Building and Environment 82 (2014) 75e86

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Building and Environment

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/buildenv

An experimental and numerical study on the effect of air terminal

layout on the performance of stratum ventilation
Ting Yao, Zhang Lin*
Building Energy and Environmental Technology Research Unit, Division of Building Science and Technology, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

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

Article history: This study aims to the investigate effects of the air terminal layout on the performance of stratum
Received 23 May 2014 ventilation. Experimental and numerical approaches were both applied. Six indices were used to eval-
Received in revised form uate the air distribution performance. A total of three air terminal layouts were investigated. The
9 August 2014
experimental results indicate that the exhaust location and the supply airflow rate can affect the air
Accepted 11 August 2014
diffusion performance. In the simulated cases, the effects of the exhaust location on the thermal comfort
Available online 20 August 2014
and indoor air quality can be observed. It was found that having the exhausts located at the bottom of the
wall helped with air mixing in the occupied zone. Thermal comfort and good air quality can be achieved
Keywords:
Air terminal layouts
with exhausts located at a lower level along the same wall as the supplies. This arrangement also helps to
Air diffusion performance index (ADPI) save space for system installation. Therefore, it is a better choice for stratum ventilation design if the
Stratum ventilation performance requirements are met.
Thermal sensation © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Mean age of air
CO2 concentration

1. Introduction Based on evaluation of the performance of stratum ventilation

In recent years, there has been growing awareness of the
importance of comfort and health, giving rise to an increased de-
mand for high-quality indoor environments. Therefore, more and
more people are expecting an air-conditioning system to have
better flexibility, thermal comfort and indoor air quality (IAQ). A
new type of air distribution system e stratum ventilation, was
proposed in recent years. It has been proven that stratum ventila-
tion provides good thermal comfort as measured by PMV and PPD
[1]. The experimental and numerical results demonstrated that the
flow pattern formed by stratum ventilation performs well in terms
of IAQ in the breathing zone [2]. When compared with conven-
tional mixing ventilation and displacement ventilation, stratum
ventilation is able to provide better year-round energy consump-
tion [3]. Compared with conventional air distribution systems, the
particle concentrations in the breathing zone under stratum
ventilation are significantly less than that under displacement
ventilation. The risk of pathogen inhalation under stratum venti-
lation is lower than that under displacement ventilation and mix-
ing ventilation [4e6].
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ852 3442 9805; fax: þ852 3442 9716.
E-mail address: bsjzl@cityu.edu.hk (Z. Lin).
for small to medium offices, classrooms and retail shops, the
guidelines for stratum ventilation design were formulated [7].
There are many factors that can affect the design and perfor-
mance of ventilation systems, such as the size and type of the
building, the air supply velocity and temperature, and the layout
of the air terminals. For conventional air distribution systems,
the effects of the air terminal layout on the performance have
been investigated by several researchers. Lin et al. used numer-
ical simulation to investigate the effects of the air supply location
on the design and performance of displacement ventilation. They
found that the supply should be located near the center of the
room [8]. Khan et al. studied the effects of the relative locations
of the inlet and outlet. The numerical results indicated that the
ceiling supply inlet can provide a uniform concentration distri-
bution to the room [9]. Research conducted by Lau and Chen
found that the exhaust location has a moderate impacts on
thermal comfort and air quality [10]. Kuo and Chung found that
different air terminal locations would produce different distri-
butions of thermal comfort factors. Better thermal comfort can
be achieved by the longer cold air throw in the occupied zone
[11]. In McCarry's study, having the supply located on the ceiling
was found to lead to poor circulation at the desk in partitioned
areas [12]. For stratum ventilation, there is a lack of investigation
in this area. Thus, this study looks into the layouts of air termi-
nals for stratum ventilation.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2014.08.016
0360-1323/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
76 T. Yao, Z. Lin / Building and Environment 82 (2014) 75e86

2. Methodology at a height of 0.6 m L6 is 0.1 m below the geometric center of the

2.1. Experimentation
In order to study the effects of air terminals layout under stra-
tum ventilation, experiments were conducted in a typical class-
room. The classroom had dimensions of 8.8 m (L)  5.75 m
(W)  2.4 m (H). Fig. 1 shows the layout of the classroom. The air-
conditioning system of this room consisted of ceiling-mounted
variable air volume (VAV) air-handling units, ceiling-mounted air
terminals and wall-mounted air terminals as shown in Fig. 2. The
cooling load of the classroom is listed in Table 1.
In the experiments, the indoor air velocity and temperature
were measured. As shown in Fig. 1, for Point L1eL5, the velocity and
temperature were measured at heights of 1.1 m and 0.1 m. For
Points L2 and L4, the velocity and temperature were also measured
classroom, where the velocity and temperature were measured at a
height of 1.1 m. The actual room conditions were determined using
an INNOVA professional measuring tool set with data logger to
ensure the room conditions were steady throughout the
measurement.
The air velocity and temperature at L1 to L5 were measured by
SWEMA transducer SWA 03. The velocity measuring range was
0.05e3.00 m/s; the accuracy was ±0.02 m/s for 0.07e0.05 m/s and
±0.03 m/s for 0.5e3 m/s; and the dynamic response time was 0.2 s.
The air temperature measuring range was 10e40  C. The accuracy
was ±0.2  C. The air velocity at L6 was measured by a LUMASENSE
transducer MM0038. The measuring range was 0e10 m/s; the ac-
curacy was ±(0.05va þ 0.05) m/s; and the dynamic response time
was 0.2 s. The air temperature of L6 was measured by LUMASENSE
transducer MM0034 with accuracy of ±0.2  C. The LUMASENSE

Fig. 1. Layout of classroom.

Fig. 2. Wall-mounted diffusers at middle and low levels.

 T. Yao, Z. Lin / Building and Environment 82 (2014) 75e86 77

Table 1 Table 2
Cooling load. Supply and exhaust location.

Occupants Equipment Layout Supply location & opening Exhaust location & opening

Workstation Lamp a 1.3 m height 1.3 m height

Number 2, 4, 5 and 7 (Front wall) Number 1, 3, 5 and 7 (Back wall)
Cooling load (W) 1190 (17  70) 300 1176
b 0.33 m height
Number2, 4, 5 and 7 (Front wall)
c 0.33 m height
Number 1,3,5 and 7 (Back wall)
transducer MM0060 was used to measure the operative tempera-
ture. The accuracy was ±0.3  C. The LUMASENSE transducer
MM0037 was used to measure humidity with an accuracy of 0.5 K.
The error analysis put forward by Kline and MCclintock [13] was Table 3
Experimental parameters.
adopted for measurements in this study. Assuming the variant R,
which is a function of the independent variants X1, X2, …, Xn, that is Case Layout Supply Supply face Supply Actual room Subject
to say R ¼ R(X1, X2, … Xn), the relative uncertainty ðDR=RÞ is given by airflow velocity temperature temperature
P rate (ACH) (m/s) ( C) ( C)
DR=R ¼ ½ ni¼1 ðDXi =Xi Þ2 1=2 [13]. The uncertainties for the SWEMA
and LUMASENSE instrument systems used for the air velocity 1 a 10 2.11 20.6 27.0 ± 0.1 Student
2 b 10 2.20 20.6 27.1 ± 0.1 Student
measurements are 2.1% and 7.8% respectively, and the uncertainties
3 c 10 2.21 20.5 27.1 ± 0.2 Student
in the temperature are both 0.7%. 4 a 15 3.43 21.5 27.0 ± 0.1 Box
Experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of having 5 b 15 3.31 22.0 27.0 ± 0.1 Student
various layouts of air terminals. As shown in Fig. 3, three layouts of 6 c 15 3.46 22.2 26.9 ± 0.1 Box
air terminals were investigated. The relevant information on the 7 a 7 1.44 18.9 26.9 ± 0.2 Box
8 b 7 1.46 19.5 27.0 ± 0.2 Student
supply and exhaust locations is shown in Table 2. A total of nine 9 c 7 1.45 18.6 27.0 ± 0.1 Box
cases, with three layouts under different airflow rates, were stud-
ied. The experimental parameters of these cases are listed in
Table 3. Among them, four cases used 16 boxes with bulb in-
was validated by experimental data. The governing equations were
stallations instead of sedentary occupants to ensure the same
discretized with second order accuracy. The discrete ordinates ra-
cooling load. In all cases, the indoor design temperature was
diation model is used to take the radiative heat transfer into ac-
27  C which is the determined thermal neutral temperature of
count. A standard wall function was applied to describe the
stratum ventilation [14]. Double deflection grilles were at the
turbulent flow properties in the near wall region. The SIMPLE al-
supplies and exhausts in all cases.
gorithm is used to couple pressure and velocity. The buoyancy ef-
fect is considered by the Boussinesq model. In simulations, the
2.2. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation diffuser was simplified as a rectangle with the same effective area.
The velocity-inlet and outflow boundary conditions were applied
Although direct measurements can provide the most realistic for the supplies and exhausts respectively. Heat sources such as
data, it is difficult to keep the internal heat sources and boundary lamps, workstations and occupants were set to have constant heat
conditions steady. Therefore, numerical simulations which are less flux.
expensive and less time consuming were applied.
For instance, Fig. 4 shows the classroom configuration under
Layout (a) for simulation. After the grid-independence tests, the 2.3. Evaluation criteria
grids with hexahedral cells for Layouts (a), (b) and (c) were
1,026,821, 1,022,425 and 1,051,595 respectively. The RNG k-ε model An important objective of an air distribution system is to create
based on the commercial program FLUENT was used to perform the an environment with thermal comfort and good air quality. The
simulation [15]. This model has been verified and validated criteria to evaluate thermal comfort include airflow pattern, room
extensively for temperature, velocity, CO2 concentration in a stra- temperature distribution and effective draft temperature for stra-
tum ventilated office and classroom [16]. In this study, the model tum ventilation (EDTS). For indoor air quality, the criteria include

Fig. 3. Layouts of air terminals.

78 T. Yao, Z. Lin / Building and Environment 82 (2014) 75e86

Fig. 4. Classroom configuration under Layout (a).

Table 4
Anthropometric data of subjects.

Gender Number Age Height, H (cm) Weight, W (kg) BMIa (kg/dm2) BSAb (m)

Mean S.D. Mean S.D. Mean S.D. Mean S.D. Mean S.D.

Female 16 19.6 1.2 159.0 5.2 49.7 6.2 19.7 2.1 1.5 0.1
Male 16 20.0 0.9 170.8 3.0 63.8 6.4 21.9 2.6 1.7 0.1
Total 32 19.8 1.1 164.9 7.3 56.8 9.5 20.8 2.6 1.6 0.2
a
Body mass index (BMI) ¼ (W/H2)  104.
b
Body surface area (BSA) ¼ (W0.425  H0.725)  0.007184.

the mean age of air and carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration. In this
study, the performance of stratum ventilation is evaluated by the
following parameters:

1. The thermal sensation and comfort feedback

2. Airflow pattern
3. Temperature distribution
4. Effective draft temperature (EDTS) & Air diffusion performance
(ADPI)
5. Local mean age of air
6. CO2 concentration

In the ASHARE comfort standard, air velocity is an important

parameter in determining the comfort zone. The acceptable range
for the operative temperature and air speed of the comfort zone has
been greatly increased. According to ASHARE Standard 55-2010, if
the occupants do not have control over the local air speed in their
space, for operative temperatures above 25.5  C, the maximum air
speed shall be 0.8 m/s for light, primarily sedentary office activities
[17].
To evaluate the uniformity of air velocity and temperature,
Koestel and Tuve [18] and Reinmann et al. [19] studied the effects
of air motion on comfort and defined a draft as any localized
feeling of coolness or warmth on any portion of the body due to
both air movement and air temperature, with humidity and ra-
diation considered constant. To define the effective draft temper-
ature (EDT or qed), the difference in temperature between any
point in the occupied zone and the control condition, the in-
vestigators used the equation originally proposed by Rydberg and
Norback [20]. For stratum ventilation, Lin et al. [21] has developed
a modified equation to calculate the effective draft temperature
(EDTS), qeds:
Fig. 5. Velocity of measured points: (a) 1.1 m level and (b) 0.1 m level.
 T. Yao, Z. Lin / Building and Environment 82 (2014) 75e86 79

Fig. 8. Velocity and temperature of measured points under 15 ACH.

qeds ¼ ðTx  Tc Þ  ðvx  1:1Þ (1)

where
qeds ¼ effective draft temperature for mixing ventilation, K
Tx ¼ local airstream dry-bulb temperature,  C.
Fig. 6. Temperature of measured points: (a) 1.1 m level and (b) 0.1 m level.
Tc ¼ average room dry-bulb temperature,  C.
vx ¼ local airstream centerline speed, m/s
For stratum ventilation, the thermal comfort condition is good
if 0.6 K < qeds < 0.6 K, and is satisfactory if 1.2 K < qeds < 1.2 K
when the velocity is less than 0.8 m/s. The ADPI is defined as the
percentage of locations where measurements were taken, that

Fig. 7. EDTS of measured points (1e6, 1.1 m level; 7e11, 0.1 m level and 12e13, 0.6 m
level).

Table 5
ADPI for all cases.

Case 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

ADPI 92.3% 92.3% 84.6% 100% 69.2% 92.3% 84.6% 92.3% 76.9%

Table 6
Thermal sensation.

Case 1 2 3

Average thermal sensation 0.215 0.193 0.375

Standard deviation 0.788 0.829 0.845
Fig. 9. Velocity and temperature of measured points under 7 ACH.
80 T. Yao, Z. Lin / Building and Environment 82 (2014) 75e86

Fig. 10. Experimental and simulated results.

meet these specifications for effective draft temperature and ve-
locity [22]. If the ADPI is at the maximum (approaching 100%), the
most desirable conditions are achieved.
In Cases 1e3, tests of thermal sensations and comfort were
conducted using human subjects under various experimental
conditions. Thirty-two college-aged students in good health were
employed to participate in this work. This test was conducted
during the summer break of 2013. The clo-value was limited to 0.57
(1 clo ¼ 0.155 m2 k/w). The activity level was 1.1 met because the
occupants in the classroom were sedentary. The anthropometric
data of the subjects are illustrated in Table 4. The questionnaire
used for the test is based on the thermal sensation vote of the
ASHRAE 7-point scale, i.e 3, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, and 3 representing cold,
cool, slightly cool, neutral, slightly warm, warm, and hot, respec-
tively. The entire thermal sensation test with 16 subjects took about
2 h. During each 20-min session, each student was requested to
mark down his/her instantaneous thermal sensation, together with
their opinions on the air temperature and speed. Based on the
Question 1 in questionnaire, the average thermal sensation of each
case and standard deviation was calculated. The first two questions
of the survey are as follow:
Q1: Please choose one choice indicating your thermal sensation:
, cold (3), , cool (2), , slightly cool (1), , neutral (0), ,
slightly warm (þ1), , warm (þ2) and , hot (þ3).
Q2: Please choose one choice indicating your thermal comfort:
, comfortable (þ1), , slightly uncomfortable (þ2), , un-
comfortable (þ3), and , very uncomfortable (þ4).
The mean local air age is defined as the average lifetime of the
air at a particular location and gives an indication of the “freshness”
of the air. It normally assumes that the age of the air at the inlet is
equal to zero, where it is the youngest [23]. Several researchers
have adopted the mean age of air as an indicator of the indoor air
 T. Yao, Z. Lin / Building and Environment 82 (2014) 75e86 81

Fig. 11. Air velocity at X ¼ 1.9 m (m/s).

quality using the CFD method [24e26]. It can be solved as an

additional transport scalar [22]. The transport equation was found
to be [27]:

!
v v   v vt
ðrtÞ þ ruj t ¼ Gt þr (2)
vt vxj vxj vxj

The boundary conditions are:

t ¼ 0 at the inlet,
vxj ¼ 0 at the outlet and the walls.where r is air density, kg/m ; t
vt 3

is mean age of air, s.

Researchers have pointed out that the indoor CO2 concen-
tration is useful for understanding indoor air quality and is
perhaps the most important parameter to be measured in the
evaluation of indoor air quality [28,29]. In this study, the CO2
concentration was calculated by user-defined functions incor-
porated into the commercial CFD program of FLUENT [15]. For Fig. 12. Air velocity at Y ¼ 1.1 m (m/s).
CO2 concentration, the outdoor CO2 level was 400 ppm. The CO2
exhaled by each occupant was 15 L/h. The initial velocity of
exhalation was 0.055 m/s.
82 T. Yao, Z. Lin / Building and Environment 82 (2014) 75e86

Fig. 13. Temperature distribution at X ¼ 1.9 m ( C).

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Experimental results

3.1.1. Cases 1e3

In Cases 1e3, three terminal layouts with an airflow rate of 10
ACH were studied. Fig. 5 shows the velocity of the measured points
at a height of 1.1 m and 0.1 m. Cases 1, 2 and 3 all have similar velocity
distribution at the 1.1 m level. In the regions of the airflow jets, the air
velocity decreases when the distance from the supply increases. For
Points 4, 5 and 6, which is located out of the airflow jet region, the
velocity is quite low and has no obvious differences between them at Fig. 14. Temperature distribution at Y ¼ 1.1 m ( C).
the 1.1 m level. At the 0.1 m plane, the three cases have various ve-
locity distributions because of the different exhausts location. The
temperature at the 1.1 m and 0.1 m planes is shown in Fig. 6. At the Fig. 7 shows the effective draft temperature of the measured
1.1 m level, the lowest temperature of Point 1 can be observed in the points for the first three cases. Cases 2 and 3 show a similar dis-
three cases because of its location. At the 0.1 m level, the tempera- tribution. The ADPI of the measured points at different levels are
ture distributions in the three cases are uniform. calculated as shown in Table 5. To ensure a reasonable uniformity of
 T. Yao, Z. Lin / Building and Environment 82 (2014) 75e86 83

Fig. 15. Local mean age of air at X ¼ 1.9 m (s).

the air temperature and velocity conditions for universal thermal

comfort, a value of at least 80% ADPI is necessary [22]. Cases 1 and 2
have better air diffusion performances.
The average thermal sensations based on question (1) of the
investigation for three cases are listed in Table 6. From the results, it
can be seen that the average thermal sensation is closer to 0 in Case
2, which means the thermal sensation of the occupants tends to
neutral in this case.

3.1.2. Cases 4e9

In Cases 4e9, supply airflow rates of 7 ACH and 15 ACH were
investigated with three layouts. The velocity and temperature of
the measured points at the two levels for various cases are shown in
Figs. 8 and 9. For the various cases, the different airflow rates only
affect the velocity distribution in the regions of the air jets at
the1.1 m level. For temperature, when the supply airflow rate is at 7
ACH, the temperature at 0.1 m is lower than that at 1.1 m. That is
because with the lower supply velocity, the air jet length decreases.
The air tends to flow downwards more quickly to the lower part of Fig. 16. Local mean age of air at Y ¼ 1.1 m (s).
the classroom, which results in lower temperatures at the ankle
level.
84 T. Yao, Z. Lin / Building and Environment 82 (2014) 75e86

Fig. 17. CO2 concentration at X ¼ 1.9 m (ppm).

The ADPI of Cases 4e9 was calculated as shown in Table 5. From

the table, it can be seen that the supply airflow rate can affect the
air diffusion performance. Case 5 with 15 ACH and Case 9 with 7
ACH airflow rate did not fulfill the requirements. Case 4 shows the
best performance. Layout (b) performs better when the supply
airflow is relatively low. Layout (c) performs better when the sup-
ply airflow rate is relatively high. The overall performance of Layout
(a) is the best.

3.2. CFD simulation results

3.2.1. Validation of CFD model

To study the indoor air quality with three different layouts,
simulated cases was conducted. In this study, the CFD model was
validated by experimental results. For the first three experimental
cases with Layouts (a), (b) and (c) under an airflow rate of 10 ACH,
the temperature and velocity measured at a 1.1 m height of Points Fig. 18. CO2 concentration at Y ¼ 1.1 m (ppm).
L1eL6 were compared with the simulated results as shown in
Fig. 10. From this figure, it can be seen that the largest discrepancy characteristics accurately. The experimental results are also limited
appears at Point L1 for velocity and temperature. That is because by the accuracy of the hot wire anemometer at low velocities. For
Point L1 is located in the way of the air supply. In the vicinity of the the occupied zone, the simulated air velocity and temperature
diffuser, the simplified diffuser model may not reflect the air flow matches the experimental results well.
 T. Yao, Z. Lin / Building and Environment 82 (2014) 75e86
To fully study stratum ventilation performance with various air
terminal layouts, the velocity, temperature, local mean age of air
and CO2 concentration at the X ¼ 1.9 m plane and Y ¼ 1.1 m plane
were shown in Figs. 11e18.
In Figs. 11 and 12, under Layouts (a), (b) and (c) airflow patterns
are similar in most areas of classroom. At the X ¼ 1.9 m plane, an
uneven velocity pattern is found in the occupied zone (0.0e1.1 m).
The occupants sitting in the vicinity of an air supply terminal are
exposed to a higher velocity. The obvious difference is that for
Layout (b) when the air jet reaches the occupants, more fresh air
tends to flow downwards because of the suction effect of the ex-
hausts, resulting in less fresh air flowing to the occupants sitting in
the second row. At the Y ¼ 1.1 plane, it is observed that air velocity
distributes relatively uniform in the second row of the occupied
zone and the velocity is generally around 0.3 m/s.
Temperatures at these two planes are shown in Figs. 13 and 14.
At the X ¼ 1.9 m plane, significant temperature gradient can be
observed. Temperature of the upper zone (>1.6 m) is obviously
higher because of lamps. Temperature distributions under three
layouts are similar at Y ¼ 1.1 m plane.
In term of the age of air in Fig. 15, the mean local air age of the
occupied zone is in the range of 250e400 s. In regions of the air jets,
the mean age of air is significantly younger. Compared with the
other two layouts, the mean age of air under Layout (b) is relatively
younger, especially for the second row of the occupied zone and
upper zone. In Fig. 15, older age of air are found in the upper left
corner, where a quasi-stagnant zone is formed, with Layouts (a) and
(c), especially for Layout (a). That is because under Layouts (a) and
(c), more fresh air from the supplies is directly exhausted by dif-
fusers located at the opposite wall. Under Layout (b), because the
exhausts and supplies are located at the same wall, some fresh air
reaches the opposite wall and then recirculated. However, insig-
nificant differences in the age of air at the 1.1 m plane are found for
these three layouts.
Figs. 17 and 18 show the CO2 concentration under the three
layouts. In Fig. 17, the average CO2 concentration for the occupied
breathing zone is between 540 and 610 ppm, which is well below
the limits stipulated in the Hong Kong IAQ Certification Scheme for
the Excellent Class (<800 ppm for an 8-h average) [30]. The CO2
levels are the same under all three layouts, but the distribution is
slightly different. The CO2 concentration of the occupied zone
distributes relatively uniformly under Layout (a). For the occupants
sitting in the second row, there is a slightly higher concentration of
CO2 under Layout (b). As mentioned above, that is because of the
presence of the occupants and the exhaust location, causing the
fresh air to flow downwards. At the Y ¼ 1.1 m plane, CO2 concen-
tration in the air jet regions is significantly lower than that out of
the air jet regions.
4. Conclusion
This study focused on the effect of air terminal layouts on
stratum ventilation. Both experimental and numerical approaches
were used. A total of three different air terminal layouts were
studied. The experimental and numerical results indicate that the
exhausts location can affect the indoor thermal comfort and air
quality. Having exhausts located at the bottom of the wall helps
with air mixing in the occupied zone. Similar performances in age
of and CO2 concentration are observed with Layouts (a) and (c). In
these cases, fresh air tends to flow from supplies directly to ex-
hausts. Quasi-stagnant zones are formed above and under this
supply air stratum. The ages of air of these quasi-stagnant zones are
older. When the supply airflow rate is 10 ACH, a layout with the
exhausts located at the same wall as the supplies performs better,
achieving good thermal comfort and indoor air quality. Under this
85
layout, fresh airflows reach the opposite wall and then recirculated.
This helps to improve the air quality in the lower upper zones,
though this is not a useful provision under normal circumstances.
When the supply airflow rate is 15 ACH, the air diffusion perfor-
mance under such a layout cannot meet the requirements. This
arrangement also helps to save the space for system installation. It
is therefore a better choice for stratum ventilation design if the
performance requirements are met.
Acknowledgment
The work described in this paper is supported by a General
Research Grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. CityU 124712).
The authors thank all the students who participated in the exper-
iments. We would like to express our gratitude to Mr. Yong Cheng
and Miss Weiqin Wu for their assistance.
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