Airflow Organization in a Transformable Shelter

Abstract

The environmental control system of a shelter can provide comfortable temperature, air velocity and fresh air supply for members indoor, protecting them from the extreme weathers or oxygen-poor environment in the field. A shelter with transformable walls will have a large available space including the core module and extended modules for diverse demands such as dining or sleeping. The airflows in such a limited space can be inevitably influenced by walls and furniture. In the study, a transformable shelter with top supply and bottom return air organization mode was taken as the research object. The air supply duct on the ceiling of the shelter was designed to uniform the supplying air quantity through each outlet by adding baffles in the duct. Baffles can also make the export winds nearly perpendicular to the duct wall. The indoor airflow velocity and temperature fields in the condition of people gathering for dinner were obtained by simulation, so as that in the condition of people scattering for sleeping. In the dining condition, the barriers to the uniform airflow and temperature are the crowd occupying the core module. In the sleeping condition, the dominating barriers are the walls between different modules. The airflows were uniformed between different modules by opening apertures across the partitions. In view of human comfort, a comprehensive evaluation of the air flow organization was given, which presents an essential reference for system design and optimization.