Building and Environment xxx (2015) 1e13

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Building and Environment

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

Fifty years of CFD for room air distribution

Peter V. Nielsen
Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

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

Article history: Computational uid dynamics (CFD) was rst introduced in the ventilation industry in the 1970s. CFD
Received 19 December 2014 has been increasingly used since then, as testied by the number of peer-reviewed articles, which was
Received in revised form less than 10 per year in the 1990s, and which is now 60 to 70 per year.
13 February 2015
This article discusses the principle behind CFD, the development in numerical schemes, turbulence
Accepted 25 February 2015
models and the importance of the increased computer size since the 1970s.
Available online xxx
Special attention is given to the selection of the correct governing equations, to the understanding of
low turbulent ow, to the selection of turbulence models, and to addressing situations with more steady-
Keywords:
Computational uid dynamics
state solutions.
Air and contaminant ow The article nishes with a number of different case studies such as design of air supply openings,
Numerical methods smoke management in buildings, cross-infection risks from the exhalation of particles and calculation of
Governing equations people moving in a room. The use of benchmark tests is also addressed.
Turbulence models © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Fig. 1, which shows the increasing speed of supercomputers during

The indoor environment community has adopted computa-
tional uid dynamics (CFD) as a useful tool for the prediction of air
movement in ventilated spaces. The method has been used for
many years as a research tool [1,2,3]. Now it is used routinely in civil
engineering when a large or complicated air distribution system is
to be designed. There are a number of reviews on CFD and venti-
lation [4e9] and textbooks on CFD include [10e15]. CFD verica-
tion and validation is reviewed in Ref. [16] and turbulence
modelling is addressed in Refs. [15,17], and turbulence models for
room air distribution is reviewed in Refs. [18,19].
The airow in a room e and ow in general e is described
mathematically by a set of couplet differential equations, known as
the NaviereStokes equations. These equations can be solved
analytically only for simple and ideal conditions. For the general
ow in e.g. a ventilated room, it is necessary to reformulate the
differential equations into a high number of ordinary equations and
solve those equations by a numerical method often called compu-
tational uid dynamics.
Both the development of CFD models for room air movement
and progress in the general uid dynamics research are strongly
inuenced by the increased computer power that has been avail-
able for the past few decades. This development is exemplied in
E-mail address: pvn@civil.aau.dk.
three decades.
The progression shows not only an increasing computer speed,
but also the decreasing cost which corresponds to a reduction by a
factor of 10 every eight years. An impressive example of this trend
in computing efciency is the fact that a numerical calculation of
the ow over an aerofoil might have taken 30 years if it had been
started in 1960, and it would have cost USD 10 million. Twenty
years later, in 1980, the same calculation would take half an hour
and cost USD 1000 [21]. Today the cost and time of the same
calculation are not worth mentioning.
There are various reasons for this development. Firstly, com-
puter speed is increasing more rapidly than the cost of a computer,
and this tendency seems to be continuing. Secondly, the exibility
of different kinds of software has increased such as pre-processor
and postprocessor software and, furthermore, there is a contin-
uous development of new software. Improvements of fundamental
routines, such as grid generation procedures and numerical
methods have also contributed to increasing the speed. The
development of details in the numerical method and development
in turbulence models have also improved the CFD method both for
research and for practical engineering applications.
The CFD activities have dramatically increased since the 1990s
but the CFD method has not replaced the experimental method. On
the contrary, experiments made in recent years probably support
CFD as important benchmark tests. When we consider experiments
versus CFD, it should also be mentioned that investments and rent
of computers and full-scale rooms favour CFD work.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.02.035
0360-1323/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Nielsen PV, Fifty years of CFD for room air distribution, Building and Environment (2015), http://dx.doi.org/
10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.02.035
2 P.V. Nielsen / Building and Environment xxx (2015) 1e13

Nomenclature t time
u velocity in x direction
BSL baseline turbulence model v velocity in y direction
c concentration or mass fraction of a substance v2-f turbulence model handling near-wall turbulence
E point in eastward direction cell anisotropy and non-local pressure-strain effect
e east surface in P cell W width of room or point in westward direction cell
EE point in easteeast cell w velocity in z direction or westward surface in P cell
H height of room WW point in westewest cell
h height of supply slot x coordinate and distance
k turbulent kinetic energy y coordinate and distance
L room length z coordinate and distance
LAF laminar air ow GF turbulent diffusion coefcient, general form
LES large eddy simulation ε dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy
LRN low Reynolds number model r density
l turbulence length scale f variable in the ow eld, general form
n air change rate u vorticity or specic dissipation rate
P point in central cell J stream function
Re Reynolds number
RNG re-normalization group model Indices
RSM Reynolds stress model o at supply opening
SФ source term, general form re penetration depth of a wall jet
SST shear stress transport model rm maximum velocity in the occupied zone
T temperature tot total velocity

The overall CFD market was assessed in a LinkedIn discussion
group. It has unofcially been concluded that the CFD market for all
different types of uid ow indicates a level of at least USD 700
million per year with an annual growth rate of 13%.
This article highlights the historical development and subjects
that are important for the use of CFD in the indoor environment
such as the selection of the right governing equations, under-
standing of low turbulent ow and the selection of turbulence
models, and it addresses the situations where several steady-state
solutions may take place.
The article nishes with a number of different case studies such
as design of air supply openings, smoke management in buildings,
cross-infection risks from the exhalation of particles and calcula-
tion of people moving in a room. The use of benchmark tests is also
discussed.
2. History and development of the numerical method
The governing equations for airow, energy transport, mass-
fraction distribution, and other related variables like turbulence
can be expressed by a general transport equation of the form:
Fig. 1. Development of calculation speed versus year of introduction for super com-
puters during three decades, [20].
   
vf vf vf vf v vf v vf
r þ ru þ rv þ rw ¼ Gf þ Gf
vt vx vy vz vx vx vy vy
 
v vf
þ Gf þ Sf (1)
vz vz
where x, y, z are coordinates, u,v,w are velocities in those directions,
S4 is a source term and G4 is a turbulent diffusion coefcient. t is the
time. The equation has the typical structure of a transport equation
in uid ow with a term representing the variation in time and
convection terms on the left side and diffusions terms and source
terms on the right side. 4 is a variable in uid ow and the differ-
ential equation (1) is the general physical description of the ow
(conservation of 4). The equation represents the continuity equa-
tion when 4 is equal to 1 and G4 equal to zero. For 4 equal to u, v, w
respectively, the equations are the NaviereStokes equations, and
for 4 equal to the temperature T, equation (1) represents the energy
equation.
The continuity equation and the NaviereStokes equations are
four coupled differential equations and they represent a total
description of an isothermal ow in a room. The equations can be
extended with an energy equation to describe the non-isothermal
ow in a room. The equations can be solved analytically only for
simple and ideal conditions. For the general ow, it is necessary to
reformulate the differential equations into a high number of ordi-
nary equations and solve those equations by a numerical method.
Because the ow in a room is normally turbulent, the numerical
method requires a very high number of grid points (ordinary
equations) to obtain a description of the turbulent ow. The number
of grid points can be highly reduced if additional transport equa-
tions are established for the description of a local averaged level of
turbulence. The most common method is to describe the turbulence
with a keε set of equations where k is the turbulent kinetic energy
and ε is the dissipation of turbulent energy. The turbulence is then
described by making the turbulent diffusion coefcient G4 a func-
tion of k and ε. As discussed later, other sets of transport equations
can also be relevant to use for the description of turbulence.
The transport equation (1) can also represent other variables in
the indoor environment e.g. contaminant distribution c, purging

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10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.02.035
 P.V. Nielsen / Building and Environment xxx (2015) 1e13
ow rate [22] and a number of quanta according to the WellseRiley
equation [23].
2.1. Early CFD predictions
Equation (1) with all terms is the general representation of uid
ow. It was possible to reduce the use of computer capacity in the
early CFD predictions if different simplications were accepted. The
acceptance of steady-state ow will for example reduce the equa-
tions with one term and reduce the use of computer capacity in the
numerical procedure. The assumption of a 2D ow will remove one
Navierestoke equation and reduce the use of computer capacity.
Other assumptions about the ow can also reduce the use of
computer capacity as the assumption of symmetrical ow, and half
room predictions in the room with symmetrical boundary condi-
tions. But it is always important to bear in mind that air movement
is in principle 3D and time dependent and these facts should be
considered in today’s predictions.
The history of CFD is to some extent closely connected with the
development of the computer, but it is also about the development
of numerical schemes and numerical procedures. This section looks
into some ideas related to development of the control volume
method.
The numerical method needs nite volume equations dened in
grid points and they can be developed from the transport equation
(1) by integration of the transport equation over the volume sur-
faces, Fig. 2 [10]. Central difference was used for the convection
term in the 1950s and 1960s. Experience shows that unstable
(oscillatory or wiggly) solutions were obtained for high velocity in
relation to diffusion or for large grid point distance. This is a very
disadvantageous situation because most engineering applications
have a high Reynolds number or a high convective ux and a small
diffusion. Solutions with increasing Reynolds numbers could
therefore only be obtained by reducing the distance between the
grid points to get a converging solution. On the other hand, this
remedy often led to a number of grid points far too high for com-
puters of the time.
Convection is an asymmetric phenomenon, i.e. up-stream con-
ditions have a greater inuence than downstream conditions.
Therefore, it was essential that the discretisation scheme should
reect this in one way or another, otherwise physically unrealistic
solutions might occur. A large step forward was therefore taken
when the upwind scheme, which has almost unconditional sta-
bility, was suggested [24,25]. The upwind-scheme has an accuracy
of rst order.
A CFD prediction from 1973 shows the 2D isothermal velocity
distribution in a room ventilated by a full-width slot, Fig. 3 [1]. A
steady 2D isothermal ow was the only possibility in the beginning
of the1970s due to the required computer space. The number of
transport equations was even reduced because a Jeu set of
transport equations were used instead of the continuity equation
and the three NaviereStokes equations. J is the stream function
and u is the vorticity in the ow. Turbulence was described by the
keε model.
The prediction was based on 7  10 cells and the computer had a
mainframe memory of only158 Kbytes in the initial phase of this
Fig. 2. Five grid points, WW, W, P, E and EE, and a cell around P with two of the surfaces
called w and e.
Please cite this article in press as: Nielsen PV, Fifty years of CFD for room air distribution, Building and Environment (2015), http://dx.doi.org/
10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.02.035
3
work! Due to the small slot height and the restricted number of
cells, it was necessary to develop a box-method around the supply
opening [1,27]. The box-method and the use of cells with large
differences in size gave promising results, but the use of the cell
distribution with large differences in size also meant that it was
necessary to have some information on the ow before the
prediction is made, and this could be the situation, even today.
2.2. False diffusion
In the early 1970s, it seemed that the use of an upwind scheme
had opened the way to make numerical simulations of ow phe-
nomena at indenitely high Reynolds numbers. However, before
the end of the decade it had become clear that there were errors in
the predictions, although a high stability was obtained. Many
studies in the late 1970s had a false diffusion which could be larger
than the actual physical diffusion [28]. Fig. 4 shows the velocity
distribution below the ceiling at 1 m from the opening in a room of
the dimensions 10 m  8.5 m  3 m. The supply opening measures
52 cm  6.8 cm and is located 0.5 m below the ceiling. The supply
velocity is u ¼ 3.1 m/s and vo ¼ 2.6 m/s and the turbulent intensity
is 3e4%. The rst order upwind scheme shows a signicant inu-
ence of false diffusion when the cells are large. Decreasing cell size
(increasing cell number) will decrease the false diffusion and make
the solution closer to the analytical solution described with all the
equations (1) and the changes are shown in the gure, [29].
An improvement was obtained by introducing an upwind
scheme with a second order of accuracy. The QUICK scheme is
another improved scheme for the convection term, which has a
small false diffusion and a high accuracy [30]. The scheme can be
interpreted as a central difference scheme with a stabilising
upstream weighted curvature correction arising from the second
order polynomial t.
Fig. 5 shows the velocity distribution below the ceiling at 1 m
from the opening. The rst order upwind scheme shows a large
inuence of false diffusion, while the second order upwind scheme
indicates unbounded predictions. The errors are called diffusive
error and dispersive error, respectively. The predictions are made
by approx. 30,000 cells in the half symmetry part of the room [29].
Today it is normal to use a much higher number of cells in a single
room and the results with different schemes will therefore be
closer to each other, but we still need to use high-order schemes to
obtain the best results, because we are often expanding our solu-
tion domain in size and complexity like in densely occupied
shopping centres and in city ventilation.
2.3. The development in grid line distribution
The grid distributions in the rst CFD predictions forty years
ago, like the predictions in Fig. 3, were cartesian grids creating
rectangular cells. It could either be uniform cells for nite differ-
ence equations or cells with variable size for nite volume
Fig. 3. Measurement and prediction of the velocity distribution (utot/uo 102) in a room
(length, width, height, 8.3 m x 3.4 m x 2.8 m). utot is local velocity and uo is supply
velocity. The full width slot has a height of 15 mm. Measurements from Ref. [26]. The
Reynolds number, Re, is 1800 based on the bulk velocity and slot height.
4 P.V. Nielsen / Building and Environment xxx (2015) 1e13
Fig. 4. Velocity distribution in the supply jet at 1.0 m from the opening. The rst order upwind scheme shows the effect of false diffusion versus cell size (number of cells) [29].
Fig. 5. Velocity distribution in the supply jet at 1.0 m from the opening in the room
shown in Fig. 4. The improvement obtained with the second order upwind is illus-
trated in the gure, [29].
equations. Fig. 6 shows the 2D cartesian grid for a room with the
dimensions 5.0  2.7 m [31].
The supply opening is located at the left wall in the area with the
rened grid. To reduce the turbulence modelling errors in the near
wall region, 30 cells are uniformly distributed, normal to all sur-
faces, for the inner 0.02 m. This ensures more than 20 cells inside
the boundary layer close to the surface, in this case where an LRN
keε turbulence model is used in the prediction. Stretching is used
for the central part of the room to develop the grid from the small
near-wall cells to the large cells in the centre of the room.
The general idea is that a ne grid must be used in areas with
large gradients to minimise false diffusion and dispersive errors,
see Figs. 4 and 5. Different methods are used to optimise the grid.
A multiblock-grid approach is used where it is appropriate to divide
the room in volumes (blocks) with different cell sizes. Fig. 7 shows a
Fig. 6. Cartesian grid for the prediction of 2D ow in a room with the dimensions 5.0 x
2.7 m.
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10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.02.035
section of a domain divided into four different blocks. Three of the
blocks are cartesian (structured) grids and the grid around the
person is an unstructured tetrahedral grid.
An adaptive grid is a grid that is modied according to the
distribution of the variables in the solution domain. Different grid
adaptations are available as: Boundary adaptation, velocity adap-
tation, gradient adaptation, region adaptation and volume adap-
tation. Velocity adaptation for example is a procedure where a new
grid is generated by dividing each high velocity cell into new and
smaller cells after a set of iteration. This process is repeated a
number of times and the nal grid distribution will have a high
number of cells in areas with high velocity. The room geometry in
Figs. 4 and 5 is equipped with a cartesian grid and a grid renement
feature to create a grid by dividing cells where the air velocity in the
converged solution from the initial grid A1, Fig. 8, is higher than
1.0 m/s. Cells are divided in all three dimensions and, therefore, one
cell becomes 8 new cells. Grid A2 and A4 are created by repeating
renements in the high velocity region. From grid A1 to A4 the
number of cells increased from 57 456 to 130 697 [33].
It can be very difcult to resolve a complex geometry of e.g. a
person in a structured grid. Fig. 9 shows how an unstructured grid
(tetrahedral cell topology) is used for the volume around the face of
a manikin. The grid can be merged to a structured grid in a
multigrid solution in areas far from the surface of the manikin. To
resolve the boundary layer around the manikin, 20 layers of
extruded triangular prisms are located at the surface of the manikin
Fig. 7. Four blocks with different cell size around a computer-simulated person [32].
 P.V. Nielsen / Building and Environment xxx (2015) 1e13 5

with an initial height of 0.2 mm and a growth rate of 1.13 between

the layers.

3. Description of airow and turbulence in a room

A CFD user must make some important decisions about the

selected governing equations before making a prediction. The
fundamental questions before initiating a prediction may for
example be: Is the ow expected to be laminar, low turbulent or
fully developed turbulent? Which turbulence model should be
selected? Is the ow expected to be unsteady or steady? Is the ow
expected to have one, two or several solutions? Can we, in practice,
consider the ow to be 2D or symmetrical and use this effect? The
predictions that can be obtained are fully dependent on the above
decisions and therefore only a true description of the ow when it
is based on clever decisions. The following sections give some hints
to the different problems.

3.1. Turbulence models

The air movement in a ventilated room is often turbulent. In

practice, it is impossible to make a direct numerical simulation of
this ow, although it is fully described by the NaviereStokes
equations, because it requires an extremely high number of cells to
Fig. 9. Side view of the symmetry plan of a manikin. The gure shows the layer of
describe the turbulence in the uctuating ow. It is possible to
prism cells and the tetrahedral cells [32].
work with a practical level of cells numbers if the numerical
simulation is based on averaged variables. The uctuating ow will
exhibit an apparent increase in resistance to deformation, and this The Reynolds stress model (RSM) is a seven-equation model that
effect is expressed as an extra (turbulence) viscosity which can be can handle anisotropic airow and LES is a large eddy simulation
added to the physical viscosity in the general transport equations model that predicts the large-scale turbulence in a direct form and
(1). These models are called eddy-viscosity models. models the small scale and dissipation. The LES concept is therefore
Turbulence quantities can be derived to full a transport equa- not an eddy viscosity model and it does not use time averaged
tion like equation (1). The turbulent kinetic k is such a variable. equations but uses a spatial ltering operation to separate the
A full description requires another equation to describe a length larger and smaller eddies. The models are all addressed in natural
scale, and a number of different equations have been modelled over convection, forced convection, mixed convection and strong
the years. In the 1970s, the Spalding group at Imperial College buoyancy. The predictions with the models are rated A: good, B:
explored k, kel, kekl, keε and keu models [17], but they realised acceptable, C: marginal and D: poor in Table 1 with respect to mean
the advantages of a “standard” model and the order that it would temperature, mean velocity and mean turbulence, [19].
bring to future research and engineering use, and so they preferred The RNG k-ε model work well within forced convection and
the keε model [34]. This decision may even reect our preference mixed convection as shown in Table 1, and it is widely used in the
today.
Recently Zhang et al. made an overview of the usual models for
the prediction of room air movement [19], Table 1. Table 1
The models in Table 1 are the RNG k-ε model, the SST k-u model, The characteristics of different turbulence models for room air distribution. The
the low Reynolds number model (LRN) and the v2-f model. The RNG ows considered are natural convection, forced convection, mixed convection and
strong buoyancy ow. Computing time is likewise considered.
k-ε model is a model which attempts to account for the different
scales of motion through changes in the production terms. The SST Cases RNG keε SST keu LRN V2-f RSM LES
(Shear Stress Transport) model is an eddy-viscosity model which is Natural convection A, B, C A, A, C C, B, C A, A, A A, B, C A, B, A
a combination of the k-u model (in the inner boundary layer) and Forced convection A, B C, C A, B A, B B, B A, B
the k-ε model (in the outer region of and outside of the boundary Mixed convection A, B, A A, B, D A, B, B A, A, A B, A, A A, B, B
layer) [35]. The v2-f model is similar to the standard k-ε model but Strong buoyancy A, A, C A, A, A A, A, B A, A, B n. c. B, A, B
Computing time 3 3 6 6 15 500
incorporates some new near-wall turbulence anisotropy treatment.

Fig. 8. Velocity adaptation close to a supply opening with a supply velocity of uo ¼ 3.1 m/s and vo ¼ 2.6 m/s. The adaptation is repeated in two steps, A2 and A4.

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6 P.V. Nielsen / Building and Environment xxx (2015) 1e13

ventilation area. The v2ef model show the best overall performance
but requires an increased computing time [19,36]. There are more
advanced models, and they may be useful in some special situations
like low Reynolds number ow (LRN model) or ow with anisot-
ropy (RSM), but they all require longer computing time as indicated
in Table 1.
Anisotropy is an effect that may be quite important in some
types of ows and those effects are taken into account in RSM.
Examples of ows where anisotropy plays an important role are
swirling ow, stress-driven secondary ow and near-wall ow like
in a wall jet. The ow elds below the ceiling and in the occupied
zone of a deep room with an end-wall-mounted supply opening are
predicted with both the k-ε model and with the Reynolds Stress
Model (RSM), Fig. 10. The wall jet is not predicted correctly by the
keε model, as the wall jet grows at an equal rate parallel to the
ceiling and down into the room. It is known that a 3D wall jet grows
much faster parallel to the ceiling than down into the room, and
this effect is predicted by the RSM model with wall reection terms.
There is a dramatic difference between the two obtained solutions
and the RSM prediction is conrmed by experiments [37]. The error
due to the anisotropic issue may become relatively insignicant if
the room is short.
Different turbulence models are able to cope with different ow
Fig. 11. Measurements of maximum velocity in the occupied zone of a room versus air
elements e.g. jet ow, momentum-driven ow, stratied ow and change rate (supply velocity) in the case of isothermal mixing ventilation.
buoyancy-driven ow, but it is difcult to nd a single model that Proportionality between supply velocity and maximum velocity in the room indicates
can handle all the ow elements in an optimal and economic way. a fully developed turbulent ow in the occupied zone for a maximum velocity higher
than 0.25 m/s, and a low Reynolds number ow for lower velocities. A to D are
The selection of a turbulence model for the prediction of room
measurements for different diffusers in the room.
airow will, therefore, represent a compromise.

3.2. Laminar, low turbulent or fully developed turbulent ow
An eddy-viscosity model like the keε model is, strictly speaking,
valid only for a fully developed turbulent ow, which will not al-
ways be present in room air movement. A fully developed turbulent
isothermal ow implies that the velocity in a given point is linearly
proportional to the supply velocity (except in the near-wall
regions). If measurements show that the above condition is not
fullled, results obtained by the models should be used with
caution. An example of low turbulent ow in a room is shown in
Fig. 11. urm is the maximum velocity in the room and A to D are
measurements obtained with different supply diffusers (nozzle,
grille, grille adjusted for high diffusion, wall-mounted diffuser,
ceiling-mounted diffuser) [38]. The measurements show that the
maximum velocity in the room will represent fully developed
turbulence for an air change rate above 2 to 5 h1. Even higher air
change rates may be required for having a fully developed turbulent
ow outside the high velocity area in the room.
As an example, Fig. 12 shows the lack of having a proper model
for predicting penetration length in the low turbulence area
between Reynolds numbers 150 and 2000 for the backward-facing
step geometry. Neither the laminar prediction nor the keε model is
capable of covering the whole ow regime [39]. Preliminary results
predicted with a LRN model do not show improved results for the
low turbulence area, Re < 1500.
Some success has been achieved with LES for the simulation of
low Reynolds number ow from a slot in a room with the
dimensions L/H ¼ 1.68, W/H ¼ 1.44 and h/H ¼ 0.008, where L, W and
H are length, width, height of the room and h is the height of a full
width slot. The Reynolds number Re ¼ 600 is based on the bulk
velocity and slot height. Fig. 13 shows the ow obtained by LES
simulations [40]. Simulations with laminar equations or with a keu
turbulence model show unrealistically short penetration of the wall
jet into the room. The LES simulations show a fairly good agreement
with experiments up to a distance from the supply slot of half a
room height, Fig. 14. Downstream of this position, it seems that the

Fig. 10. Flow below the ceiling and in the occupied zone, in a deep room ventilated from a short slot in the end wall. A: Predictions with a k-ε turbulence model, and B: Predictions
with a LRN model taking account of anisotropic turbulence.

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 P.V. Nielsen / Building and Environment xxx (2015) 1e13
Fig. 12. Penetration depth predicted in backward-facing step geometry. The gure
shows an area between laminar ow and fully developed turbulent ow where
turbulent models are insufcient.
experimental jet more or less vanished with a decay mush faster
than the predicted one [40].
Transient turbulence models, which are developed for ow
around turbine blades and wing proles, may show new possibil-
ities interesting for the prediction of low velocity ow in areas of
the rooms in the future.
3.3. Unsteady or steady ow
Although the selection of a steady-state ow equation is a
possibility in the software for CFD predictions (r(vf/vx) equal to
zero in equation (1), it should be borne in mind that uid ow is a
time dependent, transient process. Therefore airow cannot be
expected to be in steady-state condition and only a prediction with
the time-dependent equations can determine whether the ow in a
given situation is in steady state. An example is discussed in the
REHVA guide book [14] where cold ow from a ceiling-mounted
diffuser shows a time dependent behaviour. In this case, it is only
possible to obtain a converged solution with a CFD prediction based
on the full description of the fundamental equations.
Another typical example of a case where only a full description
of the ow is a possibility is a simulation with a ceiling-mounted
diffuser which creates mixing ventilation. The plume from a
Fig. 13. LES prediction of velocity in a room at a low Reynolds number of 600. The ow
is neither a laminar ow nor a fully turbulent ow.
Please cite this article in press as: Nielsen PV, Fifty years of CFD for room air distribution, Building and Environment (2015), http://dx.doi.org/
10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.02.035
7
Fig. 14. Predicted and measured velocity prole in the wall jet below the ceiling in the
room at Fig. 13. LES prediction (───), measurements (C).
radiator and the cold jet from the diffuser go into a periodic
opposite movement. Attempts to make a prediction with a steady-
state equation fail to converge but convergence is reached with a
transient numerical procedure [41].
For both cases, it is typical that a downward directed cold jet is
located above a rising warm plume.
3.4. Flow with one, two (or several) solutions
Flow with several solutions, or solution multiplicity, refers to the
existence of more than one solution of the overall ow patterns in a
room with the same boundary conditions. Different initial condi-
tions can lead to different solutions. In some situations, a solution
can be switched to another when there is a sufcient perturbation.
First experimentally identication of the existence of two solutions
in a room with mixed convection was given in Ref. [42] and the
same problem was later analysed by CFD [43]. CFD prediction with
two solutions in a room with isothermal mixing ventilation is
shown in Fig. 15 [44].
Both measurement and CFD simulations showed that two
different airow patterns occurred in the test room. In the rst
airow pattern, the jets beneath the ceiling turns towards the
symmetry plane of the room and in the occupied zone the air
moves away from the symmetry plane. In other airow pattern, the
jets turn towards the side walls and in occupied zone the air moves
towards the symmetry plane. The two ow situations are created
by adding a transverse velocity component to the inlets in the
initial stage of the iterations. You have to look for more solutions
before it can be concluded that only one steady-state solution is
present.
CFD has provided a powerful tool to understand solution mul-
tiplicity phenomena in buildings, in addition to experimental
studies [45,46,47].
All the decisions to be made in connection with order of accu-
racy of the equations, the number and distribution of cells, the
selection of a qualied turbulence model, the solving of steady state
or transient equations and the obtaining of one or several solutions
are to some extent discussed in different procedures for verication
and validation indoor environmental CFD analyses given for
example by ASHRAE and REHVA [14,48,49].
8 P.V. Nielsen / Building and Environment xxx (2015) 1e13

Fig. 15. Isothermal ow in a room with four end-wall-mounted diffusers. Two steady airow patterns will take place. The predictions show the velocity distribution below the
ceiling in the two situations.

4. Examples of CFD work showing new possibilities for the distribution (green) [50]. Due to the small scale of the holes each
ventilation society hole cannot be modelled in detail and the plate is treated as a
porous zone implemented by adding source terms to the
This chapter addresses a number of CFD predictions that show NaviereStokes equations. This is a typical example on possible
potential development and new possibilities within air distribution further development of CFD in the ventilation industry in the
in rooms. The examples are selected partly due to new important coming years.
focus areas in the society and partly to new possibilities of the
ongoing development of the computer capacity. The studies dis-
cussed are the design of air supply openings, smoke management 4.2. Smoke management in buildings
in buildings, cross-infection risks from the exhalation of particles
and the calculation of people moving in a room. The use of Smoke management systems in buildings has traditionally been
benchmark tests is also addressed. dimensioned on the basis of simplied theories such as semi-
analytical expressions for smoke plumes and ow through open-
4.1. Design of an air supply opening ings as well as two-zone models and even model experiments.
Today CFD models have mostly replaced those methods. CFD
Modern air supply openings are often complex in geometry.
They can include guide vanes, perforated plates, sound dampers
and curved surfaces, all with the intention of creating an initial
distribution of momentum ow in a given direction as well as a
given ow rate. The detailed ow from a diffuser was originally
handled by a box-method where the actual proles in some dis-
tance of the diffuser were considered as boundary conditions to the
predictions, see Fig. 3. Different methods such as “simplied
boundary conditions”, the “box-method”, “prescribed velocity
method” and “momentum method” are discussed in an REHVA
guide book on CFD, and they all assume that the ow close to a
diffuser can be expressed as a parabolic ow [14].
A method where the detailed ow inside the diffuser is included
in the solution domain has for example been applied in the pre-
diction of air distribution in a farming building [33]. Fig. 16 shows
another example of the prediction of ow in a diffuser which is a
part of the boundary conditions of the total air distribution in a
room. The diffuser has a perforated plate to ensure an equal air Fig. 16. Predicted ow in a swirl diffuser with a perforated plate.

Please cite this article in press as: Nielsen PV, Fifty years of CFD for room air distribution, Building and Environment (2015), http://dx.doi.org/
10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.02.035
 P.V. Nielsen / Building and Environment xxx (2015) 1e13
predictions can handle the smoke management with a high level of
details including a prediction of oxygen supply, re process,
visibility of escape routes, inuence from wind pressure on build-
ing, and it can handle smoke movement at low heat release.
Fig. 17 show smoke movement simulated in an atrium where the
surfaces have different temperatures. The heat release in the re is
low, 15 KW, and the surface temperatures are 25  C (red), 15  C
(blue) and the room temperature is 23  C. The smoke movement is
simulated with LES. Fig. 17 shows the smoke movement after 100 s
of re. It is demonstrated that the cold surface is able to modify the
smoke distribution in the atrium compared with the ndings by a
two-zone model and it might indicate problems at the escapes
routes [51].
CFD simulations may, for example, also be important for
understanding the re development and the ow of smoke by
accidences. In November 1987, a re broke out in an escalator at
King’s Cross Station, London. It was a very serious accident where
31 people were killed. A full understanding of the re and the ow
involved was rst realized after performing CFD predictions and
model experiments of the re in the actual geometry [52].The re
started in residual grease and rubbish in the space below a wooden
escalator. Surprisingly, the plume did not rise to the top of the
tunnel but was attached to the escalator due to the Coanda effect
created by a combination of the handrails and the slope of the
escalator. The construction was preheated in upward direction and
the ames and hot gases developed as an explosion up into the
ticked hall.
4.3. Human body micro-environment
A human body generates airow in the surroundings due to heat
release from the body, inhalation, exhalation and body movement.
This airow is a function of the activity level and the body move-
ment but it is also a function of the surrounding velocity and
temperature distribution.
The thermal plume above a heat source as a body is often given
from analytical expressions and it is usual to consider that a
maximum velocity of 0.25 m/s takes place 25 cm above the head of
the person [53]. Fig. 18 shows the prediction of the thermal plume
Fig. 17. Smoke movement from a re with small heat release in an atrium with
different surface temperatures.
Please cite this article in press as: Nielsen PV, Fifty years of CFD for room air distribution, Building and Environment (2015), http://dx.doi.org/
10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.02.035
9
Fig. 18. Average velocity in the plume above a CFD simulated person. The prole is
located 25 cm above the head.
above a simulated person with an activity level corresponding to a
convective heat release of 30 W [54].
It is seen that the undisturbed ow is close to a semi-analytical
description with a Gaussian prole and a maximum velocity of
0.25 m/s. In the given geometry, the mixing ventilation disturbed
the plume giving a higher spreading of the upward ow. In the case
of displacement ventilation, the plume is strongly inuenced by a
vertical temperature gradient of 1.8 K/m, and this effect is also seen
in the measurements.
The prediction of human breathing ow is important for the
understanding of comfort, cross-infection risks and air quality
around people. The exhalation ow is inuenced by a person’s
activity level, the way a person exhales (mouth or nose), the
microenvironment around the body and the room air distribution
and thus the type of ventilation [55].
It is a practical simplication to express the ow in a room as a
steady ow and therefore allowing the use of steady-state equa-
tions. Fig. 19 shows how it is possible to express the difference in
exhalation ow that will take place in a room with mixing venti-
lation and with displacement ventilation. The results indicate the
stratication effect which will inuence the exhalation in a room
with a vertical temperature gradient (displacement ventilation)
[41]. It was also shown that the general room airow sometimes is
transient, and a proper procedure is always to address this problem
in the rst prediction. Fig. 19 also shows measurements made of the
ow with a real breathing frequency [56].
CFD simulations can also be used to predict the transport of
droplet nuclei or of large droplets between people by for example
an Eulerian specication of the ow eld [57,58]. Fig. 20 shows a
CFD model with a Lagrangian specication of the ow eld where a
transition can take place from droplet-borne infection to airborne
Fig. 19. Exhalation ow from a person standing in a room with mixing ventilation
(MV) and with displacement ventilation (DV). The simulations show the potential of
using a constant, but calibrated exhalation to simplify the CFD predictions to steady-
state conditions.
10 P.V. Nielsen / Building and Environment xxx (2015) 1e13
Fig. 20. The top gure shows the exhalation of 100 mm droplets in air with 35% RH and
the bottom gure shows the same exhalation to the surrounding air with a 95% RH
both after 12 s of exhalation.
Fig. 21. A nurse moves into the LAF area in an operating theatre. The arrows illustrate
the contaminated airow from the non-clean area.
Please cite this article in press as: Nielsen PV, Fifty years of CFD for room air distribution, Building and Environment (2015), http://dx.doi.org/
10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.02.035
Fig. 22. Distributed momentum sources applied in the CFD predictions of a moving
person.
infection, because the exhaled droplets can evaporate in the air and
transform the droplets to droplet nuclei, depending on the hu-
midity in the surroundings of the exhalation ow [59].
The gure shows the inuence of humidity on water-contained
droplets which may contain viruses or bacteria. The top gure
shows the ow and evaporation to the surroundings at humidity of
35%. The particles decrease in size (~ 60 mm) and move upwards
within the thermal boundary layer ow from the two persons. The
target person (grey) will be directly inuenced by the exhaled
particles. The situation is different in the case where the sur-
rounding air has a humidity of 95%. The exhaled and water-
containing particles from the source manikin (red) will not
decrease much in diameter (~ 90 mm) and they fall down to the
oor due to gravity.
Computers now have such a size that it is possible to work with
people walking in a room to study the velocities and contaminant
transport which can be involved with this movement. Two types of
predictions can be considered, namely an indirect method and a
direct method. The indirect method only considers the inuence of
the movement, most likely in an approximate way, while the direct
method includes the real movement of the real object inside the
solution domain.
Fig. 23. Person moving in a hospital ward. The blue surface around the moving person
at the right side shows velocities of 20 cm/s.
 P.V. Nielsen / Building and Environment xxx (2015) 1e13
Fig. 24. 2D isothermal and steady-state simulations of the Annex 20 2D benchmark test. Four different turbulence models are used in the predictions. The high-velocity areas in the
different predictions are similar while large differences of velocities take place in the low-velocity areas.
The use of the indirect method for the contaminant transport
involved with the movement of people in the operating theatre is
demonstrated in Ref. [60]. Fig. 21 shows the principle behind the
indirect method. A nurse moves into the LAF (Laminar Air Flow)
area in an operating theatre. The arrows illustrate the contaminated
airow from the non-clean area and this effect is simulated by
considering the inuence of the movement as momentum sources
around and behind the nurse (who is not moving), Fig. 22. The
location, orientation and size of the distributed momentum sources
are calibrated to comply with smoke visualization, video recording,
and measurements.
CFD predictions with a moving person of simplied form in
health care facilities by a direct method is shown in Ref. [61]. Fig. 23
show the prediction of a health care person moving in a hospital
ward. The predictions are of the direct method where the parts of
the cells are moving with the person and the person is described
with moving legs and arms [62]. The direct method is of course an
improvement compared with the indirect method, but it can be
difcult to handle peoples’ individualities of movement in real
situations, and therefore indirect methods constitute a fair engi-
neering approach.
4.4. Benchmark tests for CFD predictions
It might be interesting to test and adjust software by comparing
results predicted by a benchmark test. The benchmark can be used
for testing new programs, for the selection of turbulence models,
study of grid dependency, test of numerical schemes and different
source codes as well as tests of different boundary conditions. It is
possible to compare the results with other authors’ results and the
basic knowledge behind a given benchmark can thus expanded
over the years. It can also be used for the development of virtual
persons (Computer Simulated Persons) to be situated in a venti-
lated room or test of boundary conditions for personalised
Fig. 25. Lattice Boltzmann method used for simulation of the ow in the 2D bench-
mark room.
Please cite this article in press as: Nielsen PV, Fifty years of CFD for room air distribution, Building and Environment (2015), http://dx.doi.org/
10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.02.035
11
ventilation. The benchmark tests are dened on the web page:
www.cfd-benchmarks.com.
Fig. 24 shows an example of the predictions with four different
turbulence models in the 2D benchmark test. They are tested in the
room with isothermal ow and end-wall-mounted slot inlet in the
left side and a low located return opening in the lower right side.
The ow is simulated by a set of 2D equations and the results seem
to show large differences [63]. The velocities are in reality rather
similar in the high-velocity area while there are large differences in
the low-velocity area. For predictions of room airow, the low-
velocity areas are not that important, because heat release from
persons is controlled by free convection in those areas. In any case,
the different results show the information that can be obtained by
working with a benchmark test.
Fig. 25 shows an example where the benchmark has been used
to look into the possibilities obtained by using a coarse grid Lattice
Boltzmann method in real time ow simulations in rooms instead
of CFD [64]. A high level of similarity to measurements is obtained
in this simple type of recirculating ow.
5. Conclusions
CFD has been applied in the research of ventilation and room air
distribution for almost 50 years. During this period, computers
have undergone a signicant development as regards size and
speed and have been one of the important driving forces behind the
method. Today complex details of the ow in rooms can be studied
by CFD. At the same time there has also been a development in the
measurements in full-scale rooms for validation. Validation is
needed because room airow is a very complicated ow with low
turbulence effect, stratication effect, potential ow, jet ow,
boundary layer ow and it describes the transport of energy, gases,
small particles and large particles. The development of computers
will undoubtedly continue and be more important than ever for the
development and application of CFD in room air distribution.
The last 50 years have also shown a signicant development of
the numerical scheme and the numerical method from rst order
schemes in the beginning to higher order schemes as well as im-
provements in the iteration procedure, grid generation and user
interface.
Room air distribution is a demanding area for turbulence
modelling because the elliptic ow combines many of the
complicated ow phenomena in uid mechanics. Various k-ε
models seem to be the preferred models, probably because they
were in focus from the beginning and they are all-round models. It
is necessary to work with special models when special types of ow
12 P.V. Nielsen / Building and Environment xxx (2015) 1e13
are considered. Increased computer size and speed will expand the
use of large eddy simulation in the coming years.
Focus should be kept on the steady-unsteady ow issue as well
as on ow with several steady solutions.
The development of computers will make it possible to work
with special situations like the ow in rooms with high occupation,
several interconnected rooms and buildings, and the connection
between air distribution and energy consumption. Smoke move-
ment is a special application where CFD has been shown to be very
rewarding. The study of airborne cross infection risk will continue
to benet from the use of CFD and ow generated by people and
people’s movement will be studied in the future.
Modern air supply openings are often complex in geometry.
They can include guide vanes, perforated plates, sound dampers
and curved surfaces, all with the intention of creating an initial
distribution of momentum ow in a given direction at a given ow
rate. The use of CFD to create the detailed ow from a diffuser will
be more used in the coming years to create accurate boundary
conditions to the room air distribution.
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Please cite this article in press as: Nielsen PV, Fifty years of CFD for room air distribution, Building and Environment (2015), http://dx.doi.org/
10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.02.035