On underfloor air-conditioning of a room containing a distributed heat source and a localised heat source

Abstract

This paper studies air flow in an air-conditioned room containing a distributed heat source and a localised heat source, into which cool air is supplied at low momentum through openings at a low level, and from which old air is extracted from a high level. This situation may be analogous to an auditorium containing a distributed audience and a localised group of actors and lighting on a stage, into which cool air is distributed from underneath the seating, and from which old air is removed through a ceiling, for example. Using a combination of a theoretical model and laboratory experiments, the paper shows that, in such conditions, if the localised heating is sufficiently strong compared to the distributed heating, the room will become stratified into two layers at steady state. A layer of warm air lies atop a cooler layer that attains a temperature above that of the supply air. This temperature structure depends primarily on the supply air flow rate and the ratio of the distributed heating to the total heat flux. For a room with fixed heating, increasing the supply air flow rate raises the interface between the upper and lower layers, while cooling both layers. The temperature in the upper layer depends on the total heat flux, but the temperature in the lower layer depends on the flux of distributed heating. For a room with a fixed supply air flow rate and a fixed total heat flux, increasing the strength of distributed heating warms the lower layer, but does not affect the temperature in the upper layer. Such increase in the strength of distributed heating also raises the interface. To achieve sufficient ventilation and thermal comfort in an occupied lower zone while keeping any pocket of uncomfortably warm air well above it, cool air needs to be supplied within an appropriate range of flow rates, which depends on the ratio of the distributed heating to the total heat flux. The paper shows how to determine such appropriate ranges of flow rates for different heating ratios, using the model.