Heat Convective Effects on Turbulence and Airflow inside an B767 Aircraft Cabin

Maher Shehadi

doi:10.3390/fluids4030167

Abstract

Thermal plumes generated by human bodies can affect the temperature and humidity of the surrounding environment. An experimental study investigated the effects of thermal plumes formed by aircraft passengers on airflow and turbulence characteristics inside aircraft-cabins. An 11-row, wide-body B767 cabin mockup was used with actual seats, air diffusers and cabin profile. Thermal manikins were used simulating passengers in the cabin. Tracer gas and air speed inside the cabin were measured while the heat from the manikins was turned on and off to help understand the effects of the thermal heat released by the manikins. Results showed that tracer gas distribution were more uniformly and equally distributed around the release source and the air speed fluctuation were lower under cooler environments when the thermal manikins were turned off. Heated environments increased the values of turbulence kinetic energy and the turbulence intensity levels. However, the effects on the turbulence intensity were less significant compared to the turbulence kinetic energy. On the other hand, the dissipation rates were higher for unheated cases in the front and back sections of the mockup cabin. The relative uncertainty for tracer gas sampling ranged between ±5–14% for heated manikins versus ±8–17% for unheated manikins. Higher uncertainty levels accompanied the turbulence measurements due to the highly chaotic nature of the flow inside the cabin.

Highlights

Several studies have been conducted to understand air quality, airflow characteristics and human thermal comfort inside aircraft cabins
The middle rows in the east side had relatively higher air higher air speeds than in the front rows, whereas, in the west side, the air experienced higher speeds speeds than in the front rows, whereas, in the west side, the air experienced higher speeds in the back in the back section of the cabin. These observations were changed with unheated manikins, where section of the cabin. These observations were changed with unheated manikins, where the speed was the speed was more uniform across the cabin except near the front and back walls
An experimental study was conducted to check on the dispersion of tracer gas inside a Boeing aircraft model B767 cabin mockup made up of 11 rows with seven seats in the transverse direction of each row

Summary

Introduction

Several studies have been conducted to understand air quality, airflow characteristics and human thermal comfort inside aircraft cabins. The effect of air nozzle sizes and direction on the airflow inside aircraft cabin was investigated in 2006 by Lebbin et al [1] inside a generic room using stereoscopic PIV techniques. Reynolds number was held constant at the inlet slot of the room with a value of approximately 2226. It was noted that the center of rotation of the overall airflow significantly changed with a change in the size of the air inlet slot size, whereas the turbulence levels in the room was not affected significantly since Reynolds number was not changed [1]. To analyze turbulence characteristics of a fluid, the k–ε model is one of the most frequently used models utilizing two diffusive equations.

Methods

Results

Conclusion