KATHMANDU UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL
ENGINEERING

NUMERICAL STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VARIOUS

VENTILATION STRATEGIES FOR MULTIPURPOSE HALL AT
KATHMANDU UNIVERSITY

PRESENTED BY: UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF

Ashim Lamichhane- 42138 Er. Niranjan Bastakoti
Sagar Dhakal-42331
CONTENTS

 INTRODUCTION
 OBJECTIVES
 SCOPE
 ACTIVITIES
 METHODOLOGY
 CASES
 CONCLUSION
 RECOMMENDATION

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 INTRODUCTION
 Ventilation strategies are studied in various buildings to achieve fresh
airflow with the suitable temperature within the range of human comfort.
 Several emerging technologies such as controlled natural ventilation,
mechanical ventilation with heat recovery and earth air tunnel provide the
best solutions.
 This study emphasizes the need of ventilation load modeling in anticipating
interior air distribution when designing for any ventilation.
 These models are proven to be effective in countries where insulation
standards of building and materials used are registered as a law for
construction.
 These models are seen to be effective in countries where building
insulation standards and materials are mandated by law.
 However, in the context of developing countries such as Nepal, such
advanced systems may produce incorrect results due to differences in
technology, infrastructure, and physical conditions such as high
infiltration.
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OBJECTIVES:

 The primary objective of this study is to calculate and interpret the

feasibility of various ventilation strategies as open window
ventilation, controlled natural ventilation, crossflow ventilation and
forced mechanical ventilation in the multipurpose hall at Kathmandu
University.
 The secondary objective is to create CFD model's target space (our
multipurpose hall space) which is partitioned into a finite number of
grids for numerical analysis, thus an optimum grid design is created
to produce correct outcomes.
 To suggest a system with heat recovery during winter.

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METHODOLOGY:
• Ventilation load calculation
1.

• Selection of mechanical fan

2.

• Simulation using different boundary conditions

3.

• Comparison with analytical solution

4.

• Discussion of the results

5.

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 Ventilation load calculation
Maxim Requir Uncorrec
  Floor Required Required Required
um ed ted

Maxim Supply Outdoor Outdoo Outdoor Outdoor Outdoor

Area
um Air Air r Air Air Air Air

Occup (L/s/ (L/(s- (% of

Zone Name / Space Name Zone (m²) (L/s) (L/s) (L/s)
ants person) m²)) supply)

Zone 1
14158.4
multipurpose hall room 1 2056.5 1500.0 0.15 0.11 9.4 20 3117.0
2

Totals (incl. Space 14158.4

3117.0
Multipliers) 2

 The following user-defined value was used in HAP to calculate the change
in air density at the site altitude
 Density specific heat product: At sea level = 1.207;At site altitude = 1.001
J/(cu m-K)
 Density specific heat product: At sea level = 2947.6; At site altitude =
2444.7 J/(cu m-K)
 Site Altitude = 1550.0 m
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Result of using a heat recovery system(For
summer)
Location: Dhulikhel, Nepal
Altitude: 1550.0 m.
Data for: July DESIGN COOLING DAY, 1700

1. Outdoor Air
2.
3.
Mixed Air
Central Cooling Coil Outlet 0.024
4. Supply Fan Outlet 1
5. Room Air
0.022
0.020

S pecific H um idity ( kg/kg )

0.018
0.016
2
0.014
5
34 0.012
0.010
0.008
0.006
0.004
0.002
0.000
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Temperature ( °C )

 Ventilation aids in precooling the air during this process.

 This process is moving towards the dehumidification as we can see the humidity
ratio is decreasing and no heat transfer takes place between space and
surroundings in adiabatic evaporative cooling.
 Low humidity promotes evaporation, which makes us feel more comfortable.
 They lower the temperature (sensible cooling) and reduce the indoor humidity.
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 Design for mechanical system
Area Total supply Total Return grills
diffusers

Seating 12 15

Stage 4 4

Fan room (2 fans of each 30,000 CFM;1 - -

supply,1 return)

 The effectiveness of centrifugal fan of supply fan might be considered to be greater for
conference halls with high ceiling heights.
 In our scenario, if a fan moves 30,000 CFM at 70 degrees Fahrenheit, it will likewise
move 30,000 CFM at 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Because 250°F air weighs only 34% of
70°F air, the fan will use less BHP but will provide less pressure than required.
 Using the air density adjustment factor, the correction factor for Hall's altitude is 1.04,
and the air temperature is assumed to be .
 To calculate the standard air density equivalent static pressure, multiply the given
operational static pressure by the correction factor. (Correct static pressure = 4.0 x 1.04
= 4.16.) A fan capable of handling more than (4*9) inches of static pressure must be
chosen. The chosen fan must have an external static pressure of at least 90 kpa and
must displace minimum of 11,117 CFM.
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Fluid Domain for CFD analysis

 In the CFD simulation, the Reynolds Averaged Navier- Stokes Equations (RANS)
and the two-layer k-turbulence model was used (Chen 2009).
 For the buoyancy-driven forces in this model, the Boussinesq approximation was
used.
 The Boussinesq approximation is a method for resolving non-isothermal flow
problems like natural convection without having to solve the Navier-Stokes
equations in their full compressible formulation.

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 Cases
 Natural ventilation

Air inlet velocity 0.5 m/s for summer and winter season

Pressure 1 atm

Ambient (atmospheric temperature) and for summer, and for winter season [2
cases for each season]

Basement and cafeteria adiabatic

Air Exchange Rate (ACH) 10 [3]

Type of outlet Vents (openings)

Additional cases Open window and closed window

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Summer

 Case A (open window)  Case B (Close window)

Opening windows promotes air movement within the space, which improves ventilation and indoor air quality, and hence improves human thermal comfort in summer. The curl or circular
motion of air indicates that no clean air is entering the hall, making it thermally unpleasant.

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Summer

 Case A (open window)  Case B (closed window)

• The study was performed by giving a changing variable that consisted the input
velocity range from 0.1 m/s when closed window and (0.2m/s-0.5m/s) when
opened window. It shows that when the front door and all windows are opened,
the air movement increases in the hall, and the air near the seating area.

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 Winter

 Case A (open window)  Case B (Closed window)

In the case of winter season, the fluid velocity of ambient condition decreases and hence
the streamlines enter from the lower surfaces of building envelope and the hotter air
escapes from the top openings. Opening windows encourages air movement within the
space which is already filled with a lot of infiltration and the streamlines start to curl
within the indoor space due to low velocity and pressure difference. 13
Winter

 Case A (open window)  Case B (Close window)

The inside temperature of the room ranged from roughly to for the open window and
from around to for the closed window. The range for closed configuration was low
due less infiltration gain from the cold outside environment.
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Winter

 Case A (open window)  Case B (Close window)

As compared to summer season the air flow rate is less and hence age of stale air is
more during the winter if proper exhaust system is not defined.
 

15
• Cross ventilation

Boundary conditions

Air inlet velocity 0.8 m/s

Pressure 1 atm at inlet and -0.98 at outlet side

Ambient (atmospheric temperature)

Air Exchange Rate (ACH) 8 [3]

Type of outlet Vents (openings)

Vent size 75 cm *75 cm

Intake location 9 m from ground level (10 on south, 2on

SE ,2 on SW)
Outlet location 9 m from ground level (10 on North, 2on NE
,2 on NW)

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Age of air
 Fluid dynamics is responsible for the mean age of air in a room
validation case.
 The purpose of this test case is to validate the age of air using the
passive scalar transport model
 The inlet and outlet in this case study are extruded by a length equal to 5
times their hydraulic diameter D.
D= (1)
 We need to calculate the time period distribution along the plane of hall
interior with variable height of the vents, using FVM.
 We divide the domain into five nodes where we want to see the results.

 Using FVM to integrate the mean age of air, 

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 Age of air Age of air

 Case A (11m)  Case B (8 m)

CFD
Age of air comparision Analyt -
ical
3000

2500

2000

1500

1000
Age of air [s]

500

Length of hall (m)

The position near south direction demonstrates abnormally low age of air readings as
compared to the other sample stations in all three circumstances due to its closeness to
the inlet entrance, where the bulk of the air originates from outside. in Case A, when
the vents are at their highest location, the age of the air is substantially higher when
there is no wind pushing the flow of air.
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Age of air

 Case C (5m)

We can see that the air age in Case B and Case C is lower due to some support from
infiltration and leaking of air into the building through several openings.

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Counter of Case A

 The age of air values between changing height cases A (11m), B (8m), and C
(5m) are compared in the same way as velocity is. The air seems to stay less
near the vents but settle in distant area.
 Nonetheless, in the majority of the sites, the CFD and analytical results match
within the uncertainty, confirming the viability of the CFD model to predict
interior air distribution in this inquiry.
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Effect of varying the air exchange rate

 While the amplitude of the local air exchange rates did not vary considerably, the
increased ventilation from outside let in more external air, resulting in a higher
proportion of the mixing flow being composed of outside air and lower age of air
values.
 The little variation in local air exchange rates might be an indication of the
complicated nature of the combined effects of wind-driven cross ventilation flow
and local buoyancy-driven flow, or it could simply be the ambiguity from the
turbulence model simulation near the room entry.
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• Forced ventilation

CFM of fan  
30,000
Static pressure of fan 90kpa

Basement and cafeteria adiabatic

Air Exchange Rate (ACH) 10 [3]

Type of outlet Exhaust fan (openings)

Type of inlets Diffusers (inlet fans)

Heat loads Occupants and electrical equipment

Additional cases Steady state and transient

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Summer winter

Because the pressure difference is created at around standard 1 atm, there is no discernible change in
flow rate. We cannot see much of curls in the streamlines as we saw before for the natural ventilation
process. This is due to the installation of fan that draws stale air from the interior.

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Summer Winter

The temperature distribution for the winter season is less fluctuating due to the less use of the cold air that would be supplied. We assume that the supply
fan operates more during the summer where the temperature ranges from to . A heating system incorporated for the winter season might bring significant
change in the results.

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Transient state analysis
 Transient state analysis is done to simulate the air flow inside the hall with
varying boundary conditions over a period of time.
 The calculations were performed in ANSYS Fluent, which uses a Cartesian
coordinate system with a structured mesh to solve the hydrodynamic
equation set on a co-located grid using the finite volume method.
 A total of five CFD simulations were run for different vent opening areas.
The parameters for each example are summarized in the table below:

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Cases for transient analysis

Case Temperature Inlet velocity ACH Run time (s)

A summer 0.4 14 50
winter
B summer 0.6 12 75
winter

C summer 0.9 12 150

winter
D summer 0.1 10 200
winter

E summer 0.2 8 180

winter

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 There are significant distortions where the cold air exits the room through the
lower exhausts and where the inflow from the lower vent impinges on the
buoyant layer interface.
 Factors like as static pressure and airflow rate have a significant impact on the
performance of the outlet fan.
 Suction static pressure is high for low mass flow rates and drops as the mass flow
rate increases.
 Pressure is highest along the vertical cross section plane's sides and
progressively diminishes toward the center of outlet.
 Flow stagnation along the walls generates the greater pressure, while flow
velocity is high in the center, where the pressure difference is lower as shown in
figure. 27
Pressure difference at the cross section of the
outlet

 In general, employing air exhaust rates is preferable since most structures

exhaust more air than they supply.
 The ideal condition would be to monitor both exhaust and supply air. This
will inform you what needs to be done to better balance the supply and
exhaust air—usually to relieve the building's "negative pressure" condition.
 A negative pressure condition (too much exhaust—insufficient supply) also
causes temperature control issues, such as loading docks that become too
chilly and the opposite side of the structure that becomes too hot.

28
Mesh size (2m) Results (velocity counter)

It was clear that the flow patterns near the outflow differed significantly. Equivalent
flows through the outlet were observed at resolutions of 0.5 and 2, however the flow
was closer to the wall on the right side at resolution 0.2.

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Mesh size (0.5 m) Result (Velocity counter)

The velocity vector field in the mesh size of 0.2 m differed in that the grid size of 2
ensured independence based on the relevance with solution to the fine resolution of 0.5.

30
Mesh size (0.2 m) Result (Velocity counter)

When the grid resolution was similar to 0.2, however, an unique flow pattern was seen,
suggesting enhanced flow in the fluid domain, and the findings of 0.5 and 2 m showed
the need for grid improvement.

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 Conclusion
 While our findings suggest the importance of infiltration and heat sources in controlling
interior mixing during a circumstance of wind-driven cross ventilation, open and closed
window natural ventilation, and mechanical ventilation, more experiment and examination is
necessary before the full impact can be realized.
 Only a single construction zone and a wind-driven flow route were investigated in this study.
 The influence of localized heat sources may be greatly varied according to the variety of wind-
driven flows and the varying sizes of openings in other naturally ventilated structures.
 This study did not investigate thermal mass in the building, which can also contribute to the
driving force of buoyancy-driven flow.
 While input temperature and overall ventilation rate appear to have minimal influence on air
mixing caused by local buoyancy flow, local heat flux was discovered to have a considerable
impact on interior air dispersion even with a modest quantity of source present.
 This discovery implies that even minimal amounts of room occupancy and load such as a
lighting system, can produce enough driving force to change room air every 25 minutes or
fewer.
 This finding emphasizes the need of occupancy modeling in anticipating interior air
distribution when designing for natural ventilation.

32
RECOMMENDATION
 A new study might be conducted using the situation of multiple zones in
the same structure presented in the study, including the basement and
cafeteria.
 Policy regarding the insulation standard of Nepalese buildings and the
conductivity of building materials must be enforced.
 The further study might be conducted with experimental data logging
inside the multipurpose hall building and validate the CFD results.

33
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THANK YOU

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