Numerical simulations of the flow fields and temperature distribution in a section of a Boeing 767–300 aircraft cabin

Abstract

In the aircraft cabin, a ventilation system is required to supply pleasant fresh air for a thermally comfortable environment. Mixing and Displacement ventilation systems, are the common mode of air diffusion strategies adopted in the aircraft cabin. However, air movement using these strategies showcased an ease of infection-spread and uneven thermal comfort levels. Hence, the need to develop existing design of air circulation systems for optimized use in aircraft cabins. In this study, we selected two different models of mixing ventilation to study better airflow leading to thermal comfort. The focus of this study is to accurately investigate and study airflow distribution and thermal stability in a cabin space of an aircraft. A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model is applied to simulate a cabinspace environment inside a Boeing 767–300 airplane at cruise conditions. CFD model was prepared based on an extensive literature survey. Besides, the airflow and thermal stability effect of re-circulation on airborne transmission was also discussed in this paper. A countermeasure design has been proposed, analyzed, and compared with the base model to improve air distribution and thermal stability inside the cabin. By comparing the two models in terms of the distribution of velocity and temperature, this study found that the improved design has more uniform airflow. The results show that the modified design having distributed inlets reduces the path of airflow and may reduce the risk of airborne transmissions such as SARS-CoV-1 (SARS) and the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). In a future further study, we may do with the DPM method to exactly know the effect on airborne transmission.