CFD Modelling of Air Flow Field, Mean Age of Air and CO2 Distributions Inside A Bedroom

Applied Energy xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling of air flow field, mean

age of air and CO2 distributions inside a bedroom with different heights
of conditioned air supply outlet q
Mao Ning a,b, Song Mengjie b,c, Chan Mingyin b, Pan Dongmei d,⇑, Deng Shiming b
a
College of Pipeline and Civil Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, Shandong, China
b
Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
c
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory on Functional Soft Condensed Matter, School of Materials and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
d
School of Mechanical & Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
h i g h l i g h t s
An A/C system at five settings with different heights of supply outlet.

Its ventilation performance was numerically evaluated.
Air flow field, distributions of MAA and CO2 concentrations were studied.
Air change efficiency was studied.
Better performance was achieved with a lower supply outlet.
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: It was revealed in a previous related study that for an air conditioning (A/C) system used in a sleeping
Received 1 December 2014 environment, the height of its supply air outlet would significantly affect its ventilation performance
Received in revised form 12 October 2015 in terms of effectiveness. To further examine the underlying reasons of the differences in ventilation per-
Accepted 13 October 2015
formance, the air flow field, distributions of mean age of air, air change efficiency and distributions of CO2
Available online xxxx
concentrations inside an experimental bedroom were numerically studied using CFD method under five
different settings, where its supply air outlet was positioned at 5 different heights. The study results sug-
Keywords:
gested that positing a supply air outlet at a lower level was effective in both saving energy and removing
Sleeping environments
Mean age of air
the exhaled CO2 in a breathing zone, and when a supply outlet was positioned at a higher level, less CO2
Air change efficiency was removed from the region near the mouth of a sleeper.
CO2 concentration Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Height of supply air outlet
CFD method
1. Introduction gradually studied. Furthermore, it was revealed that carbon diox-

ide, an important index for indoor air quality, may be disruptive
It was commonly acknowledged that the quality of sleep was to normal sleep, since an increased CO2 level would result in
mainly determined by the mental-physical factors of a sleeping arousal [1].
person and the environmental factors in a bedroom. For decades, Residential A/C is widely used to provide occupants with a suit-
the influence of environmental factors on the quality of sleep, such able indoor environment. A large number of numerical researches
as air temperature, air velocity and indoor air quality, have been were carried out on indoor air quality in buildings, such as in
kitchen, apartment and office. Zhou [2] carried out numerically
study on the effect of the suction flow rate of range hood on CO2
q
This article is based on a short proceedings paper in Energy Procedia Volume distribution in a Korean apartment with kitchen. Liu et al. [3] stud-
161 (2014). It has been substantially modified and extended, and has been subject ied the CO2 concentrations in a residential room with CFD method.
to the normal peer review and revision process of the journal. This paper is included The effects of supply air flow rate and thermal buoyancy were
in the Special Issue of ICAE2014 edited by Prof. J Yan, Prof. DJ Lee, Prof. SK Chou, and
studied. It was found out that the reduction of indoor pollutant
Prof. U Desideri.
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +852 2766 5989; fax: +852 2765 7198. levels can be accomplished either by increasing the fresh air ratio,
E-mail address: medmpan@scut.edu.cn (P. Dongmei). or by increasing filtered removal efficiency, or by increasing the
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.10.096
0306-2619/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: Ning M et al. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling of air flow field, mean age of air and CO2 distributions inside
a bedroom with different heights of conditioned air supply outlet. Appl Energy (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.10.096
2 M. Ning et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
Nomenclature
Symbols
E total energy (J) leff effective dynamic viscosity (Pa s)
g gravity acceleration (m/s2) q air density (kg/m3)
h enthalpy (J) s stress tensor (Pa)
keff effective conductivity (W/m k) seff deviatoric stress tensor (Pa)
P pressure (Pa) Ui arbitrary scalar (–)
Qs supply air flow rate (l/s) Ci diffusion coefficient (–)
T air temperature (K) S/i source term of the scalar (–)
t air temperature at a measurement position (°C) RACE Room Air Change Efficiency (%)
toz average air temperature in an occupied zone (°C) se local mean age of the air in the exhaust (–)
ts supply air temperature (°C) hs
i room average age of air (–)
tuz average air temperature in an unoccupied zone (°C) OACE Occupied Air Change Efficiency (%)
Tu turbulence intensity (–) soe local mean age of the air in the exhaust of the occupied
V air velocity (m/s) zone (–)
v air velocity at measurement position (m/s) hso i average age of air in the occupied zone (–)
supplying airflow rate. Screbric et al. [4] conducted numerical supply air outlet (0.207 0.567 m) was placed at 1.103 m above
study on the CO2 distribution around human body in a two- the floor level to deliver the conditioned air to a cuboid
person office. Lau and Chen [5] studied the indoor environment (1.84 0.92 0.6 m), immediately above the bed with mattress,
under a high-cooling load workshop with floor displacement ven- which was designated as an occupied zone in this study for the
tilation system. The results from this study show that a workshop purpose of parameter measurement and results analysis, and
with floor-supply displacement ventilation can improve indoor air return air inlet (0.374 0.420 m) at 0.322 m above the floor level,
quality because the contaminant concentration in the breathing as shown in Fig. 2.
zone is lower than that of mixing system. Noh et al. [6] performed The above experimental setup was established in an experi-
the experimental and numerical research on the indoor air quality mental chamber which was separated into two rooms, Room A
(CO2 concentration) in a lecture room with a mixing ventilation and Room B. Room B was further separated into a larger space
system. It was found that when the ventilation rate is more than and a smaller space by a partition wall. The larger space was used
800 m3/h, the CO2 concentration level is satisfied. as an experimental bedroom, measuring at 3.6 2.6 2.53 m. The
Except for the studies on the indoor air quality during daytime, smaller space was used as a simulated outdoor environment,
investigations were also carried out on the indoor air quality and where the two electrical heaters were placed. Therefore, condi-
ventilation during nighttime. Several studies have been carried tioned air at a required air temperature, relative humidity and air
out on the performance of A/C systems in sleeping environments flow rate can be supplied from Room A to the experimental
[7–9]. Mao et al. [8] developed a simplified ductless bed-based bedroom through the supply air outlet.
task/ambient air conditioning (TAC) system so as to make it appli-
cable to a real bedroom, and investigated its operating perfor-
2.2. Geometry model
mance in terms of thermal control, ventilation effectiveness and
energy saving. The results of this further study revealed that the
A geometry model was established for the experimental bed-
different air conditioning (A/C) systems with different heights out-
room, as shown in Fig. 1. Its dimensions are shown in Fig. 2. To
lets have their own pros and cons in aspects of ventilation, thermal
illustrate the impacts of different heights of supply air outlet on
and energy saving performances, and for an A/C applied to a sleep-
ventilation performance, the supply outlet was designed at five dif-
ing environment the height of its supply outlet would significantly
ferent heights: 800, 1100, 1400, 1700 and 2000 mm above the floor
affect its operating performances. And then a follow-up study to
level, corresponding to five settings: H800, H1100, H1400, H1700
explore a suitable height of supply outlet for the A/C system to
and H2000. More detailed description of the experimental
obtain the best performances considering the three aspects was
carried out [9]. This study revealed that for an A/C system used
in a sleeping environment, the height of its supply air outlet signif- Sectional plane
icantly affected its ventilation performance. However, the detailed
indoor air flow and CO2 transportation were not investigated.
Therefore, to further examine the underlying reasons for the differ-
ences in ventilation performance, the air flow field, distributions of
Supply outlet
mean age of air, air change efficiency and distributions of CO2 con-
centrations inside an experimental bedroom were numerically
studied using CFD method under five settings, where its supply
air outlet was placed at 5 different heights. The CFD study results Window
are reported in this paper.
2. Numerical study
2.1. Experimental setup

Bed with mattress Thermal manikin Return inlet
An experimental setup was established for the experimental
study and validation of the numerical study. In the A/C system, a Fig. 1. A simulated experimental bedroom (H1100 setting).
M. Ning et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2015) xxx–xxx 3
Supply outlet Unoccupied zone
1500
H2000
H1700
1840
1000
H1400
2530
2000
H1100
1700
600
200
1400
H800
1100
1100
800
1770
420
320
2600 3620
Return inlet Occupied zone
Fig. 2. Schematics of five settings used in the numerical study.
accurate computational result, 10 layers of prism mesh were gen-

erated in wall-normal direction to guarantee y + <1 [10], as shown
Unoccupied zone in Fig. 3(c).
Occupied zone 2.4. CFD method
A commercial CFD code (Fluent) [10] was used to compute the

Thermal manikin air flow and heat transfer inside the experimental bedroom. The
SIMPLE algorithm was used with a second order scheme for the
Bed and mattress convective terms. The SST turbulence model [11], which takes
advantages of both k e model and k x model and performs
(a) Sectional view of the mesh for computational domain best in predicting air velocity and temperature fields inside a room
[12,13], was used for solving the governing equations.
Continuity equation:
@q
vÞ ¼ 0
þ r ðq~ ð1Þ
@t
Momentum equation:
@
v Þ þ r ðq~
ðq~ v~
v Þ ¼ rP þ r ðsÞ þ q~g ð2Þ
@t
(b) Surface mesh of the thermal manikin
is the stress tensor, and q~
where p is the static pressure, s g is the
gravitational body force.
Energy equation:
@
v ðqE þ pÞÞ ¼ r qkeff rT h þ ðseff ~
ðqEÞ þ r ð~ vÞ ð3Þ
@t
where keff is the effective conductivity, and E is expressed as:
p v2
(c) Detailed mesh structure for the region near the thermal manikin E¼h þ ð4Þ
q 2
Fig. 3. Mesh details for the geometry model.
bedroom and thermal manikin (to simulate a sleeper) can be found Table 1
Boundary conditions of the CFD method.
in the previous related paper [9]. In order to analyze the simulation
results, the simulated experimental bedroom was divided into two Boundary Conditions
zones: an occupied zone and an unoccupied zone, as shown in Supply outlet Supply air temperature (ts) 23 °C, supply air flow rate
Fig. 2, and a sectional plane is shown in Fig. 1. (Qs) 50 l/s, and fresh air flow rate (Qf) 6.5 l/s, Ssi zero
CO2 outlet Steady exhalation, CO2 flow rate 1 l/min, Ssi zero
Return inlet Pressure outlet, Ssi gradient zero
Thermal manikin 16 body parts with fixed heat flux [3], emissivity 0.07,
2.3. Mesh generation
Ssi gradient zero
External wall Fixed heat flux [3], emissivity 0.1, Ssi gradient zero
For exactly simulating airflow around complicated geometries, Window Fixed heat flux [3], emissivity 0.94, Ssi gradient zero
and reducing the number of meshes, unstructured grids and struc- Bed Adiabatic wall, emissivity of 0.77, Ssi gradient zero
tured grids were separately generated for the occupied zone and Floor Adiabatic wall, emissivity of 0.2, Ssi gradient zero
Other walls Adiabatic wall, emissivity of 0.07, Ssi gradient zero
the unoccupied zone. The sectional view of the mesh for the occu-
pied zone and unoccupied zone is shown in Fig. 3(a). To get a more (Gan [16]; Bartak et al. [17]; Hu and Chuah [18]).
Unoccupied zone C B A 3.4

3.2 Near manikin mouth Simulated Measured
Position B1.7 Simulated Measured
3.0
460
900 Occupied zone
K J I Position F1.7 Simulated Measured
D 2.8
2.6
L M N
900
475 475 425

2.4
2.2
E F G
400
CN
2.0
620 1250 1250 500 1.8
1.6
Fig. 4. Plan view of the experimental bedroom. 1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
To simulate the CO2 concentrations inside the bedroom, the 0.6
species transport were solved: -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
! Fresh air flow rate (L/s)
rðq~
uY i Þ r J i ¼ Si ð5Þ
Fig. 7. The comparisons between the simulated and measured CO2 concentrations
! lt rT near manikin mouth and unoccupied zone, at B1.7 and F1.7 positions (CN = (C Cs)/
J i ¼ qDi;m þ rY i DT;i ð6Þ (Cr Cs) [22], B1.7 represents 1.7 m above the floor level at location B).
Sct T
Simulated Measured Simulated Measured
2.0 2.0 1.2 1.2
1.8 1.8
1.1 1.1
1.6 1.6
1.4 1.4 1.0

1.0
Height (m)
Height (m)
1.2 1.2
Height
Height
1.0 1.0 0.9 0.9
0.8 0.8
0.8 0.8
0.6 0.6
0.4 0.4 0.7
0.7
0.2 0.2
0.0 0.0 0.6
0.6
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3
TEM TEM TEM TEM
Location D Location G Location I Location M
Fig. 5. The comparisons between simulated and measured air temperatures, at four measurement locations (TEM = (t ts)/(tr ts) [22]).
Simulated Measured Simulated Measured
2.0 2.0 1.2 1.2

1.8 1.8
1.1 1.1
1.6 1.6
1.4 1.4
1.0 1.0
1.2 1.2
Height
Height
Height
Height
1.0 1.0 0.9 0.9
0.8 0.8
0.8 0.8
0.6 0.6
0.4 0.4 0.7
0.7
0.2 0.2
0.0 0.0 0.6 0.6
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
U U U U
Location D Location G Location I Location M
Fig. 6. The comparisons between simulated and measured air velocities, at four measurement locations (U = v/vs [23]).
To predict the radiation inside the experimental bedroom, the where t is time (s), q the fluid density (kg m3), Ui the scalar to be
surface-to-surface (S2S) radiation model was used to compute solved (namely the age of air), v is the fluid velocity (m/s), Ci the
the radiation heat exchange between the surfaces in the experi- diffusion coefficient of the scalar Ui, and SUi the source term of
mental bedroom. The emissivities of each surface used in this the scalar Ui, leff effective viscosity of the air.
model are shown in Table 1. More detailed information of this radi-
ation model had been presented in a previous related study [14].
To obtain the mean age of air (MAA) inside a bedroom, user- 2.5. Boundary conditions
defined scalars can be used to implement the calculation of local
MAA [10,15]. To calculate the transport of an arbitrary scalar Ui, The boundary conditions used in the CFD method are summa-
one additional convection-diffusion equation was solved, as rized in Table 1.
follows:
@ q/i 2.6. Validation
r ðCi r/i Þ ¼ S/i ð7Þ
@t
To validate the CFD method, an experimental A/C system at
leff
Ci ¼ 2:88 105 q þ ð8Þ H1100 setting was established in an experimental bedroom, simi-
0:7 lar to that shown in Fig. 1. The dimensions and measurement
(a) at H800 Setting (b) at H1100 Setting
(c) at H1400 Setting (d) at H1700 Setting
(e) at H2000 Setting

Fig. 8. Air temperature distributions and streamlines on the sectional plane inside the simulated experimental bedroom, at the five settings.
locations for air temperatures, air velocities and CO2 concentra- the unoccupied zone: B1.7 and F1.7 and near the mouth of the
tions are shown in Fig. 4. thermal manikin.
For five settings only the heights of the supply outlet were dif- Figs. 5–7 show the comparisons between the simulated and
ferent, therefore, the flow mechanisms of natural, forced and measured air temperatures, velocities and CO2 concentrations,
mixed convections inside the bedroom were similar, which meant and good agreements between the simulated and measured
the same flow characteristics, such as impingement, reattachment, data were displayed. As seen, the simulated air temperatures
circulation, separation, buoyancy and vortices at the five different and velocities in the unoccupied zone agreed well with the
settings [19]. Furthermore, the characteristics of heat transfer measured ones, such as at locations D and G. The measured and
inside the room were also the same due to similar convection simulated CO2 concentrations at B1.7 and F1.7 measurement
and radiation at the five settings [19]. Therefore, according to the positions and near the mouth of the manikin in the unoccupied
validation procedures and criterion reported in a previous study zone were compared in Fig. 7. As seen, there are good agreements
[20], the validation of the CFD method was only performed using between the simulated data and the measured data. Based on the
the experiments at H1100 setting, by comparing the measured suggestions from a previous study [21], this CFD method was
and simulated air velocities and air temperatures at the following validated with an accepted accuracy and can be used to predict
four measurement positions: D, G, I and M, shown in Fig. 4, and the air flow field, air temperature field and CO2 transportation inside
measured and simulated CO2 concentrations at two positions in the experimental bedroom.
(a) at H800 setting (b) at H1100 setting
(c) at H1400 setting (d) at H1700 setting
(e) at H2000 setting

Fig. 9. MAA distributions inside the simulated experimental bedroom, at the five settings.
100 directly and thus influenced little on the unoccupied zone, where
OACE RACE the averaged air temperature was around 32 °C, as seen in Fig. 8
90
(a). At H1100 setting, due to a relative higher supply outlet than
80 H800 setting, the conditioned air was diffused into the occupied
zone, and an eddy was resulted in above the head of the manikin.
Air change efficiency (%)
70
The region with a low air temperature expanded due to a greater
60 influence of the conditioned air on the unoccupied zone. At other
three settings, the conditioned air was delivered to the tail part
50
of the occupied zone and then flowed into the unoccupied zone,
40 and thus had a significant effect on the air flow patterns in the
unoccupied zone, with large scale eddies far away from the bed.
30 Vertical temperature gradients were obtained at the five set-
20 tings. With an increase in the height of the supply outlet, the ver-
tical temperature gradient was decreased and the entire room was
10 cooled down, suggesting more conditioned air was delivered to the
0 unoccupied zone.
800 1100 1400 1700 2000
Heights of supply outlet (mm)
3.2. Distributions of mean age of air (MAA)
Fig. 10. Air change efficiencies at the five settings.
MAA values reflect the flow characteristics of supply air, and
can, therefore, be adopted to evaluate supply air distributions. As
3. Results and analysis seen in Fig. 9, there was a large region with high MAA values, up
to 1000 s in the upper part of the unoccupied zone at H800 and
3.1. Temperature and air flow fields H1100 settings, indicating that the supply air affected little on
the movement of air in this region. The MAA value in the region
Fig. 8 shows air temperature distributions and streamlines on near the sleeper were significantly lower, at less than 10 s at
the sectional plane inside the simulated experimental bedroom, H800 setting, but was increased to 500 s at H2000 setting. In par-
at the five settings. At H800 setting, the conditioned air was deliv- ticular for the region near the head, the MAA value at H800 setting
ered close to the thermal manikin, and flowed to the return inlet was much lower, suggesting that it took less time to deliver the

Fig. 11. Distributions of CO2 concentration on the sectional plane at the five settings.
supply air to this region at H800 setting than at other three set- local mean age of the air in the room. Considering the division of
tings. Therefore, the A/C system at H800 setting created a more the bedroom into occupied and unoccupied zones, two types of
effective air flow distribution to help remove the exhaled CO2 from air change efficiency were used. One was Room Air Change Effi-
a sleeper. ciency (RACE) on the air change efficiency in an entire room and
is calculated using Eq. (9), and the other Occupied zone Air Change
3.3. Air change efficiency Efficiency (OACE) on the air change efficiency in the occupied zone
and is calculated using Eq. (10).
The air change efficiency was evaluated based on the local MAA se
in the exhaust, se, and the room average age of the air [24,25]. The RACE ¼ 100 ½% ð9Þ
2 hs
i
room average age of air hs i is defined as the average value of all
(ppm)

Fig. 12. CO2 path lines at the five settings.
soe (1) Different configurations of the room or the heights of outlets

OACE ¼ 100 ½% ð10Þ
2 hso i result in totally different flow patterns inside the bedroom,
which indirectly formed different temperature field, velocity
where se is local mean age of the air in the exhaust, hs i room aver- field and CO2 concentration distributions. The temperature
age age of air, soe local mean age of the air in the exhaust of the field and velocity field demonstrated clearly the distribu-
occupied zone, and hso i average age of air in the occupied zone. tions of conditioned air inside the bedroom. This brings
According to the equations, a fully mixture of inlet air and exist- about different ventilation performance for different
ing indoor air, will result in an ACE of 50% [26]. Therefore, when the settings.
efficiency is lower than 50%, air supply should be increased to (2) The calculation of MAA values is an effective method to
ensure an appropriate IAQ level. reveal the flow of conditioned air. The lower MAA value in
As seen, in Fig. 10, with the increase in the height of a supply the region near the sleeper at H800 setting is a good indica-
outlet, the value of OACE peaked at the height of 1100 mm, and tor of the well ventilated zones. It suggests that the A/C sys-
then decreased at the remaining three heights of 1400, 1700 and tem at H800 setting created a more effective air flow
2000 mm. However, the profile of RACE differed from that of OACE. distribution to help remove the exhaled CO2 from a sleeper.
The value of RACE increased continuously with the increase in the (3) The Occupied zone Air Change Efficiency (OACE) does not
height of the supply air outlet. This indicated that a lower height of have a monotonic relation with the height of outlet, but
the supply outlet enhanced the air change efficiency in the occu- has a peak value at the height of 1100 mm. It’s different from
pied zone, but influenced less on the unoccupied zone, leading to the Room Air Change Efficiency (RACE). Considering the
a lower value of RACE. MAA distributions, it’s more suitable to use OACE to evaluate
the air change efficiency inside a space.
(4) The CO2 concentration distribution and CO2 flow path line
3.4. Distributions of CO2 concentrations suggest that at H1100 setting, due to the flow eddy near
the head, the exhaled CO2 was forced stagnant even the
The CO2 concentrations in the simulated experimental bedroom MAA value in this region was lower. This indicates that the
at the five settings were nondimensionalized according to [22]: evaluation of ventilation using the occupied zone may have
deviations with the real situation. Therefore, it’s best to give
CN ¼ ðC C s Þ=ðC r C s Þ ð11Þ a breathing zone to evaluate the ventilation more exactly in
the future work.
where C is CO2 concentration at a specific point; Cs is CO2 concentra-
tion in supply air; Cr is CO2 concentration in return air.
Fig. 11 shows the distributions of CO2 concentration on the sec- Acknowledgements
tional plane at the five settings. As seen, at the H800 setting, the
CO2 concentrations were lower in the region near the mouth. This The study reported in this paper is funded by the PhD stu-
indicated that the conditioned air from the supply outlet effec- dentship of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, by The Hong
tively took the CO2 away from the mouth to outside the occupied Kong Polytechnic Research Fund G-YL28 and supported by ‘‘the
zone, resulting in a lower CO2 concentration in the region near Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities”.
the mouth. At H1100 setting, although the MAA values in the
region near the mouth were significantly lower, suggesting that
References
the supply air was directly delivered to this region, the CO2 concen-
trations in this region were much higher. In view of the higher CO2 [1] Hedemark LL, Kronenberg RS. Ventilatory and heart rate responses to hypoxia
concentration levels in the region between the head and the wall, a and hypercapnia during sleep in adults. J Appl Physiol 1982;53:307–12.
[2] Zhou JQ. Numerical investigation of indoor CO2 concentration distribution in
circulation was supposed to be created by a higher velocity above
an apartment. In: SHB 2010-3rd International symposium on sustainable
the head in this region, preventing the exhaled CO2 from flowing healthy buildings; Seoul, Korea; 27 May 2010.
away from the mouth and forcing the CO2 to stay in the region near [3] Liu D, Zhao FY, Wang HQ, Rank E. Turbulent transport of airborne pollutants in
the head, leading to a higher CO2 concentration. At the other three a residential room with a novel air conditioning unit. Int J Refrig
2012;35:1455–72.
settings, since the supply air was delivered to the unoccupied zone, [4] Screbric J, Vukovic V, He GQ, Yang XD. CFD boundary conditions for
as shown in Fig. 11, the impacts of fresh air on removing the CO2 contaminant dispersion heat transfer and airflow simulations around human
near the mouth were weakened and higher CO2 concentrations occupants in indoor environments. Build Environ 2008;43:294–303.
[5] Lau J, Chen QY. Floor-supply displacement ventilation for workshops. Build
resulted in. Environ 2007;42:1718–30.
It is observed from Fig. 12 that CO2 was spreaded into the occu- [6] Noh KC, Jang JS, Oh MD. Thermal comfort and indoor air quality in the lecture
pied and unoccupied zones. The pathlines were visualized using room with 4-way cassette air-conditioner and mixing ventilation system. Build
Environ 2007;42:689–98.
the CO2 concentrations. Except at the H800 setting where the [7] Pan DM, Chan MY, Deng SM, Xia L, Xu X. Numerical studies on the
CO2 was carried away with the supply air, the CO2 either stayed microclimate around a sleeping person and the related thermal neutrality
near the mouth, e.g. at H1100 setting, or flowed back to the zone issues. Ergonomics 2011;54:1088–100.
[8] Mao N, Pan DM, Deng SM, Chan MY. Thermal, ventilation and energy saving
near the mouth, e.g. at H1400, H1700 or H2000 settings, leading
performance evaluations of a ductless bed-based task/ambient air
to a higher level of CO2 concentration near the mouth. conditioning (TAC) system. Energy Build 2013;66:297–305.
[9] Mao N, Pan DM, Chan MY, Deng SM. Performance evaluation of an air
conditioning system with different heights of supply outlet applied to a
sleeping environment. Energy Build 2014;77:281–91.
4. Conclusions [10] ANSYS FLUENT User’s Guide. Southpointe: ANSYS, Inc.; 2010.
[11] Menter FR. Two-equation eddy-viscosity turbulence models for engineering
applications. AIAA J 1994;32:1598–605.
This paper reports a numerical study on the effects of different
[12] Hu C, Kurabuchi T, Ohba M. Numerical study of cross-ventilation using two-
heights of supply air outlet on the ventilation performance of an A/ equation rans turbulent models. Int J Vent 2005;4:123–32.
C system. The detailed air flow field, distributions of MAA values [13] Stamou A, Katsiris I. Verification of a CFD model for indoor airflow and heat
and distributions of CO2 concentration inside the experimental transfer. Build Environ 2006;41:1171–81.
[14] Raithby GD, Chui EH. A finite-volume method for predicting a radiant heat
bedroom clearly illustrated the underlying reasons of the differ- transfer in enclosures with participating media. J Heat Transfer
ences in ventilation performance. It can be concluded as follows: 1990;112:415–23.
[15] Chanteloup V, Mirade PS. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling of [20] Chen Q, Srebric J. A procedure for verification, validation and reporting of
local mean age of air distribution in forced-ventilation food plants. J Food Eng indoor environment CFD analyses. HVAC&R Res 2002;8:201–16.
2009:90–103. [21] Sørensen DN. Radiation between segments of the seated human body.
[16] Gan G. Effective depth of fresh air distribution in rooms with single-sided ROOMVENT 2002;1:317–20.
natural ventilation. Energy Build 2000;31:65–73. [22] Kobayashi N, Chen Q. Floor-supply displacement ventilation in a small office.
[17] Bartak M, Beausoleil-Morrison I, Clarke JA, Denev J, Drkal F, Lain M, et al. Indoor Built Environ 2003;12:281–92.
Integrating CFD and building simulation. Build Environ 2002;37:865–71. [23] Srebric J, Chen Q. Simplified numerical models for complex air supply
[18] Hu SC, Chuah YK. Deterministic simulation and assessment of air recirculation diffusers. HVAC&R Res 2002;8:277–94.
performance of unidirectional-flow clean rooms that incorporate age of air [24] Mundt E, Mathisen HM, Nielsen PV, Moser A. Ventilation
concept. Build Environ 2003;38:563–70. effectiveness. Forssa: Rehva; 2004.
[19] Zhai Z, Zhang Z, Zhang W, Chen Q. Evaluation of various turbulence [25] Etheridge D, Sandberg M. Building ventilation theory measurements. Baffins
models in predicting airflow and turbulence in enclosed environments by Lane: John Wiley & Sons; 1996.
CFD: Part-1: summary of prevalent turbulence models. HVAC&R Res [26] ANSI/ASHRAE 129-1997 (RA 2002), Measuring air change effectiveness.
2007;13:853–70. Atlanta: ASHRAE; 2002.

CFD Modelling of Air Flow Field, Mean Age of Air and CO2 Distributions Inside A Bedroom

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

CFD Modelling of Air Flow Field, Mean Age of Air and CO2 Distributions Inside A Bedroom

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Applied Energy xxx (2015) xxx–xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling of air flow field, mean

An A/C system at five settings with different heights of supply outlet.

1. Introduction gradually studied. Furthermore, it was revealed that carbon diox-

2.1. Experimental setup

Supply outlet Unoccupied zone

Return inlet Occupied zone

Fig. 2. Schematics of five settings used in the numerical study.

accurate computational result, 10 layers of prism mesh were gen-

Occupied zone 2.4. CFD method

A commercial CFD code (Fluent) [10] was used to compute the

Unoccupied zone C B A 3.4

475 475 425

Simulated Measured Simulated Measured

2.0 2.0 1.2 1.2

1.4 1.4 1.0

1.0 1.0 0.9 0.9

Simulated Measured Simulated Measured

2.0 2.0 1.2 1.2

1.0 1.0 0.9 0.9

(a) at H800 Setting (b) at H1100 Setting

(c) at H1400 Setting (d) at H1700 Setting

(e) at H2000 Setting

(a) at H800 setting (b) at H1100 setting

(c) at H1400 setting (d) at H1700 setting

(e) at H2000 setting

(a) at H800 setting (b) at H1100 setting

(c) at H1400 setting (d) at H1700 setting

(e) at H2000 setting

(a) at H800 setting (b) at H1100 setting

(c) at H1400 setting (d) at H1700 setting

(e) at H2000 setting

soe (1) Different configurations of the room or the heights of outlets

You might also like