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Procedia Engineering 00 (2017) 000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
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Procedia Engineering 205 (2017) 2509–2516

10th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning, ISHVAC2017, 19-
22 October 2017, Jinan, China

Study on the influence of air curtain barrier efficiency on infiltration

air volume and temperature distribution in large space in winter
Hong Yea, Jinghua Yua, *, Biaobiao Wanga, Yunxi Liua, Hui Guob, Liwei Tianb
a
a Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering, Huazhong University of Sci-ence and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
bb
China Railway Siyuan Survey and Design Group Limited Company, Wuhan 430063, China

Abstract

In this paper, a large space building model is built by CFD software to study the effect of air curtain on the reduction in
infiltration air volume. The influences of the pressure difference between inside and outside, the air curtain air supply speed and
the air curtain outlet thickness on the air curtain barrier efficiency are also discussed. The results show that when the pressure
difference between indoor and outdoor is 1.0 pa, the barrier efficiency of air curtain is 40%-80% with the air curtain supply speed
increasing from 8 m/s to 18 m/s. However, the barrier efficiency is 20%-45% when the indoor and outdoor pressure difference
increases to 6.0 pa with the same air curtain supply speed range. At the same time, when the outdoor wind speed is 3 m/s, the rest
area average temperature of the large space building with air curtain is 10.8 ºC higher than which without air curtain. The use of
air curtain to reduce the amount of infiltration and improve indoor heat comfort has a very good effect.
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 10th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 10th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and
Conditioning.
Air Conditioning.
Keywords: numerical simulation; big space air distribution; CFD; air curtain barrier efficiency; infiltra-tion volume

1. Introduction

With the development of modern construction industry technology and the diversification of architectural
functions, more and more public buildings adopt large space, especially for those large-scale traffic buildings such
as railway stations and subway stations. Large space is conducive to building lighting, to facilitating the crowd
gathering and circulation, but unfortunately, it has brought a lot of negative impacts to the indoor thermal comfort.

* Corresponding author. Tel.:+86-159-7200-7990.

E-mail address: yujinghua323@126.com

1877-7058 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 10th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning.

1877-7058 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 10th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and
Air Conditioning.
10.1016/j.proeng.2017.09.982
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In order to facilitate the staff circulation, there are a large number of entrance channels which have a long opening
time at the bottom of the large space building, and that increases the possibility of invasion of non-organized air
infiltration and also greatly affects the indoor thermal comfort conditions. In this sense, the control of the amount of
disorganized air infiltration plays an important role in maintaining the indoor thermal comfort of large space
buildings.
The air curtain has been more and more developed and applied since Kennel patented the idea that installing a
recirculating air blowing device on both sides of the door which can effectively block the invasion of outdoor air, at
the beginning of the twentieth century[1]. In foreign countries, many scholars used the theoretical analysis method
to determine the design parameters of the air curtain, for example, Shelbie Lev and Batu Lin assumed that the air
curtain air flow is consisted of an outdoor invading airflow and an air curtain jet, and got the parameters such as the
range, air supply volume and jet velocity of the air curtain from the streamline theory [2]; Batu Lin made charts
through a large number of experiments to analyze the relationship between the air infiltration volume of the opening
and the air curtain air supply volume [2] . In the domestic research area, Cai analyzed and compared the merits of
various calculation methods of air curtain designs [3]. He and Wang analyzed the application effects of the air
curtain at the door of the cold storage and the mine by numerical simulation [4,5]. In summary, in today's
background of promoting energy conservation and environmental protection, the air curtain is applied in a variety of
areas, such as manufacturing factories cold storages, shopping malls, public stations, etc. Moreover its theoretical
researches, simulation and experimental researches has improved. However, there is a lack of simulation analysis of
the practical application about the tall buildings which have large space, large pedestrian flow and many openings at
the bottom with a long opening time, such as the train station waiting room. Meanwhile, the wind environment of
large space is complicated and the method of theoretical analysis is often limited because of the limitations of its
applicable scope, so the numerical simulation method has become an-other simple and effective method [6,7].
Therefore, this paper adopts CFD numerical simulation method to analyze the effect of air curtain blocking
infiltration air volume and its influence on indoor temperature field in the large space of a subway waiting room.

2. Basic model

A railway station is selected as the representation of the large space building. Based on the waiting room of a
railway station in Wuhan, the CFD building basic model is constructed. The size of the waiting room is 200 × 92 ×
23m (length × width × height), and the roof is arched. The left and right sides of the first floor are equipped with 13
m wide air conditioning rooms and 8 ticket checking channels of 7 m width. In order to reduce the number of grids
of the model and increase the accuracy of simulation, this paper takes the 1/4 part of the waiting room as the basic
model (Figure.1.) to carry out the air temperature distribution and airflow simulation. The opening size and
boundary conditions in the CFD base model are as follows:
①Opening size setting: east and west sides of the wall both have two ticket checking gates, and the size of each
ticket checking gate is 3 × 2 m (high × width); according to the air tightness of doors and windows and the air
tightness of the curtain wall (BIAD 2006), the total infiltration area is calculated to be 0.6 m2, and each side of the
infiltration area is 0.3 m2 (30 × 0.01) with the outflow ratio set at 0.1;
② Boundary conditions setting: in the typical winter conditions in Wuhan, the wind direction is northeast wind,
wind speed is 3 m/s, and the ambient temperature is −2.6 ºC. Under these weather conditions, the CFD software can
be used to build the external environment model of the waiting room, and the external air pressure of the east gate,
east window, west gate and west window can be obtained, which is 1.8 pa, 1.67 pa, −1.29 pa and −1.58 pa
respectively.
③Wall heat flux boundary condition setting: the north and south wall are symmetric boundary conditions; the
heat flux of the east and west wall (concluded in the windows) is -29.4 w/m2; considering the lighting heat
dissipation and heat loss, the heat flux of the roof is set to 0 w/m2; the floor heat flow is -14.4 w/m2;
④Air curtain setting: air curtain uses a side air return and a vertical downward air supply with air outlet size of 2
× 0.05 m, blowing speed of 14 m/s;
⑤Air conditioning system settings: each wall on the east and west has 26 round air outlets with the diameter 0.12
m at the high 4 m, and the supply air temperature is 40 ºC. By set-ting the air supply speed at 5 m/s, the average
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temperature of the rest area of the waiting room is 18.2ºC, and the temperature difference on the height of the
waiting hall is to reach about 6 ºC.

Fig.1 Airflow organization simulation model in the waiting room Fig. 2 Air curtain barrier efficiency study model

3. Air curtain barrier efficiency

The simulation model (Figure.2.) in order to study the effects of outdoor wind pressure, air curtain air supply
speed and air curtain outlet thickness on the barrier efficiency of air curtain was carried out in half of the basic
model (Figure.1.). The building center is taken as the outlet the pressure of which is set to 0 pa, and both sides of the
building are set to symmetrical boundary conditions.

3.1 Pressure difference and air supply speed factors

When the air curtain air supply area is kept at 2 × 0.05 m, the external air pressure at the ticket checking gates
and the air curtain air supply speed are changed to obtain the infiltration air volume under corresponding conditions.
The barrier efficiency of air curtain can be also obtained by comparing the amount of air infiltration volume which
with air curtain or without air curtain.
The air curtain barrier efficiency decreases exponentially with the increase of the pressure difference (Figure.3.).
When the indoor and outdoor pressure difference reaches 10 pa, the air curtain barrier efficiency is less than 40%
when the air supply speed of air curtain is between 8 m/s and 18 m/s, and if the air supply speed is 14 m/s or less,
the air curtain barrier efficiency will be less than 30%. Therefore, in the case of small pressure difference between
indoor and outdoor, the air curtain blocking effect is obvious, which means the air curtain barrier efficiency will be
quickly reduced when the outdoor wind speed increased to 3m/s or more.
The air curtain barrier efficiency increases linearly with the increase of the air curtain air sup-ply speed
(Figure.4.), and the increasing trend goes down with the increase of the pressure difference. According to the linear
fitting formula of the air curtain barrier efficiency (η) and the air curtain air supply velocity (vac) under the
differential pressure conditions (P), the statistical formula (1) is obtained.

η = (0.0479 × P −0.384 ) × vac (1)

There are several limitation of this formula, such as it is only applicable to the simulation size conditions of air
curtain outlet at 2 × 0.05 m in this paper, and its average relative error is about 5.4% which will reach a peak of 7.4%
when the pressure difference is 30 pa. However, this formula can reflect the linear relationship between the air
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curtain barrier efficiency and the air supply speed under the certain conditions of pressure difference and air outlet
area, and it can also perform the trend that the barrier efficiency decreases exponentially with the increase of the
pressure difference when the air curtain supply speed is a constant.

Fig. 3 Variation of air curtain barrier efficiency with pressure Fig. 4 The relationship between the air curtain barrier efficiency and
difference the air supply velocity

3.2 Air outlet thickness factor

When the air supply speed of air curtain is kept as a constant(14 m/s), changing the external environmental
pressure condition of the ticket checking gates and the air curtain air outlet thickness to simulate the amount of
infiltration air volume and the corresponding air curtain barrier efficiencies are also obtained. The air supply
thickness of the air curtain is set to 0.02 m, 0.05 m, 0.1 m, 0.15 m, and 0.2 m respectively with the length of 2 m.
When the air curtain is kept at a constant speed, the barrier efficiency of the air curtain also decreases
exponentially with the increase of the pressure difference, and it increases with the increase of the outlet thickness,
but this trend is getting slower (Figure.5.). By calculating the derivative of the relationship between the air curtain
barrier efficiency and the air outlet thick-ness, the ratio of the increase in air curtain barrier efficiency by increasing
the unit air outlet thickness can be obtained (Figure.6.). As can be seen from the figure, when the air curtain out-let
thickness increases to 0.1 m, the increase in barrier efficiency approaches zero. Therefore, in order to reduce the
energy consumption of the air supply, the thickness of the air curtain outlet is preferably 0.05 m, and no more than
0.1 m.

Fig. 5 The relationship between the air curtain barrier efficiency and Fig. 6 The ratio of air curtain barrier efficiency varies with
the air outlet thickness increasing unit outlet
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3.3 Comparison of the air supply speed and air outlet thickness factors of air curtain

When the air curtain air supply volume is constant, the choice of different air supply speed and the thickness of
the air outlet will affect the barrier efficiency of the air curtain. When the air curtain air supply volume is set to 0.72
m³/s, and the thickness of the air outlet of the four conditions are 0.02 m, 0.03 m, 0.04 m and 0.05 m respectively
(the corresponding air supply speed is 18 m/s, 12 m/s, 9 m/s, 7.2 m/s), the air infiltration volume and the air curtain
barrier efficiency under different pressure conditions are obtained.
When the air curtain air volume is 0.72 m³/s certainly, the barrier efficiency decreases with the increase of the
thickness of the air outlet (Figure.7.), which indicates that the air curtain air supply speed has a greater influence on
the barrier efficiency than the air outlet thickness. Therefore, in the case that the air curtain air volume is certain, it
can be given priority to improve the air curtain air supply speed.

Fig. 7 Relationship between air curtain barrier efficiency and thickness of air outlet with a certain air supply flow volume

4. Barrier efficiency of air curtain in large space

In this section, the infiltration air volume and its influence on the temperature distribution is studied under the
condition of changing the outdoor wind speed and the air curtain supply speed in the large space of the waiting room.
Changing the outdoor wind speed condition to 3 m/s and 5 m/s respectively, the change of the infiltration volume
(Table 1.) and the regional temperature distribution (Table 2.) in large space is simulated under the condition of
opening the air curtain or not opening the air curtain. When the outdoor wind speed is 3 m/s, the infiltration volume
of the large space with air curtain is 64.77% less than that without air curtain. At the same time, when the outdoor
wind speed increases to 5 m/s, the infiltration volume decreases by 36.97%. This is because the air curtain has a
high barrier efficiency when the indoor and outdoor pressure difference is small. When the external wind speed is 3
m/s, the average temperature of the indoor rest area is 7.4 ºC (Figure.8.) without the air curtain, which is 10.8 ºC
lower than the rest area average temperature 18.2 ºC of the waiting room with air curtain(Figure.9.). Meanwhile,
When the external wind speed is 5 m/s, it will decrease by 3.7 ºC, which indicates that the barrier effect of the air
curtain has a great influence on the temperature distribution of the large space, especially in the case of small
outdoor wind speed.
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Table 1 Variation of Large Space Infiltration Volume in Different Outdoor Wind Speeds

Average inlet air volume（m³/s）

Wind speed Supply speed Infiltration Infiltration
（m/s） （m/s） East- West- East- West- volume (m³/s) reduction rate
door door window window
14 5.28 −4.83 −0.24 −0.49 5.28
3 64.77%
0 14.74 −14.67 0.25 −0.35 14.98
14 18.29 −18.19 0.58 −0.65 18.87
5 36.97%
0 29.30 −29.21 0.63 −0.60 29.93

Table 2he Large Space Temperature Distribution in Different Outdoor Wind Speed

Wind speed Supply speed Regional average temperature（ºC） Temperature difference

（m/s） （m/s） 0– 1– 2– 4– 14– （ºC）
1m 2m 4m 14m 18m
18.2 20.8 23.0
14 0 4 5 23.79 24.07 5.87
3
11.8 14.6
0 7.40 9 2 15.42 15.88 8.48
13.1
5 14 6.17 9.35 3 14.39 14.95 8.78
0 2.43 5.55 9.23 10.43 11.10 8.67

Fig. 8 Temperature distribution of the large space without air curtain when the outdoor wind speed is 3 m/s

Fig. 9 Temperature distribution of the large space with air curtain when the outdoor wind speed is 3 m/s

When the outdoor wind speed is 3 m/s, the air supply speed of the air curtain is changed to obtain the variation of
the infiltration volume of each opening (Table 3.) and the temperature distribution (Table 4.) in the large space.
With the increase of the air supply speed of air cur-tain, the amount of infiltration volume in the large space is
gradually reduced. When the air curtain supply speed is 10 m/s, 14 m/s, 18 m/s, the infiltration volume is reduced by
45.7%, 64.8% and 74.6% respectively, which indicates that the infiltration volume of the large space is decreased
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linearly with the increase of the air curtain air supply speed. However, as the air curtain air supply speed increases,
the rise of the average temperature of the large space rest area tends to be slower, and as the overall temperature of
the large space increases, the temperature difference in the height direction of the large space becomes smaller.

Table 3 Variation of Large Space Infiltration Volume in Different Air Curtain Supply Speeds

Supply speed Average inlet air volume（m³/s）

Infiltration volume Infiltration reduction
（m/s） East- West- East- West- (m³/s) rate
door door window window
0 14.74 −14.67 0.25 −0.35 14.98 -
10 8.14 −7.73 −0.15 −0.46 8.14 45.65%
14 5.28 −4.83 −0.24 −0.49 5.28 64.77%
18 3.81 −3.38 −0.25 −0.50 3.81 74.60%

Table 4 The Large Space Temperature Distribution in Different Air Curtain Supply Speeds

Regional average temperature（ºC）

Supply speed（m/s） Temperature difference（ºC）
0–1m 1–2m 2–4m 4–14m 14–18m
0 7.40 11.89 14.62 15.42 15.88 8.48
10 14.56 18.04 18.04 21.30 21.57 7.01
14 18.20 20.84 23.05 23.79 24.07 5.87
18 18.66 21.19 23.43 24.24 24.24 5.58

5. Conclusions

In this paper, the CFD software is used to construct the model of a railway station waiting room which is a
typical large space, and the air curtain barrier efficiencies under different in-door and outdoor pressure difference,
air curtain air supply speed and air curtain opening thickness and their influences on the infiltration volume and
spatial temperature distribution of large space are studied. The results are as follows:
1. The internal and external pressure difference condition of the openings, the air supply speed and the outlet
thickness of the air curtain all have a great impact on the air curtain barrier efficiency. ①With the increase of the
pressure difference between the inside and outside of the openings, the air curtain barrier efficiency decreases
exponentially; ②the barrier efficiency of the air curtain increases with the increase of the air curtain supply speed,
and the relationship is linear; ③when the outlet thickness of the air curtain is 0.05 m, the relation-ship among the air
curtain barrier efficiency, the pressure difference and the air supply speed is η = (0.0479 × P^(−0.384)) × vac; ④
when the pressure difference and the air curtain supply speed are constant, the barrier efficiency of the air curtain
increases with increasing of the air curtain outlet thickness, but the rise speed gradually reduces, ⑤when the thick-
ness of the air curtain is greater than 0.1m, the increase of the air curtain barrier efficiency will be close to 0 if
continuing to increase the outlet thickness of the air curtain; ⑥in the case of a certain amount of air curtain air
supply volume, the air supply speed has a much greater impact on the barrier efficiency compared with the outlet
thickness of the air curtain, so the air curtain air supply speed should be chosen as large as possible.
2. The barrier effect of air curtain has a great influence on the temperature distribution of large space. When the
external wind speed is 3 m/s with keeping the indoor air supply state of the air condition system unchanged, the
average temperature of the indoor rest area is 7.4 ºC without air curtain which is 10.8 ºC lower than that with air
curtain. And when the air curtain air supply speed is 10 m/s, 14 m/s, 18 m/s respectively, the average temperature of
the indoor reat area is 14.56 ºC, 18.2 ºC, 18.66 ºC, which is 7.16 ºC, 10.8º, 11.2 ºC higher than that without the air
curtain, respectively.
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Acknowledgement

The research work presented in this paper is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (Grant No. 51208221), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, HUST (Grant NO.
2015QN119).

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