BUILD SIMUL

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-020-0683-5

Numerical investigation of indoor air quality in a floor heated room

with different air change rates

Research Article
Mustafa Mutlu ()

Bursa Uludag University, Vocational School of Yenisehir Ibrahim Orhan, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Tech. Program, 16900 Yenisehir,
Bursa, Turkey

Abstract Keywords
Nowadays, indoor air quality is no longer considered as providing thermal comfort. The pollutant particle concentration,
concentration in the ambient air (CO2, O3, particulate matter, etc.) is an essential factor affecting indoor air quality,
both indoor air quality and human health negatively. Particle motion in a room is affected by air floor heating,
movements caused by heating systems and infiltration and needs to be examined. Therefore, this air change rates
study aims to explain how infiltration rates in a room with floor heating affect both thermal
conditions and particularly the particle concentration and distribution. In this study, the discrete
Article History
Received: 12 December 2019
phase model (DPM) was used for particle tracking using commercial software ANSYS FLUENT. It
Revised: 18 June 2020
was assumed that drag, lift, thermophoretic and Brownian forces were affecting particle motions.
Accepted: 20 June 2020
It was seen that air change rates influence both thermal comfort and energy consumption as well
as particle distribution significantly. It was found that increasing air change rates causes a rise in
© Tsinghua University Press and
particle concentration in all sizes of particles, specifically for the lower parts of the room (below Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany,
0.75 m from the floor). It is recommended to place air purifying devices where the outdoor part of Springer Nature 2020
sourced air infiltrates the room. Additionally, an index that contains thermal comfort and particle
concentration together was defined and its distribution in the room was examined. It is found that
the air change rate is a critical factor in obtaining desired indoor air quality, but outdoor air
conditions may worsen the indoor quality due to air pollution. As the air change rate significantly
alters the airflow in the room, both thermal comfort perception and particle concentrations vary
considerably.

1 Introduction using a heat pump can ventilate the environment. There are
three different ventilation modes: displacement ventilation,

People spend most of their time indoors as a result of city
life. Due to much time is spending in enclosed places such as
office, school and houses should be continuously monitored
in terms of both work efficiency and human health and
appropriate comfort conditions should be provided. The
World Health Organization reports that pollutants in indoor
environments have a severe impact on human health (WHO
2010). The most critical parameter affecting the distribution
and concentration of pollutants in a room during winter
conditions is the systems used for heating purposes and
ventilation (Nazaroff 2004; Nõu and Viljasoo 2011; Golkarfard
and Talebizadeh 2014; Zhou et al. 2017; Dehghan and
Abdolzadeh 2018). Heating methods that supply hot air
Indoor/Outdoor Airflow
mixing ventilation and underfloor air distribution. In
and Air Quality
displacement ventilation, fresh conditioned air is supplied
from the floor level of the room with very low velocity. In
contrast, the mechanical power or natural ventilation is
used for providing fresh air in mixing ventilation. The other
method is to locating fresh air ducts under the floor and
collecting polluted air from the ceiling level.
Holmberg and Li (1998) showed that ventilation had a
significant effect on the deposition of particle; moreover,
particle concentration could be altered notably by ventilation
rates. On the other hand, Gao and Niu (2007) stated that
the effect of a ventilation system on particle deposition was
negligible, but particle concentration values were lower in

E-mail: mustafamutlu@uludag.edu.tr
2 Mutlu / Building Simulation
displacement ventilation mode than underfloor air distribution
systems. Chen et al. (2006), made both experiments and
numerical studies on particle concentrations. Zhao and Wu
(2005) studied the particle distributions in a clean room
and they concluded that particle source location, ventilation
mode and air change rates influenced particle deposition in
a cleanroom considerably. Source location was also investigated
by Zhong et al. (2010) and they found that particle con-
centration was slightly influenced by source location in
mixing ventilation while in an underfloor heating distribution
system, source location has a significant effect on particle
concentrations. Holmberg and Chen (2003) proposed an
additional exhaust to control particle concentrations in the
respiratory region in a classroom. The numerical study by
Zhao et al. (2004) shows that the ventilation system is critical
regarding particle concentrations; also, higher concentration
values have been calculated in mixed ventilation mode than
that of displacement ventilation. Particle concentration when
the ventilation system’s fan stopped were examined by Rim
and Novoselac (2008) and they pointed out that particle
concentration could reach thirty times higher than that of
mixing flow in some parts of the room when the fan was
turned off.
On the other hand, in ventilation systems, end-user able
to adjust flow rates however, it is not possible to do it in a
heating system used in houses and people choose floor or
radiator heating systems for heating purposes in residents.
The floor heating system usually works with hot water passing
through the pipes laid on the ground. The advantage of this
system is less energy consumption comparing to other
systems as it operates at low temperatures. In the radiator
heating system, hot water passes through the radiators located
where to be heated. Heat transfer surface area is limited to
radiator dimensions and it is quite low compared to floor
heating systems. Therefore, water temperature is higher than
that of the floor heating system. Although there are different
heating systems, floor heating is a widely used system in
terms of energy efficiency (Bojić et al. 2013) thus its effect on
pollutant concentrations should be investigated. Golkarfard
and Talebizadeh (2014) compared floor heating and radiator
heating systems regarding particle distributions and deposition
rates. They have stated that particle deposition is higher in
the floor heating system and the particles tend to deposit on
the ceiling and the floor in underfloor heating and radiator
heating systems, respectively.
Heating systems parameters like type, power, placing are
dominant on air motions and as well as particle motions.
Heating system type (floor heating, radiator heating, stove,
heat pump, etc.) is the main parameter affecting particle
concentrations, as particle motion is highly related to air
velocities in indoors. There are different heating methods
and each heating system has its unique influence on velocity
and temperature distribution in an enclosed environment.
Additionally, positioning heating systems can change the
airflow in indoors remarkably. The power of these systems
controls the indoor temperature; thus, gravitational and
thermophoretic forces can be affected by control approaches
of heating systems. Zhou et al. (2017) have studied these
parameters and they have reported that particle deposition
could ascend by increasing inlet velocity and floor temperature.
However, Zhuang et al. (2017) reported that increasing air
velocity improves the required time to obtain better air
quality, but final particle concentrations in central or split
type air conditioners remain the same. Dehghan and
Abdolzadeh (2018) examined the distribution of particles
in a room for three different heating systems, which are
the underfloor, radiator and skirt boarding heating. They
compared the particle concentrations in the breathing zone
of a mannequin, which is placed in the middle of the room,
and they calculated that the lowest concentration is for the
skirt boarding system. They stated that due to the presence
of the heat source in the environment, the particles tend to
trap on the walls instead of leaving the medium.
Particles smaller than 10 μm are particularly important
for human health as they can penetrate the human body.
Particles between 5 and 10 μm in which their motion highly
influenced by airflow are generally filtered in the nose and
pharyngeal region. The motion of smaller particles (1–5 μm)
is ruled by diffusion and these sized particles can reach alveoli
(Owen et al. 1992). In the literature, researchers studied the
various sizes of particles, mostly covering the range discussed
above. Sippola and Nazaroff (2003) investigated 0.01–100 μm
particles in ventilation ducts; in a cleanroom, Zhao and
Wu (2005) studied 0.3–20 μm particles. When studies were
examined in the aspect of indoor air quality, Golkarfard and
Talebizadeh (2014) simulated 0.3–10 μm particles. Similarly,
Dehghan and Abdolzadeh (2018) investigated 0.1, 1 and
10 μm particles in a room heated with different methods.
In this study, air velocity and temperature distributions
in an environment heated by floor heating were determined
using numerical methods and five different sized particles
were tracked by discrete phase modeling (DPM). Despite
particle concentration and distribution in a room heated by
floor heating system had been studied, the infiltration rate
as a particle source was not included in previous works. Both
thermal comfort and air pollutant concentration are used
to describe the indoor air quality. Generally, thermal comfort
and particle concentration has been considered individually
in most cases and needs to be handled together to describe
a total indoor quality level. In this study, the effect of
five different air change rates on particle concentrations in
a room was reported. Combined thermal and particulate
matter concentration index (CTPI) is defined to examine
the indoor air quality, including thermal sensation and
Mutlu / Building Simulation
particle concentrations. The indoor air quality can be
evaluated with a single parameter using this index.
2 Method
2.1 Geometrical model
In order to investigate the underfloor heating system,
experimental data by Olesen et al. (1980) were taken as a
reference. The model of this room was created and velocity
and temperature distributions and particle concentrations
were calculated. This model has been accepted in the
literature and it has been preferred by other researchers
(Myhren and Holmberg 2006, 2008, 2009; Horikiri et al.
2014; Dehghan and Abdolzadeh 2018), so that it is possible
to be compared with similar studies. The schematic view of
the room was given in Figure 1.
2.2 Numerical method and boundary conditions
In this study, commercial software FLUENT was used for
solving mass, momentum, energy equations and calculating
DPM variables. PRESTO! method was chosen and second-
order discretization was applied for other quantities while
the SIMPLEC algorithm was used for pressure-velocity
coupling. Gravitational force caused by density change was
included in simulations by using incompressible ideal gas
approach for density calculation. The low Reynolds k-ε
turbulence model, which was developed to be used at low
velocity, was chosen. This turbulence model is also have
preferred in similar studies (Myhren and Holmberg 2008;
Sakai et al. 2011). Boundary conditions are given in Figure 1
and the total heat transfer coefficient values for surfaces
were taken the same as the values of the experimental setup
by Olesen et al. (1980). The heat losses from the surfaces, in
case the air change rate is 0.8 ach, were calculated when the
Fig. 1 Geometrical model of the room and boundary conditions
3
outdoor and indoor temperatures were −5 °C and 22 °C,
respectively. In these calculations, the thermal resistance
method was used and total heat transfer coefficients of the
walls were taken from Olesen et al. (1980). Then the heat
flux was calculated by heat loss value and was applied to
the floor surface as a heat flux boundary condition. The
heat flux applied to the ground was determined as 64 W/m2,
according to the calculations mentioned above. It has been
accepted that heat is transferred from outer surfaces by
both convection and radiation to the environment and the
heat transfer coefficient of surfaces is taken as 7 W/(m2·K)
being an average value of similar research (Dehghan and
Abdolzadeh 2018). The heat flux, applied to the floor, was
determined by using user-defined functions to keep the
room at 22 °C. Thus the effect of other air exchange rates
was examined at the same temperature. The air inlet was
provided with 48 holes around the window, similar to the
study in reference (Olesen et al. 1980), and the outlet was
defined on the back wall.
2.3 Particle tracking
Firstly, steady-state velocity and temperature profiles in the
entire room were obtained then 15000 particles with density
and specific heat of 1550 kg/m3 and 1680 J/(kg·K), respectively,
were randomly distributed in the room. Specific heat of the
particle is used for calculating particle temperature during
tracking. In literature, particle density had been assumed in
an extensive range. Some researchers accepted the density
around 1000 kg/s (Lu et al. 1996; Zhao et al. 2004; Zhao
and Wu 2005; Zhuang et al. 2017; Zhang et al. 2017) while
some others take density 2000 kg/s or higher (Liu et al.
2009; Zhang and Chen 2009; Greifzu et al. 2016; Dehghan
and Abdolzadeh 2018). Many researchers have assumed
density as 1400 kg/s (Chen et al. 2006; Zhao and Wu 2007;
Zhao et al. 2008; Golkarfard and Talebizadeh 2014; ).
Considering the particle density is between 1200 kg/s and
1800 kg/s (Morawska et al. 1999), 1550 kg/s is an acceptable
value for an indoor contaminant.
Particle tracking was tested under 5000, 15000 and
30000 particle numbers that randomly distributed in the
room. After 15000 particles, results became stable; thus,
simulations were performed with this number of particles.
As a result of infiltration, particles entered the room with the
same size ones that had been distributed entire room with
the velocity of infiltration velocity and the mass flow rate of
particles was taken as 7 × 10−12 kg/s. Particle mass flow rate
is used for defining the particle concentrations that enters
the room and this rate was taken to supply a sufficient number
of particles in order to simulate a dirty environment that
particle concentration is twenty times of indoor. Although
4 Mutlu / Building Simulation

density of particles has no effect on mass flow rate, it has a cell. Cell concentrations were normalized by dividing the
significant influence on forces affecting on particles. Particles concentration rate in the inlet in order to compare the
were assumed to be trapped in case of hitting any surface of results and evaluate the effect of particle size (Eq. (7)).
the model except outlet boundary. Similar approach was
Ccell
used by many researchers (Chen 2018; Han et al. 2011; C* = (7)
Sadrizadeh and Holmberg 2015; Tao et al. 2020; Wang and CV
Wang 2020; Zhou et al. 2017). Particles were accepted that
they escaped when they hit the outlet boundary condition. 3 Validation
Particles were tracked under transient conditions and it was
observed that the results did not alter after 1200 s. The forces In order to validate the simulation, experimental data of
affecting particles are lift, drag (Eq. (1)), thermophoresis Olesen et al. (1980) were compared with numerical results.
(Eq. (2)) and Brownian Forces (Eq. (3)). In this study, Olesen et al. (1980) measured temperature values in the
drag force (FD) was calculated by using Stokes drag law, center of the room (Z = −1.2 m) both 0.6 meters and 1.8
thermophoretic forces acting on particles were calculated meters away from the window then the average value of these
by Eq. (2) and the Brownian force was calculated using Eq. (3). measurements was presented. The experimental result by
Olesen et al. (1980) in case the ventilation rate is 0.8 ach, is
18μ taken as a reference case and the comparison with numerical
FD = (1)
dp2 ρpCc results was given in Figure 2. For grid independence, analyses
were performed with five different tetrahedral mesh sizes
6πdp μ2Cs (K + Ct Kn) 1 ¶T
Ft = (2) (6 × 105, 1 × 106, 2 × 106, 3 × 106, 4 × 106) and it has been
ρ(1 + 3Cm Kn)(1 + 2K + 2Ct Kn) mpT ¶x
observed that results were to be unchanged more than 2 ×
216 kBT 106 elements. Therefore, solutions were calculated with this
Fb = ζ (3) grid size. In all grid sizes, y+ values adjusted to be around 1
ρp 2
πρdp5( ) Cc Δt as low Reynolds k-ε turbulence model requires this dense
ρ
grid in the near-wall boundary. In order to achieve ideal y+
Saffman lift force due to shear was calculated by Eq. (4) value, the first grid distance was selected as 4 × 10−4 m. A
where K is 2.594 and dij is the deformation tensor. sample generated grid was given in Figure 3.
Measured velocities by Olesen et al. (1980) at 0.6 m in
2K 1/2 ρdij
FS = (u - up ) (4) front of the window with a height of 0.1 m and 1.2 m was
ρp dp (dlk dkl )1/4 11 cm/s and 6 cm/s, respectively, while in this study velocity
values at same locations were calculated as 15 cm/s and
Force balance on a particle can be written as follows:
5 cm/s, respectively. Additionally, velocity value at 1.8 m in
du p g ( ρp - ρ) front of the window with a 0.1 m height has been measured
= FD (u - up ) + + Ft + Fb + FS (5)
dt ρp as 14 cm/s while it was calculated as 17 cm/s in the present
study. Considering the standard deviation of the measurements,
In these equations, u is the fluid velocity, up is the particle it can be said that the calculated values are consistent with
velocity, ρ is the fluid density, ρp is the particle density, g is the experimental data. Velocity vectors were given in
the gravitational acceleration, dp is the particle diameter, Figure 4 to show that gravitational forces were successfully
Kn is the Knudsen number (2λ/dp) and λ represents the
molecular mean free path, ζ is zero-mean independent
Gaussian random numbers, Cc is the Cunningham correction
factor, K is the ratio of fluid conductivity to particle
conductivity (k/kp), mp is the particle mass, T is the fluid
temperature and μ is the fluid viscosity. Cs, Ct and Cm
coefficients were taken as 1.17, 2.18 and 1.14, respectively.
The concentration of particles in a single cell was
calculated as follows:
mp,a m pt
Ccell = (6)
mpVc

where mp,a is the average particle mass in a cell, m p is the Fig. 2 Comparison of temperature variation with experimental
total mass flow rate of particle and Vc is the volume of the data and numerical results
Mutlu / Building Simulation
captured. It was seen that the direction of the cold air that
entered from the window was downwards and the velocity
of air was higher than in other regions. The air warms up
and its density decreases while passing over floor. Thus the
direction of the air near the back wall is upward.
The experimental data by Chen et al. (2006) were used
Fig. 3 Sample of generated mesh
Fig. 4 Velocity vectors in the center of the room (Z = −1.2 m)
Fig. 5 Experimental setup by Chen et al. (2006) and comparison of particle concentration variation with particle tracking model used in
this study
5
for the validation of particle concentrations. Figure 5 shows
the experimental model by Chen et al. (2006) and the
comparison of normalized particle concentrations results.
Particle concentration was normalized by inlet particle con-
centration. It can be concluded that the particle tracking
model used in this study can be used reliably.
6 Mutlu / Building Simulation
4 Combined thermal and particulate matter con-
centration index (CTPI)
Evaluation of indoor air quality in a living area is not
sufficient to address only thermal conditions or simply by
determining the concentration of pollutants. Assessment of
comfort level of indoor environments can be expressed via
a parameter that contains both thermal comfort conditions
like temperature, air velocity humidity and contaminant
concentrations like PM10, CO2, HCHO, etc. In this study,
combined thermal and particulate matter concentration
index (CTPI) was defined in which both the amount of
pollutant and thermal comfort were handled together
(Eq. (8)). This index physically describes a single indoor air
quality parameter that covers the weighted effects of thermal
comfort and particle concentrations on and the aim of
suggesting this term is to unite the indoor environment
conditions into one parameter.
CTPI = wC * + (1 - w ) PMV (8)
In this index, the thermal comfort was defined by the
PMV index (ISO 2005) and particulate matter was represented
by normalized concentration values calculated by Eq. (7).
In PMV calculations, occupant activity, clothing, radiant
temperature and humidity was assumed 60 W/m2, 1 clo,
22 °C, 50%, respectively, while velocity and temperature
values were taken from simulation results. Thermal comfort
parameters were taken constant by other researchers (Myhren
and Holmberg 2008; Ravikumar and Prakash 2009) similar
to this study or these data was obtained from experiments
in order to use in CFD simulations (Catalina et al. 2009).
The absolute value of the PMV index was used to prevent
CTPI from taking negative values; thus, the maximum
value of CTPI is 4 while the minimum is 0. CTPI values
near zero indicate good indoor air quality. The parameter
w in Eq. (8) shows how vital particle concentration is when
evaluating combined indoor air quality and it was assumed
that w was 0.7 in this study. The indoor air quality perception
is affected by many parameters and it is complicated to
understand which one of these parameters is more important
than others. Even the thermal comfort conditions are met,
people may feel uncomfortable because of CO2 or particle
concentrations. Some survey investigations (De Giuli et al.
2012; Dias Pereira et al. 2014) showed that CO2 levels cause
discomfort in an environment. Moreover, these contaminants
indoors are harmful to human and the influence of these
contaminants concentration has more importance than
thermal comfort parameters. The value of w was assumed
0.7 because the effects of pollutants on human health are
considered to be more effective than thermal equilibrium
conditions. It will be possible to make a correct assumption
on which variable is more dominant by future studies.
5 Results
5.1 Temperature and velocity profiles
When the temperature distributions in the room were
examined (Figure 6), the temperature difference between
floor and ceiling increased with the increase of air change
rate. The temperature difference is 1.1 K for 0.4 ach, while
it is more than 3.3 K for 2.0 ach. Although the average
temperatures in the room are the same, these differences
in the temperature distribution can create discomfort. The
heat flux applied to the floor can be increased up to two
times to keep the room at a constant temperature due to the
increase in air change rate. When the air change rate was
0.8, it was calculated that the maximum floor temperature
was 27.3 °C. Similarly, in other air change rate cases, maximum
floor temperature does not exceed the comfort conditions
value of 29 °C defined by ASHRAE standards (ASHRAE
2017). Only in one case (2.0 ach) surface temperature was
calculated 30.5 °C, which is slightly higher than comfort
conditions. In high air change rates, the power of the heating
system increases to keep the room the same temperature
and it is acceptable for floor temperature exceeding limits.
Temperature distribution of floor surface was given in
Figure 7 when the air change rate is 2.0 as the maximum
floor temperature was calculated in this case. As the cold air
enters from window and using wall flux boundary conditions,
temperature values near front wall is higher than other
areas of the room. When the velocity distributions are
examined (Figure 6), it is observed that the cold air entering
through the window moves towards the ground due to the
density difference, even though its flow rate is high. As the
floor surface is hot, the movement of air here is upward. At
the height of about 0.5 m from the floor, these two dissimilar
air movements combine and begin to move towards the back
wall. As air change rate increases, movement of cold air
become dominant and velocities in the middle of the room
reduce due to air movement taking place through the back
wall of the room. On the other hand, due to the increase of
the heat flux, the more heated air goes upward from the
rear part of the room over the back wall and hot areas are
formed near the ceiling surface. Therefore, the temperature
difference between the floor and the ceiling is increasing.
5.2 Particle concentration
Normalized concentration values on a line in the center of
the room are given in Figure 8. The air change rate has a
significant effect on concentrations, while the particle diameter
slightly affects the concentration values. It was seen that the
concentration values near the floor level were higher than
in other parts of the room, as the thermophoretic forces have
Mutlu / Building Simulation 7

Fig. 6 Velocity and temperature contour plots in the center of the room

Fig. 7 Distribution of floor temperature when air change rate is 2.0

8 Mutlu / Building Simulation
Fig. 8 Normalized concentration values along y direction: (a) dp = 1 μm, (b) dp = 10 μm
a significant influence on particles that enter the room by
infiltration. In particular, there was no difference between
the concentration values in the upper part of the room. On
the other hand, Figure 8 shows that small particles are better
distributed in the room.
The calculated concentration values in the center of the
room (Z = −1.2 m) are given in Figure 9. The particles can
be spread over the entire room due to the air distribution
inside the chamber as particle size decreases. The particles
cannot move towards the upper part of the chamber due to
cold air movement, which is dominant in high air change
rates. However, at low air change rates, particles barely reach
places higher than 0.5 m from the floor except at the back
of the room, but at higher air change rates, particles can
reach higher than 0.75 m. It can be concluded that the most
suitable location of an air purifier for filthy air outdoor
conditions is where the infiltration takes place and areas
close to the floor.
Fig. 9 Normalized particle concentration in the center of the room
The effect of the infiltration rate on particle distribution
can be seen by examining concentration variety along the
x-axis of the room (Figure 10). At low infiltration rates
(0.4 ach), the particles enter the room and move towards
the floor under the effects of gravitational forces. Particles
subsequently disperse into the room by reaching the back
wall just above the floor level and they condense in the
midsection of the room (yz plane center) during this
movement. On the other hand, it was seen that particles
generally dispersed to the room from side walls (edges of
the yz plane) when the infiltration rate was high. The power
of the heating system will be lower to keep the room at a
constant temperature at low infiltration rates and consequently,
the air movements due to density differences get slower.
Besides, the velocity of air that enters the room from an
outer environment will generally be slower as a result of
low air change rates. Low air velocity in the room yields a
single vortex in the middle of the yz plane, while two eddies
Mutlu / Building Simulation
Fig. 10 Normalized particle concentration variation along x direction
are formed near the side walls as the velocities rise. These
eddies develop critical regions in terms of particle distribution
and particle concentration rises in these regions. Therefore,
the infiltration rate is the main parameter affecting particle
distribution in the room.
Surfaces on which the particles are attached have
significant importance in terms of indoor air quality, as
well as particle concentrations. Figure 11 shows particle
adhesion percentages on various surfaces at different
infiltration rates. The air motion inside the room also affects
the surfaces where the particles adhered to. At high infiltration
rates, more than 60% of the particles adhere to the floor,
while at low infiltration rates, it decreases to below 30%.
However, it was observed that particle adhesion rate on the
window surface and on the wall, where the window was
located, was low under high air change rate conditions, while
more than half of particles adhered to these surfaces as the
air change rate decreased. The main factor of this variation
is the different airflows characteristics in the room, as
mentioned earlier. It can be said that this change in airflow
characteristics occurs at an infiltration rate between 0.4 ach
and 0.8 ach. Another effect of these air characteristics can
be seen in particle adhesion rates in the sidewalls. Particle
adhesion is higher on the right and left walls of the room
due to the vortex flow near the side walls at high infiltration
rates, while the particle adhesion on the side walls is significantly
reduced at lower air change rates due to the vortex that
formed in the middle of the yz plane. On the other hand,
the particle diameter was found to have a limited effect on
9
the number of particles that adhered to the surfaces.
The distribution of particles that adhered to surfaces is
also critical for controlling the particles in the environment,
as well as particle adhesion rates. When the surfaces in which
the particles adhered are considered in this respect, the most
important surfaces will be those close to the window in
which the particles enter the room. In this case, due to the
movement of particles towards the floor under the influence
of gravitational forces, the amount of particles adhered near
the window of the floor surface is greater than the other
parts (Figure 12). Therefore, particles with large diameters
adhered to the floor more than other particle sizes. At low
infiltration rates, air motion in the middle of the room
causes particles to accumulate more in the middle of the
floor. However, the particles’ adhesion behavior to the edges
of the floor and sidewalls of the room found increasing
significantly at high air exchange rates.
5.3 Variation of CTPI
CTPI, which is defined in order to evaluate the indoor air
quality in a room by considering both thermal comfort and
particle concentrations together, is given in Figure 13. CTPI
has a strong relation with infiltration because particle
concentrations and temperature distribution in the room
alters notably with air change rates. The heating system aims
to ensure thermal comfort conditions in the room. Therefore,
the PMV index is calculated close to zero, which represents
a thermally comfortable environment. Smaller particles are
10 Mutlu / Building Simulation

Fig. 11 Particle adhesion percentages on different surfaces

Fig. 12 Particle adhesion distribution on floor, right wall and back wall surfaces

better dispersed in the room, causing lower concentration
values than that of larger diameter particles. Consequently,
CTPI value in the room is calculated as close to 0 under low
infiltration conditions. At high infiltration rates, thermally
uncomfortable zones are formed due to an increase in
temperature gradients in the room (Figure 6). Moreover,
large-sized particles cannot spread homogeneously in the
room, so concentration values have found to be higher in
some regions. As a result of these effects, CTPI increases
and exceeds 0.5, in case of high air change rates. In order to
Mutlu / Building Simulation
evaluate how w affects CTPI, calculations were done with
different values of w and results were given in Figure 14.
CTPI decreases while w goes from 0 to 1, because weight of
thermal comfort decreases which is defined by PMV values.
Although, CTPI values can alter with w, the distribution of
Fig. 13 Distribution of CTPI in the middle of the room
Fig. 14 Variation of CTPI with w
11
CTPI is similar in each w values. This situation shows that,
CTPI is capable to specify the critical zones in the room
by handling thermal comfort and particle concentration
together. It is found that the best position in an aspect of
combined indoor air quality at high infiltration rate was the
12
location between the back wall of the room and about 1 m
in front of this wall.
6 Conclusion
In this study, particle motions in a room with a floor heating
system were investigated. The effect of air change rates was
investigated and it was observed that the air sourced from
the external environment by infiltration significantly affected
both the temperature and the velocity distribution in the
room. When considering indoor air quality, a new index,
including both thermal comfort parameters and pollutant
concentrations in the environment, needs to be defined.
The results can be summarized as follows:
 It is recommended to place an air purifying device close
to infiltration sources like windows and doors and its air
intake should not be placed higher than 0.75 m from the
floor level.
 Although the particle concentration in the room increases
with higher air change rates, the concentration values in
the upper parts of the room altered slightly. However,
any infiltration rate in a room where located in a region
that environmental pollution with any particulate diameter,
is a risk for human health, since the change in the particle
diameter does not affect the distribution within the room.
 Indoor air quality can be explained with a single parameter.
Thus, different criteria can be indicated by a single indicator
to determine how good an environment is. The CTPI
index defined in this study gives a successful result in
terms of thermal comfort and particle concentrations.
Acknowledgements
This study is supported by the Scientific and Technology
Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), under project
number 118M222. The author would like to thank TÜBİTAK
for his support.
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