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Revised Air-Exchange Efficiency Considering

Occupant Distribution in Ventilated Rooms
a a a a
Bin Zhao , Xianting Li , Dongning Li & Jianrong Yang
a
Tsinghua University , Beijing , China
Published online: 22 Feb 2012.

To cite this article: Bin Zhao , Xianting Li , Dongning Li & Jianrong Yang (2003) Revised Air-Exchange Efficiency Considering
Occupant Distribution in Ventilated Rooms, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 53:6, 759-763, DOI:
10.1080/10473289.2003.10466215

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 TECHNICAL PAPER
Revised Air-Exchange Efficiency Considering Occupant
Distribution in Ventilated Rooms
Bin Zhao, Xianting Li, Dongning Li, and Jianrong Yang
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
ABSTRACT
Air-exchange efficiency is widely used to indicate the ven-
tilation effect and indoor air quality in ventilated rooms.
However, it does not take occupant distribution in the
room into account and is thus limited. In this paper, a
revised air-exchange efficiency (occupant air-exchange ef-
ficiency) that differentiates between different zones by
Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 07:29 05 November 2014
considering different occupancy in each zone is devel-
oped. Results from studies of a large-space ventilation
case, a personalized ventilation case, and a displacement
ventilation case show that occupant air-exchange effi-
ciency can better be used to evaluate the ventilation effect
of a room.
INTRODUCTION
Air-exchange efficiency is widely used to indicate the ven-
tilation effect in ventilated rooms. It describes the replace-
ment of room air with fresh air compared with an ideal
(piston) flow pattern.1
␶n
εa ⫽
2具␶典
where ␶n is nominal time constant (sec) and 具␶典 is room
mean age of air (sec). Nominal time constant, ␶n, is de-
fined as
V
␶n ⫽
Q
IMPLICATIONS
The widely used index to evaluate ventilation effect and
indoor air quality is based on average air-exchange effi-
ciency, which may not be suitable for some types of ven-
tilation, such as large-space ventilation, displacement ven-
tilation, and personalized ventilation. This paper suggests a
more practical index to revise the traditional air-exchange
efficiency based on a new concept: occupied density. The
new concept may also be adopted for evaluating thermal
comfort conditions, or ventilation effect in a limited period
of time.
Volume 53 June 2003
ISSN 1047-3289 J. Air & Waste Manage. Assoc. 53:759 –763
Copyright 2003 Air & Waste Management Association
where V is the volume of the room (m3) and Q is supply
airflow rate (m3/sec).
Air age can be obtained by the experimental method
or calculated numerically using computational fluid dy-
namics (CFD) tools. To calculate air age numerically, the
following transport equation is solved after the airflow
distribution is obtained through CFD:2
⳵ ⳵ ⳵
共u␶兲 ⫹ 共v␶兲 ⫹ 共w␶兲
⳵x ⳵y ⳵z
(3)
⫽
⳵
⳵x 冉 冊
D
⳵␶
⳵x
⫹
⳵
⳵y 冉 冊
D
⳵␶
⳵y
⫹
⳵
⳵z 冉 冊D
⳵␶
⳵z
⫹1
where x, y, and z are Cartesian coordinates; u, v, and w are
the velocities in the x, y, and z direction, respectively
(m/sec); D is the effective diffusion coefficient (m2/sec);
and ␶ is the air age at some certain point (sec).
However, for some ventilation types, such as person-
alized ventilation, displacement ventilation, or large-
(1) space ventilation, ventilation effect varies greatly in the
space. On the other hand, the occupied region is limited
to only a certain part of the space. The traditional air-
exchange efficiency weights different regions of the room
equally when evaluating the ventilation effect. Such treat-
ment may lead to unreasonable results. For example, a
locally controlled ventilation system supplies fresh air
(2) directly to the region around the human body, so it can
be considered as an effective ventilation style from the
occupant’s viewpoint. However, the air-exchange effi-
ciency of the entire space may be quite low. The problem
arises because the traditional air-exchange efficiency con-
cept does not take human occupancy into account. It is
possible that occupants stay at different regions of the
room at different times. Therefore, some part of the room
plays a more important role than others. In the following,
a revised air-exchange efficiency concept called “occu-
pant air-exchange efficiency” that takes both the airflow
pattern and occupant distribution into account for ven-
tilation evaluation is proposed. Several cases are presented
to demonstrate the concept.
Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association 759
 Zhao, Li, Li, and Yang

In the CFD calculation, the discrete format can be used as

follows:

具␶典 D ⫽ 冘
i
具␶典iDi (8)

Figure 1. A two-dimensional ventilation room and separation of occu-
pied (zone A) and nonoccupied (zone B) zones. (a) High-side supply. (b)
Low-side supply.
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where 具␶典i represents the average air age in the ith region
(sec); and 兺i Di ⫽ 1.
Occupant air-exchange efficiency considers the fact
that air at different locations has different influences on
ventilation effect. The influence is larger if the occupants
stay longer or if the number of occupants is larger. Com-
pared with the traditional air-exchange efficiency that treats
the influence of airflow in different locations the same way,
occupant air-exchange efficiency can better indicate room
air conditions by taking into account occupant spatial-tem-
poral distributions. A similar concept may also apply to

OCCUPANT AIR-EXCHANGE EFFICIENCY evaluating thermal comfort conditions in a room.

Definition of Occupied Density
To describe the occupant distribution in a room, the oc-
cupied density is used to indicate the probability distri-
bution of occupants in the room. It is defined as the ratio
of time that occupants stay in a certain region over the
time that occupants stay in the room. For example, if N
persons are in an office and each has an 8-hr stay, and if
the ith occupant sits on the work region 6 hr and walks in
other regions of the room for 2 hr, then the individual
occupied density of the ith occupant in this room is
CASE STUDY
In the following, three representative cases are used to
illustrate the utility of the occupant air-exchange effi-
ciency concept. A well-validated CFD program developed
by the authors, Three-Dimensional Software for Time-De-
pendent Air Conditioning, Heating, and Ventilation
(STACH-3),3 is used as the simulation tool. To account for
the turbulent flow in a room, two turbulence models,
namely the standard k ⫺ ⑀ turbulence model4 and a zero-
equation turbulence model,5 are used in these cases. The

再
6/8 ⫽ 0.75 in work region
ID i ⫽ 2/8 ⫽ 0.25 in other region
The occupied density in this room is thus
(4)
Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations are discretized
by the finite volume method. The difference scheme is the
power law scheme. The semi-implicit method for pressure-
linked equation algorithm is adopted while momentum
equations are solved on nonuniform staggered grids.4 Wall

冘
N

IDi
i⫽1
Di ⫽ (5)
N

Definition of Occupant Air-Exchange Efficiency

To take the occupied density into account, the air-
exchange efficiency concept can be modified to occupant
air-exchange efficiency. This is defined as the ratio of the
nominal time constant over the average air age weighted
by occupied density.

␶n
εa ⫽ (6)
2具␶典D

具␶典 D ⫽ 冕
V
␶
⳵ ⳵ ⳵D
⳵z ⳵y ⳵x
dxdydz (7) Figure 2. Calculated airflow pattern for Case 1 (large-space ventilation).
(a) High-side supply. (b) Low-side supply.

760 Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association Volume 53 June 2003
 Zhao, Li, Li, and Yang

Table 1. Calculation conditions and results for Case 1 (large-space ventilation). Table 2. Calculation conditions and results for Case 2 (personalized ventilation).

Air Occupied Occupied

Occupant
Exchange Density Occupant Density
Air Exchange Air-Exchange Air-Exchange
Rate Air-Exchange Air-Exchange
Rate (ACH) A B Efficiency Efficiency
(ACH) A B Efficiency Efficiency

1 0.75 0.25 0.700 0.871

High-side supply 9 0.95 0.05 0.171 0.192
Low-side supply 9 0.95 0.05 0.145 0.625

Table 1 shows the calculated air-exchange efficiency

functions are employed for the k ⫺ ⑀ turbulence model, and occupant air-exchange efficiency. There is little dif-
ference for the two cases because the mean ventilation
while the zero-equation turbulence model adopts the alge-
effect is the same. The airflow for both ventilation cases is
braic equation of eddy viscosity directly in the near-wall
short-circuited, so air-exchange efficiency is small. But for
region.
the low-side supply, fresh air flows directly through the
occupied region, so its ventilation effect should be better
Case 1: Large-Space Ventilation
than the high-side supply for occupant air quality. The
To demonstrate the difference between occupant air-
occupant air-exchange efficiency clearly shows this.
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exchange efficiency and traditional air-exchange effi-

Therefore, occupant air-exchange efficiency may indicate
ciency, a two-dimensional hybrid ventilation case is pre-
the ventilation effect more reasonably for this case.
sented. Figure 1 depicts a large space ventilated under two
extreme conditions: high-side and low-side air supply.
Case 2: Personalized Ventilation
The room is 10 m high and 5 m wide. The ventilation
Personalized ventilation is a typical ventilation style for
system has an inlet and an outlet that are both 0.3 m
which occupant air-exchange efficiency concept may be
high. The supply airflow rate is 9 air changes per hour
adopted, because of its distinct characteristic in the occu-
(ACH) for both ventilation conditions.
pied region compared with the nonoccupied zone. Figure
The entire space is divided into two zones, as shown
3 shows a room equipped with personalized ventilation.
in Figure 1. Zone A is the occupied region where the
The room is 3 m long, 2.7 m high, and 5 m wide (X ⫻ Y ⫻
occupants stay most of time. For illustration purposes,
Z). An air supply opening is located in front of the occu-
zone A is considered to be 2 m high with an occupied
pant, 30 cm away from his nose. The return grille is
density of 0.95. Zone B is the nonoccupied zone, and 0.05
located on the floor. The supply air temperature is 25 °C,
is assigned as the occupied density for this zone.
and the internal heat sources include the occupant (80
The velocity and air age distribution are calculated nu-
W), a computer (50 W), and a computer monitor (150 W).
merically by STACH-3, using the k ⫺ ⑀ turbulence model.
All the heat sources are treated as convective heat sources
The numerical results simulated using the k ⫺ ⑀ turbulence
for simplification. The air-exchange rate is 1 ACH.
model for a similar case have been validated by experimen-
tal data.6 The calculated airflow pattern is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 3. A room with a single occupant and a personalized ventilation Figure 4. Calculated airflow pattern for Case 2 (personalized ventila-
unit. tion).

Volume 53 June 2003 Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association 761
 Zhao, Li, Li, and Yang
Figure 5. A displacement-ventilated office. (1) cabinet, (2) table, (3)
computer, (4) person, (5) lamp, (6) displacement diffuser, (7) exhaust.
For this three-dimensional, nonisothermal case, the
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zero-equation turbulence model is used to calculate the
airflow and temperature distributions. The k ⫺ ⑀ turbu-
lence model is not used because it would cost too much
computing time, and previous validation results show
that the zero-equation turbulence model can correctly
predict the airflow for similar cases.3,5 The occupied den-
sity in two different zones (Zone A and Zone B; see Figure
3) is given in Table 2. Zone A is considered as the occupied
region with a size of 0.55 ⫻ 1.3 ⫻ 0.6 m (X ⫻ Y ⫻ Z). The
calculated air-exchange efficiency and occupant air-ex-
change efficiency are also given in Table 2. Figure 4 shows
the airflow pattern for this case in the symmetrical plane
of the person (Z ⫽ 3.5 m). Results indicate relatively large
air-exchange efficiency in this case because of the small
ventilation rate (1 ACH). Nevertheless, the occupant air-
exchange efficiency is larger than the air-exchange effi-
ciency because the weight of occupied density in Zone A
is larger.
Case 3: Displacement Ventilation
Displacement ventilation is another ventilation style for
which occupant air-exchange efficiency may be more
suitable. Figure 5 shows a displacement-ventilated office.
Its size is 5.16 ⫻ 3.65 ⫻ 2.43 m (X ⫻ Y ⫻ Z). The supply
air temperature is 13 °C and the air-exchange rate is 5
ACH. The heat transfer condition is shown in Table 3. All
Table 3. Internal heat sources for Case 3 (displacement ventilation).
Item
Human simulators
Computers 108 ⫹ 173 (close to window)
Lamps
External heat transfer (east wall and window)
Total
762 Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association
Figure 6. Calculated airflow pattern for Case 3 (displacement ventila-
tion).
the heat sources are treated as convective heat sources for
simplification. The occupied densities in the occupied
zone (Zone A, from floor level to Y ⫽ 1.1 m) and the
nonoccupied zone (Zone B, Y ⬎ 1.1 m) are given as 0.9
and 0.1, respectively.
As in Case 2, the zero-equation turbulence model was
selected in STACH-3 to simulate the airflow field. The
simulated airflow results have been validated by experi-
mental data.3 Figure 6 shows the airflow pattern in the
symmetrical plane of the person (Z ⫽ 1.825 m). The
calculated air-exchange efficiency and occupant air-
exchange efficiency are given in Table 4.
As with personalized ventilation, because of higher
occupied density in the occupied region (Zone A) than in
Zone B, the occupant air-exchange efficiency (0.907) is
much higher than the air-exchange efficiency (0.683). For
displacement ventilation, the air quality in the occupied
region is better than that in the nonoccupied zone,7 and
the occupant air-exchange efficiency clearly reflects this
characteristic.
CONCLUSIONS
Occupant air-exchange efficiency, a modification of the
traditional air-exchange efficiency concept, was proposed
to evaluate the overall ventilation effect of a space. The
following conclusions may be drawn based on studies of
three cases, including a large-space ventilation case, a
Table 4. Calculation conditions and results for Case 3 (displacement ventilation).
Heat Source (W)
Occupied
75 ⫻ 2 Occupant
Density
Air Exchange Air-Exchange Air-Exchange
34 ⫻ 4 Rate (ACH) A B Efficiency Efficiency
135
710 5 0.9 0.1 0.683 0.907
Volume 53 June 2003

personalized ventilation case, and a displacement venti-
lation case.
(1) By using occupant air-exchange efficiency, the
overall ventilation effect may be evaluated more
comprehensively. A two-dimensional ventilation
case shows that the occupant air-exchange effi-
ciency may be larger if fresh air replaces the air of
the occupied region well.
(2) For personalized ventilation, it is more reasonable
to estimate the ventilation effect by occupant
air-exchange efficiency because of the distinct
characteristic of this kind of ventilation.
(3) For displacement ventilation, occupant air-
exchange efficiency is much larger than mean
air-exchange efficiency, which clearly indicates
the key characteristic of this kind of ventilation.
All these cases show clearly that the revised air-
exchange efficiency may be adopted to improve the eval-
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uation criterion of ventilation effect. Otherwise, a system
that is designed to improve indoor air quality may be
evaluated poorly by the existing criterion.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study is officially supported by the National Nature
Science Foundation of Beijing, China, under grant
8032010.
Volume 53 June 2003
Zhao, Li, Li, and Yang
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2. Li, X.; Jiang, Y. Calculating Air Age in a Ventilated Room with CFD
Method; J. Tsinghua Univ. (Sci. Technol.) 1998, 38, 28-31 (in Chinese).
3. Zhao, B.; Li, X.; Yan, Q. A Simplified System for Indoor Airflow Sim-
ulation; Building Environ. 2003, 38, 543–552.
4. Launder, B.E.; Spalding, D.B. The Numerical Computation of Turbu-
lent Flows; Comp. Methods Appl. Mechanics Energy 1974, 3, 269-289.
5. Chen, Q.; Xu, W. A Zero-Equation Turbulence Model for Indoor Air
Flow Simulation; Energy Build. 1998, 28, 137-144.
6. Said, M.N.A.; Jouini, D.B.; Plett, E.G. Influence of Turbulence Param-
eters at Supply Inlet on Room Air Diffusion. In Proceedings of ASME
Winter Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, 1993; American Society of
Mechanical Engineers: New York, 1993; pp 1–5.
7. Yuan, X.; Chen, Q.; Glicksman, L.R.; Hu, Y.; Yang, X. Measurements
and Computations of Room Airflow with Displacement Ventilation;
ASHRAE Trans. 1999, 105, 340-352.
About the Authors
Bin Zhao, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department
of Engineering Mechanics at Tsinghua University in Beijing,
China. Xianting Li, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the
Department of Building Science, part of the School of Ar-
chitecture at Tsinghua University. Dongning Li works for the
department, and Jianrong Yang is a Ph.D. candidate there.
Address correspondence to: Dr. Xianting Li, Department of
Building Science, School of Architecture, Tsinghua Univer-
sity, Beijing, 100084, China; phone: 86 –10-62785860; fax:
86 –10-62773461; e-mail: xtingli@tsinghua.edu.cn.
Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association 763