depends on several
factors including the time of year, orientation of the office, solar
shading of the building, window type, etc. During summer period,
the external heat load can be higher than the internal load espe-
cially, if the building has large windows.
In order to control the indoor temperature, the office has to be
cooled by air conditioning. Cooling can be realized with different
techniques, basically either by all-air or air-water systems. One
common solution especially in the Nordic countries is to use active
chilled beams. They are induction devices that combine supply air
with cooling of re-circulated room air. Common to all these solu-
tions is that with high cooling loads, large amounts of cool air
(either supply or room air) has to be blown into the office space.
The higher the cooling load, the higher becomes the risk of draught.
With isothermal supply air, the room air flow pattern is mainly
controlled by the supply jets. From the design point of view, the
flow pattern can be predicted by jet formulas and diffuser throw
lengths. When the heat load in the room increases, the buoyancy
forces start to affect the flow pattern. The cool supply jets can

0360-1323/$ e see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2010.02.007
1924 H. Koskela et al. / Building and Environment 45 (2010) 1923e1931
separate from the ceiling and negative buoyancy accelerates the
downward flow of cool air. On the other hand, warm upward air
flows are created by heat sources. The interaction of cool and warm
air flows makes the room flow pattern more complex and more
difficult to predict and control.
Müller et al. studied the effect regularly spaced heat sources on
room flow pattern by laboratory measurements and CFD-
simulation [2]. They found that the increase of heat load first led
to an unstable flow pattern until further increase created a new
stable condition dominated by buoyancy forces. The maximum
velocity in the occupied zone increased with the heat load in their
measurements. They concluded that maximum velocity exceeds
0.2 m/s when the heat load is higher than 60 W/m2.
It has not generally been acknowledged that the convection
flows caused by thermal loads may significantly affect the flow
range produced by the room devices in use. Kosonen et al. studied
the effect of plumes from heat sources on the supply air flow
pattern from chilled beams [3]. They found that plumes from
workstations were able to turn the supply jets and change the flow
pattern notably. The point of occurrence of the maximum speed in
the occupied zone depends on the thermal effect and location of
the thermal load as well as on the momentum flux and on the flow
pattern with respect to the convection flow.
The room air flow pattern in cooling conditions depends on the
relative locations of air distribution units and heat sources. In ideal
conditions, the air distribution units and workstations would be
placed symmetrically, which would make it easier to control the
conditions in workstations. In practice, the locations of air distri-
bution and cooling units are usually designed based on the building
modules. In a flexible office building, the space can either be
divided to rooms by adding walls, or left as an open-plan office. The
installations should be designed is such way that this flexibility is
possible.
The workstation layout is not necessarily based on the building
module division and is therefore often asymmetric compared to the
air distribution. When the office layout is changed, the ventilation
flow pattern should also be adjusted to avoid draught problems in
workstations. With a high office churn rate, the adjustments are not
always conducted and the thermal comfort in individual worksta-
tions can differ notably.
The purpose of this study was to characterize the flow pattern
and thermal conditions in a typical flexible open-plan office
Fig. 1. Dimensions and layout of the test room from the corresponding CFD-model.
environment. The study is based on measurements in a full scale
laboratory office module. CFD-simulation was carried out in
order to analyze the flow pattern and predict the thermal
conditions. The effect of typical heat loads during different seasons
was studied.
2. Methods
The experiments were carried out in environmental chamber at
the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Turku, Finland. The
test room, having a floor area of 33.6 m2, is shown in Fig. 1. Cooling
and air distribution in the room was realized with active chilled
beams. The room is built to represent a typical building module of
a modern flexible office building. The width of the module is
defined by the distance between the construction beams of the
building; typically 8.1 m. The division of the windows and instal-
lation of chilled beams enables walls to be built in several locations.
This paper presents the results of experiments and simulations
without separating walls.
One wall of the test room had six windows of size 1.22 m  1.47 m.
Their surface temperature was controlled by blowing air into the
chamber behind them. Convective heaters were placed under the
windows and were only used in the winter test case.
The active chilled beam model Halton CCE was selected to
represent a typical unit with exposed installation in the room. In
the device, outdoor air supply is combined with cooling of
re-circulated room air. Outdoor air supply is typically introduced
through small nozzles inside of the beam. Outdoor air jets induce
room air through a heat exchanger, where it is cooled and the
mixture (referred as inlet jets) is blown into the room through
supply air openings. The flow rate of induced room air is usually
much higher than the outdoor air flow rate. The heat exchanger
consists of a cooling coil, which is cooled by water flow. In this case,
the inlet jets are blown from inlet jet openings in the upper surface
of the beam. The supply of inlet jets creates plane jets to both sides
of the beam that normally attach to the ceiling. Fig. 2 shows the
operation principle of an active chilled beam.
The chilled beams were installed asymmetrically in the room in
the centreline of every second window. The distance from the
ceiling was 0.15 m. The dimensions of the beams were 3.3 m 
0.41 m, height 0.18 m. The length of the inlet slot was 3.0 m and it
was located symmetrically in relation to the centreline of the room.
 H. Koskela et al. / Building and Environment 45 (2010) 1923e1931 1925

Fig. 2. Operating principle of the active chilled beam.

The test room had eight workstations arranged in two groups. where Ta is the air temperature, V is the mean air speed (0.05 m/s)
The persons were simulated with painted cylinders (height 1.1 m, and Tu is the turbulence intensity (10%  Tu  60%).
diameter 0.3 m) containing 2 light bulbs of total 80 W of heat
power. Each workstation had a PC under the table with power
3. Results
consumption adjusted to 90 W. Three lamps with power
consumption of 120 W each were installed between the chilled
3.1. Test cases
beams at height of 2.3 m.
The measurements of air velocity were carried out by using
Three test cases were measured in the laboratory and simulated
ultrasonic anemometers (Kaijo Denki WA-390, accuracy  0.02 m/s),
with CFD:
moved by an automated traversing system. The averaging time in
each measurement point was 60 s. The measurement grid density
1. Summer case with 100 W/m2 cooling load (warm windows and
was 0.1 m  0.1 m. Additional measurements were done using
direct solar heat load)
Dantec 54N10 flow analyzer with hot sphere sensors. The locations
2. Spring/autumn case with 45 W/m2 cooling load (cool windows)
of the measurement planes were selected to cover four workstations
3. Winter case with 45 W/m2 (cold windows and heaters under
in the central part of the room. The measurements heights were
them)
0.1 m and 1.2 m. Measurement height 1.2 m was used with the
automated traversing system instead of the standard height 1.1 m
In all cases, the internal heat loads were the same. Direct solar
because of obstacles.
load was simulated by placing heater panels (size 1.02 m  0.55 m,
The flow pattern was visualized using smoke and video recor-
height 0.05 m) on the floor in the middle section shown in Fig. 1.
ded during experiments. The cooling power of the chilled beams
The heaters under the windows in the winter test case had
was determined by measuring the cooling water flow rate and the
dimensions of 1.2 m  0.4 m  0.1 m. They produced mainly
rise of water temperature in the heat exchanger.
convective heat load due to stainless steel covering on all vertical
Recommendations for air speed and draught rate (DR) are given
surfaces. The heat load from the window surfaces was estimated by
in several international and national documents. ISO standard 7730
measuring the surface temperatures and calculating both radiation
(Table A.5) gives following design criteria for maximum mean
and convection heat output from Equations (2)e(6) [5].
air speed for office environment assuming turbulence intensity of
40% [4]:

1 4
Q_ c ¼ hc ADT ¼ 1:07 DT 1=4 xtr þ 1:3DT 1=3 ðL  xtr Þ ADT;
3=4
(2)
 Category A (DR 10%): summer 0.12 m/s, winter 0.10 m/s L 3
 Category B (DR 20%): summer 0.19 m/s, winter 0.16 m/s where hc is the convective heat transfer coefficient, A is the window
 Category C (DR 30%): summer 0.24 m/s, winter 0.21 m/s surface area, L is the window height, DT is the temperature differ-
ence between window surface and room air and xtr is the transition
These maximum air speed values are based on the assumption point from laminar to turbulent flow. The transition point can be
that the room temperature is in the lower end of the corresponding calculated from
recommended temperature range. Draught rate is calculated from
Equation (1). " #1=3
109 n2
xtr ¼ ; (3)
ðDT=TÞg
DR ¼ ð34  Ta ÞðV  0:05Þ0:62 ð37$TuV þ 3:14Þ (1)

Table 1
Heat loads in the test cases.

Heat load Heat load Count 1. Summer 2. Spring/autumn 3. Winter

type (W) (W) (W) (W)
Persons 80 8 640 640 640
(cylinders)
Computers 90 8 720 720 720
Lights 120 3 360 360 360
Heaters 73 6 e e 437
Solar load 739 e e
(panels)
Windows 915 200 640
(calculated)

Total load 3374 1520 1517

Total load per 100 45 45
floor area
Fig. 3. Simplified model for the chilled beam.
1926 H. Koskela et al. / Building and Environment 45 (2010) 1923e1931
Fig. 4. Flow pattern in the summer case, experimental and CFD-results.
where n is the dynamic viscosity of air and g is the acceleration due
to gravity. For cases with forced convection flow along the window
surface, the convective heat transfer coefficient hc was calculated
from the Nusselt number Nu
hc ¼ NuL=k ¼ 0:036Re0:8 Pr0:43
where k is the thermal conductivity of air and Re is the Reynolds
number
Re ¼ VL=n
where V is the air speed along the window. The radiation heat
exchange can be calculated from
 
Q_ r ¼ F1;2 A3s Tw
4
 Tr4
where F1,2 is the view factor of the two surfaces, 3 is the emissivity
of window surface, s is the Stefan-Bolzmann constant and Tw and Tr
are the surface temperatures of window and room.
The ratio of convection and radiation heat transfer was esti-
mated to be 36%/64% in the summer case, 29%/71% in the spring/
autumn case and 40%/60% in the winter case. These values are,
however, rough estimates, because they are based on only a few
measurement points.
The heat loads in the three test cases are presented in Table 1.
3.2. CFD-modelling
The CFD-simulations were carried out by using Ansys CFX 11.0
software with SST turbulence model. The grid was unstructured
Fig. 5. Modelled air speed contours at 0.1 m (left) and 1.1 m (right) levels in the summer case.
with inflation layers on the room and heat source surfaces and had
1 350 000 nodes. The grid density was 1 cm in the supply opening,
5 cm in the supply jet area and 10 cm in other parts of the room. No
radiation model was used. The convective parts of the heat loads
were given to the surfaces as heat fluxes. The radiation part was
(4) distributed to room surfaces based on their approximate view
factors (6). The mean air speed was calculated from mean air
velocity and turbulent kinetic energy using a correction formula
reported by Koskela et al. [6].
The simplified model for the chilled beam was made of
(5) similar size as the actual device (Fig. 3). The outlets representing
room air re-circulation openings were larger than in reality
covering the whole vertical surfaces of the beam. The inlet
boundary conditions were determined based on the information
obtained from the manufacturer. The total inlet air flow rate was
(6)
125 l/s per unit. The dimensions of the inlet slots were
3.0 m  0.025 m. This gives an inlet momentum flow rate of
0.139 N per unit. The air flow was blown with velocity 0.927 m/s
to an angle of 26 compared to the vertical direction. The inlet
jet temperature was defined to be the same for all beams. It was
calculated from Equation (7) to give the correct cooling power to
the room.
P
Ti ¼ To  ; (7)
Q rcp
where To is the mean room air temperature at outlets, P is the
cooling power, Q is the inlet jet flow rate, r is the air density and cp
is the specific heat capacity of air. The cooling powers of the beams
may differ due to the different room air temperatures close to
induction outlets of the beams.
 H. Koskela et al. / Building and Environment 45 (2010) 1923e1931
Fig. 6. Measured air speed contours at 0.1 m (left) and 1.2 m (right) levels in the summer case.
3.3. Summer case 100 W/m2
The main flow patterns detected from the smoke experiments
are shown in Fig. 4 together with the flow patterns from the CFD-
simulation. Fig. 5 shows the distribution of air speed at two hori-
zontal planes at 0.1 m and 1.1 m heights. Corresponding measure-
ment results in the central part of the office module are shown in
Fig. 6 for air speed and in Fig. 7 for air temperature.
The inlet jets from the chilled beam first attached to the ceiling
and then collided with the jet from the neighbouring beam or
with a wall. After the collision, the jets turned downwards to the
occupied zone. Local speed maxima from these collided jets can
be seen in the modelled air speed contours at 1.1 m level in Fig. 5
and also in the corresponding measurement results at 1.2 m level
in Fig. 6.
A clockwise circulation was formed in the room in the longitu-
dinal direction. This was caused by the asymmetric layout of the
chilled beams in relation to the workstations. The larger cooling
power in the right side of the room created stronger downward flow.
In the left side of the room, the plumes from the workstation heat
sources were stronger than the downward buoyancy from the chilled
beam. This strong circulation caused high air velocities especially on
at the floor level. The circulation was somewhat stronger in the CFD-
simulation than detected in experiment (Figs. 4e7).
The warm windows created upward thermal plumes that
continued along the ceiling colliding with the inlet jets from the
chilled beams. This turned the inlet jets towards the corridor wall
and also caused a second circulation perpendicular to the main
circulation. This circulation was stronger in the experiments visu-
alized by smoke than in the CFD-results.
3.4. Spring/autumn case 45 W/m2
The longitudinal circulation was weaker compared to the
summer case. This is natural, because of weaker buoyancy
forces. Also the downward plumes from the cool window were
weak (Figs. 8e11).
Fig. 7. Measured air temperature contours at 0.1 m (left) and 1.2 m (right) levels in the summer case.
1927
3.5. Winter case 45 W/m2
The longitudinal circulation in the winter case was also weaker
compared to the summer case. The heaters under the windows
created upward plumes as in the summer case. These plumes
turned the inlet jets somewhat towards the corridor wall in the
experiments. This phenomenon was not seen in the CFD-results
(Figs. 12e15).
3.6. Mean and maximum air speed
Figs. 16 and 17 show the comparison of measured and simulated
mean and maximum air speeds in the three test cases. The values
were calculated in same area of the occupied zone in the central
part of the office module. The results are compared with the target
values of ISO 7730 for summer and winter conditions. The standard
does not give target values of air speed for spring or autumn
conditions. Categories A, B and C correspond to draught risk levels
of 10%, 20% and 30%. The mean air speed at the floor level was
highest (0.24 m/s) in the summer case compared to the values of
0.17e0.18 m/s in the other cases. The same was true with the
maximum speed (0.29 m/s), but the difference to other test cases
was smaller. The CFD-simulation gave systematically higher speeds
in at the floor level.
The measured mean air speed on at the 1.2 m level was low
(0.11e0.13 m/s) in all cases and CFD-simulation predicted it correctly.
However, the local maximum values of air speed were notably higher,
0.27 m/s in the summer case and 0.20e0.21 m/s in the other cases.
CFD-results again overestimated the maximum air speed.
Fig. 18 shows the measured mean and maximum draught rates in
the test cases calculated from Equation (1). The mean draught rates at
0.1 m level fall into ISO 7730 category B (20e30%) and at 1.2 m level
into category A or B. The maximum draught rates fall into category C,
except in the summer case at the 0.1 m level, where it is above
category C. The results differ from the velocity based categories in
Figs. 16 and 17. In Fig. 18 the result is based on local temperature and
turbulence intensity values, whereas in Figs. 16 and 17 the categories
1928 H. Koskela et al. / Building and Environment 45 (2010) 1923e1931

Fig. 8. Flow pattern in the spring/autumn case, experimental and CFD-results.

Fig. 9. Modelled air speed contours at 0.1 m (left) and 1.1 m (right) levels in the spring/autumn case.

are based on the lower value of recommended temperature range
and the turbulence intensity is assumed to be 40%.
4. Discussion
Heat sources had a notable effect on the flow pattern of the
office module. The main effect was the strong circulation in the
longitudinal direction of the room, which was caused by the
asymmetry of the heat loads and the cooling devices. The second
effect was the transverse circulation caused by the heat load of the
windows or the heaters below the windows. It had the effect of
turning the inlet jets towards the inner wall. In this case, however,
the transverse circulation was overridden by the stronger longitu-
dinal circulation.
The office module had only few flow obstacles in the longitu-
dinal direction of the room. The space under the tables was mainly
open, which made the large scale circulation flow along the floor
possible. In real offices there are usually more flow obstacles, which
prevent the large scale circulation and reduce the air speed. If the
screens block the flow totally under the tables, this type of circu-
lation is not possible.
The air speed measurements were carried out only in the central
part of the room in the occupied zone. This area was selected,
because it was considered more representative to an open-plan
office than the ends of the test room. It was not possible to cover
the whole test room with measurements. In the CFD-simulations,
highest velocities were found in the area, where the cool air was
flowing downwards along the wall.
The CFD-simulation was able to predict the main features of the
flow pattern in the room. However, the CFD-results typically
somewhat overestimated the air speed compared to the
measurements. This is probably due to the inability of the steady

Fig. 10. Measured air speed contours at 0.1 m (left) and 1.2 m (right) levels in the spring/autumn case.
 H. Koskela et al. / Building and Environment 45 (2010) 1923e1931 1929

Fig. 11. Measured air temperature contours at 0.1 m (left) and 1.2 m (right) levels in the spring/autumn case.

Fig. 12. Flow pattern in the winter case, smoke experiments and CFD-results.

Fig. 13. Modelled air speed contours at 0.1 m (left) and 1.1 m (right) levels in the winter case.

Fig. 14. Measured air speed contours at 0.1 m (left) and 1.2 m (right) levels in the winter case.
1930 H. Koskela et al. / Building and Environment 45 (2010) 1923e1931

Fig. 15. Measured air temperature contours at 0.1 m (left) and 1.2 m (right) levels in the winter case.

Fig. 16. Mean and maximum air speed in the measurement plane at 0.1 m level compared to ISO 7730 design criteria.

Fig. 17. Mean and maximum air speed in the measurement plane at 1.2 m level compared to ISO 7730 design criteria (CFD-results at 1.1 m height).

Fig. 18. Mean and maximum draught rates in the measurement planes at 0.1 m and 1.2 m levels. ISO 7730 categories A, B and C correspond to draught rates 10%, 20% and 30%.
 H. Koskela et al. / Building and Environment 45 (2010) 1923e1931
state RANS-simulation to correctly describe the time-dependent
fluctuations of the flow pattern. Therefore, the buoyancy induced
flows develop stronger than in reality. The convergence in all the
CFD-simulation cases was poor due to the fluctuating flow field.
Therefore, the flow pattern of the CFD-results was dependent on
the truncation point of the iteration.
5. Conclusions
The heat sources had a notable influence on the flow pattern in
the room causing large scale circulation and affecting the direction
of inlet jets. The maximum air speed in the occupied zone was high
compared to the recommendations. The mean air speed was also
high on at the floor level but low on at the head level. The air speed
was highest in the summer case with high cooling load. Results
indicate that especially with high heat loads, it may be difficult to
fulfill the targets of the existing standards in open-plan offices in
practice.
Two main causes of draught risk were found:
a) downfall of colliding inlet jets causing local maxima of air
speed and
b) large scale circulation caused by asymmetric room layout of
chilled beams and heat sources.
The first phenomenon can cause local draught risk if the
workstation is located in the downfall area. The flow pattern in the
1931
room is not stable and the position of draught risk areas can change
in time and also due to changes in room heat sources. The second
phenomenon can cause more constant high air speeds on at the
floor level. In practice, offices often have obstacles on the floor,
reducing or blocking such strong circulation flows.
CFD-simulation was able to predict the general flow pattern but
somewhat overestimated the air speed compared to measurements.
Acknowledgements
The financial support of National Technology Agency of Finland
is greatly appreciated.
References
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