Multi-nodal model for predicting vertical temperature profile in the stratum-ventilated large retail facility

Stratum ventilation (SV) is an energy-efficient solution to provide thermal comfort and improve air quality. The air distribution in rooms with SV depends on the room layout, location of supply and exhaust grills and indoor heat gains. Therefore, the commonly used methods to predict air temperatures in the occupied zone do not usually fit the indoor temperature distribution. At the same time, detailed simulations of indoor air distribution are still mainly used in complicated room layouts and research. Thus, a simplified but accurate model is needed to calculate air temperatures in stratum-ventilated rooms. Previous studies primarily focused on modelling in low-ceiling rooms with ceiling exhaust. This paper presents the development of a multi-modal model for vertical air temperature prediction in the stratum ventilated high-ceiling room with high internal heat gains. The CFD model investigated the large retail facility's air movement and temperature profile. In the simulated cases, the effects of the exhaust location on vertical temperature distribution were studied in detail. The proposed model was validated against the CFD-model results. The presented multi-modal model demonstrates good agreement between the proposed multi-nodal model predictions and CFD results in the occupied zone temperatures. The proposed model can be applied for energy and pre-design calculations.