Study of the airflow and vortex distributions in a long-narrow enclosed space

Abstract

In an aircraft cabin, there is a great influence of indoor air quality on the physiological and mental health of passengers. To promote indoor air quality, this research performed experiments and CFD to analyze the flow field characteristics in an aircraft cabin. This study investigated the airflow characteristics of a full-scale cabin using a scaled model. The experimental results indicated that the supply air jet easily formed vortex structures around the chest and head zones of the occupants. The airflow was unstable at the cross-section and longitudinal scales. The Transition SST (4eqn) model could accurately simulate the flow field, and the supply air jet alternatively controlled the cross-section flow field, induced the unstable phenomena spatially and temporally. The vortex structures around the occupants produced and disappeared in both time and space. It showed the instability of the airflow in the aircraft cabin. And this instability of the airflow could induce the dissipation of vortex structures in the time series. This enhanced the unstable distribution of vortex structures. This study further clarifies the distribution of the velocity field and provides references for the futural design of airflow in aircraft cabins.