Numerical investigation on the impact of different supply air terminal devices on the performance of the newly combined ventilation and heating system

Abstract

An increased focus on energy saving has led to a rapid development of energy-efficient buildings. In the residential buildings, space heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) have the highest energy use. The ventilation system is the main tool to provide acceptable indoor air quality and thermal comfort for occupants. This study presents an investigation of the thermal environment in a room served by new developed, combined ventilation and heating system. The focus is on different configurations of the supply air terminal device in the studied system. The main goal is to investigate the influence of different supply air parameters, which in this study are flowrate and temperature, on the airflow behaviour and performance of the mixing ventilation. In this regards, three different supply air conditions with two inlet configurations were considered. This work has been carried out numerically and validated with the laboratory measurements. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation was applied in this study to map the airflow patterns and air temperature distribution. The results showed that decreasing supply air temperature and increasing the flowrate provided a uniform temperature distribution for both inlet configurations. Inlet configuration investigated in case1 has lower vertical temperature differences in comparison with case 2.