EFFECTS OF VENTILATION SETUPS ON AIR FLOW VELOCITY AND TEMPERATURE FIELDS IN BUS PASSENGER COMPARTMENT

Abstract

A bus compartment requires a good ventilation system to provide sufficient fresh air and a uniform air flow to passengers. This article presents a numerical study using CFD method to investigate the effects of using different ventilation setups on the air flow velocity and temperature distributions inside a passenger bus. Fluent software was used to develop a simplified three-dimensional model of a quarter section of a bus passenger compartment. Turbulent flow simulation was carried out based on a standard k-epsilon model to predict the distributions of air temperature and velocity inside the passenger compartment. The effects of two ventilation setups, namely mixing and displacement ventilations on the air temperature and air flow velocity distribution were also examined. Results of CFD simulations show that the displacement ventilation setup results in more uniform distribution of air flow velocity and air temperature inside the bus passenger compartment.