BULLETIN OF FACULTY OF MECHANCAL ENGINEERING VOL, YEAR

CFD Analysis on HVAC System Functionality in An Amphitheater

MD. Mahedi Hasan (1405024)
Supervisor: Md Mahbubur Rahman, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering

1. Introduction Heat generation 100 W/𝑚 3 100 W/𝑚 3

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is the rate
method of indoor and vehicular environmental comfort. Its goal is
to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. Mass Fraction of 0.01, 0.0105, 0.087, 0.095 0.01
HVAC system design is a subdiscipline of mechanical 𝑯𝟐 𝑶 at inlet 0.0115
engineering, based on the principles of thermodynamics, fluid
mechanics, heat transfer and refrigeration.
HVAC is an important part of residential layout such as family 3．Results and discussion
homes, apartment buildings, hotels and medium to large industrial Maximum velocity during Summer is measured 0.36 m𝑠 −1 and
and office buildings such as skyscrapers and hospitals, vehicles
during winter it is 0.18 m𝑠 −1 which is within the acceptable range.
such as cars, trains, airplanes, ships and submarines, and in marine
environments, where safe and healthy building conditions are Apart from near the walls temperature varied 22-24ºC and during
compulsory with respect to temperature and humidity, using fresh winter it was 20-22ºC. Relative humidity appeared slightly higher
air from outdoors. during summer but both falls around RH 60% also in the
comfortable zone.
2. Method
The simulations is performed transient regime, using turbulent
flow and k-ε model, adequate for evaluation of airflow and heat
transfer inside the room. The results obtained prescribe to the
temperature, velocity and relative humidity data inside the
auditorium. Numerical simulations carried out by CFD tool,
ANSYS-Fluent, the differential equations of momentum, energy
and conservation of mass were solved.
Momentum equation:
𝛿 ⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗= -∇𝑝 + ∇(𝜏)
̿ + 𝜌𝑔⃗ + 𝐹⃗
(𝜌𝑣⃗) + ∇𝜌(𝑣⃗𝑣) (1)
𝛿𝑡 Fig 2: Velocity contour for summer

Energy conservation:
𝛿
(𝜌𝐸) + ∇. (𝑣⃗(𝜌𝐸 + 𝑝)) = −∇(∑𝑗 ℎ𝑗 𝐽𝑗 ) + 𝑆ℎ (2)
𝛿𝑡

Conservation of mass:
𝛿𝑝
+ ∇. (𝜌𝑣⃗) = 𝑆𝑚 (3)
𝛿𝑡

The design was performed in DesignModeler. For finer meshing

Fig 3: Temperature contour for summer
the geometry was sub divided into 5 split facing. All the grids are
quadrilateral shaped. The mesh generated has a total of 145907
nodes and 144292 elements.

Fig 4: Relative humidity contour for summer

4. Conclusion
The study aimed to simulate HVAC system functionality in
different situations, summer and winter seasons. The average
Fig.1 Generated mesh in 2D geometry.
velocities, are slightly larger during summer season, due to higher
airflows required. However, this effect doesn’t affect the
Table 1: Boundary Conditions
occupants, because they are within the comfort ones. Also The
variation of humidity noticed small compared to summer season.
Conditions During Summer During Winter
Furthermore, it has been observed that in the wall region there is
the most deviation of temperature and humidity due to the
Inside 22, 23 & 24 ºC 20, 21 & 22 ºC convection with the outside free stream.
Temperature As general conclusion, it can be said that the above results
provide adequate comfort conditions inside the auditorium during
Heat transfer 12 W/𝑚 2 𝑘 24 W/𝑚 2 𝑘
coefficient both seasons.