Individual air distribution control panel on partition panel at personal task area.

A general trend in intelligent buildings is the decentralization of environmental controlsystems. Decentralized environmental control systems have many advantages over centralizedsystems. In order to filly utilize a decentralized control system, the control zone should becompletely individualized so that one occupant can feel free to adjust the air volume andtemperature without being concerned about affecting the comfort of other occupants. Afurniture integrated air distribution control system can provide highly individualizedenvironmental control. The supply air is brought up through raised floors and supplied tooutlets located on the partition panels. This paper aims to find out the proper location ofoutlets for the comfort of occupants within a personal task area. The supply air distribution ofdifferent designs for the personal task area were visually measured. Visual experiments ofmock-ups were conducted on a fluid mapping table to allow comparison of various systemdesigns. Experimental results indicate that the location of an outlet is the most critical factorin improving the supply air distribution efficiency of the personal task area.