Room airflows with low Reynolds number effects.

The behaviour of room airflows under fully turbulent conditions is well known both in terms of experiments and numerical calculations by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). For room airflows where turbulence is not fully developed though, i.e. flows at low Reynolds numbers, the existing knowledge is limited. It has been the objective to investigate the behaviour of a plane isothermal wall jet in a full-scale ventilated room at low Reynolds numbers, i.e. when the flow is not fully turbulent. The results are significantly different from known theory for fully turbulent flows.

Model experiments with low Reynolds number effects in a ventilated room.

The flow in a ventilated room will not always be a fully developed turbulent flow. Reduced air change rates owing to energy considerations and the application of natural ventilation with openings in the outer wall will give room air movements with low turbulence effects. This paper discusses the isothermal low Reynolds number flow from a slot inlet in the end wall of the room. The experiments are made on the scale of I to 5. Measurements indicate a low Reynolds number effect in the wall jet flow.