Effects of Kitchen Hood System on Thermal Comfort and Carbon Dioxide Gas Emission From an Urban Residential Kitchen in Developing Countries

Abstract

In this study, a typical kitchen having a standard dimension of 213cm × 243cm × 305cm was modelled with single open door exit. Steady state simulations were performed using three dimensional CFD code with appropriate boundary conditions. Two heat sources were used for modelling the kitchen that resembles the double burner gas stoves of urban residential kitchen in developing countries. In earlier works, the predictions were validated at an optimum grid resolution and the results were presented for thermal comfort [1] and carbon dioxide gas emission [2] under natural, forced and no ventilation cases. In the present work, a kitchen hood system is introduced and the results are presented for both thermal comfort and carbon dioxide gas emission. A comparative analysis has also been reported for the kitchen with and without the hood system. It was observed that the carbon dioxide gas concentration reduced significantly within the breathing zone due to use of kitchen hood system. In the breathing zone, the CO2 concentration is only 500 PPM which is 10 times lower than the close vent case. However, accumulation of high concentration gas was seen in the upper region of the breathing zone. Maximum CO2 concentration was seen about 4500 PPM at 1.2 m height from the breathing point near the roof of the kitchen. Analysis of thermal distributions revealed that high temperature zone in the right and frontal region of the cook’s position exists even for the case with kitchen hood system.