air flow

The research objectives of this study are to develop and validate a detailed simulation model of a test cell which was used to measure heat balances for comfort evaluation. 

The British Standard Code of Practice, and other authoritative guides, recommend minimum rates of ventilation related to the size and use of rooms, and structural means for providing them. But the difficulty of measuring actual ventilation rates suggests that it is seldom done.

A number of interzonal models have been developed to calculate air flows and pollutant transport mechanisms in both single and multizone buildings. A recent development in multizone air-flow modeling, the COMIS model, has a number of capabilities that go beyond previous models, much as COMIS can be used as either a stand-alone air-flow model with input and output features or as an infiltration module for thermal building simulation programs. COMIS was designed during a 12 month workshop at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in 1988-89.

The existence of air leakages in a building has been very clearly stated as an important reason for energy loss. The decrease in the efficiency of the mechanical ventilation has also been clarified. The global demand for achieving nearly zero-energy buildings makes the uncontrolled leakage paths even more undesired. Despite the fact that steady state measurements of in- and exfiltration rates offer a simple and easy way of estimating the airtightness level of an eclosure, a supplement to those methods might be imposed.

Wind is a potential dominant factor regarding the air infiltration through building envelopes. Due to its dynamic characteristics, quite complex aerodynamic phenomena arise around a structure or through cracks and openings. Energy perfomance is influenced by the climate conditions and thus it should be much more researched. Despite the fact that steady state measurements of infiltration rates offer a simple and easy way of estimating an enclosure’s airtightness level, a supplement to those methods might be imposed.

Tracer gas measurements are an unparalleled means of measuring air recirculation, leakage, and air flow rates in air handling systems [1-5]. However, such measurements are subject to significant measurement uncertainty in field conditions. A common problem is imperfect mixing of tracer gas.

Heat loss monitoring from a thermal manikin was undertaken representing an occupant in a classroom during a lesson period of 80 minutes in which the room temperature was increased from 21 to 24C for various airflow velocity configurations. A group of subjects was exposed to various conditions of temperature and airflow rate so that the impact of these variations on their surface/skin temperature could be determined. It was found that skin temperature remained stable and close to 34C for all conditions of exposure.

This paper presents a three-dimensional zonal model, ZAER, for heat transfer and air flow calculations. It is based on an intermediate approach between single-air-node and CFD models. The indoor air volume is divided into macroscopic homogeneous zones. Heat and mass balance equations are written for each zone, while the mass flow rates across the interfaces are calculated by power pressure laws. The simulation tool ZAER allows the determination of temperature fields and air flow distributions inside unconditioned buildings, taking into account external boundary conditions.

A zonal model is an intermediate approach between computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and single-room models. It can give results faster than CFD and be more accurate than single-zone models. It has been used to provide some global information regarding thermal and flow parameters within a room. In this review, due emphasis is given to the commonly used pressurized zonal model - the power law. Qualitative validations show that the power law model reasonably predicts well for natural convection.

In the present study, a numerical simulation to simulate an experiment for evaluating the cross-ventilation performance at an inflow opening by using Large Eddy Simulation (LES), the standard k-e model, and Durbin's k-e model was performed. Results showed that too much turbulent kinetic energy was produced at the leeward opening frame in the standard k-e model. However , Durbin's k-e model improved this defect , and reproduced the wind tunnel results fairly well, as did the LES approach.