Smart air supply terminal for floor-standing room air conditioners based on the identification of human positions

Abstract

Floor-standing air conditioners (FSACs) have been widely used in civil and office buildings due to their high cooling capacity and easy installation in recent years. Increasing attention has been given to reducing the draft sensation of FSACs. This study introduces a new form of smart terminal for air conditioners that can be automatically adjusted by identifying the positions of humans in the room. The smart terminal has certain practical value given its simple structure and relatively low cost. A target air supply evaluation index for regional thermal comfort evaluation named the air velocity target value is proposed. A computational fluid dynamics model is established, and an orthogonal experiment of 4 factors and 4 levels is designed. The optimal parameters of the terminal are further determined through a series of optimization steps. The effect of the smart terminal is validated with numerical simulation and experimental measures, and the local velocities of the occupied zone are mostly below 0.3 m/s, showing that the draft level in the room is acceptable. Compared with the case of an air conditioner only, the air velocity target value of the room with a smart terminal decreases by 21.3%–63.3%. Compared with other existing manually controlled terminals purchased online, the smart terminal satisfies the minimum air velocity target value in the occupied zone. This study can also be used to guide the positioning and setting of air supplies for different positions of humans in a room under other air distributions.