Investigating the Temperature and Air Velocity Distribution of Split- Type Air Conditioners Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

Abstract

An air conditioning (AC) system is defined as a system that regulates the temperature, movement, and humidity of air in a particular room. An air conditioning system is said to have good performance if it is able to ensure a room is in a comfortable condition. A college classrooms is one place where teaching and learning activities are conducted. In general, classroom capacity ranges from 20 to 50 people. To avoid noise pollution from the surrounding environment, classrooms should be designed as closed rooms. A problem that often arises in classrooms is the uneven distribution of air temperature and circulation. In this research, numerical simulation is done using the classroom model at Sekolah Tinggi Teknologi Nasional (STTNAS) Y ogyakarta. The air conditioning system installed in the classroom includes two split-type AC units. Numerical simulation is performed on the classroom model using ANSYS Fluent software and a transient pressure-based solver to investigate the temperature and air velocity distribution of the air conditioning system. The room is simulated for 10 minutes, with a time step size of 1 second and total of 600 time steps. The maximum number of iterations per time step is set 100 iterations. Based on numerical simulations, it can be concluded that temperature distribution in the front of the room is higher than in other parts of the room. Furthermore, air velocity distribution in the front of the room is also lower than in other parts of the room. Temperature and air velocity distribution is uneven in the front of the room, a situation caused by improper placement of an indoor air conditioning unit.