CFD Assessment of Thermal Comfort and Indoor Air Quality Using Ductless Personalized Ventilation

Abstract

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were used to study the thermal environment and indoor air quality in a room equipped with Displacement Ventilation (DV) and a Ductless Personalized Ventilation system (DPV). In order to validate the model, a series of empirical measurements were executed in a climate chamber equipped with a thermal manikin, a tracer gas system, and a set of air temperature and velocity sensors. Data collected from measurements were used to develop the numerical model. Results from the numerical model were then used to quantify thermal comfort and sensation using UC Berkeley thermal comfort model. Results show that indoor air quality -expressed using the ventilation effectiveness index- was improved by up to 0.98 when DPV was used. Furthermore, UC Berkeley model simulations showed a possibility of improving thermal comfort by up to 2.24 points on the thermal comfort scale.