Numerical Simulation of Airflow Velocity and Temperature Distribution in an Aircraft Cabin

Abstract

In this work, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is established to calculate the airflow distribution in the cabin of a single-channel Boeing 737-800 airplane. The RNG k-ε model, considering the calculation of turbulence kinetic energy and its rate of dissipation, is adopted to solve turbulence problems in physical field simulation. The proposed three-dimensional model is able to consider the particular physical factors and spatial structures, which can simulate the detailed distributions of complex physical fields, compared with the one-dimensional lumped parameter model. The velocity and temperature fields under different air supply velocities are then numerically investigated. The calculation results show that when the air velocity at the top air supply inlet is 1.4 m/s, the velocity and temperature distribution inside the cabin can both meet the comfort requirements of humans in the airworthiness standards. The results from this work can help to design an aircraft environmental control system.