The role of near-wall downdraught and asymmetric temperature distribution in dispersion of respiratory aerosols in radiant floor heating systems

Abstract

In radiant floor heating (RFH) systems, the downdraught due to the asymmetric temperature distribution causes descending airflows towards the floor surface, where the warm air adjacent to the RFH system tends to be driven upwards by the buoyancy force. Hence, this conflict creates a zone that prevents the warm air to ascend affecting the streamlines of the indoor air. The present study aims to investigate the integrated effects of this phenomenon at different levels of the RFH temperature and thermal transmittance on the behaviour of indoor airborne particles (PMs2.5). In this context, a Eulerian-Lagrangian computational fluid dynamic (CFD) code is established, validated against experimental data, to address the dispersion and deposition patterns of PMs2.5. To generate different levels of the downdraught and non-uniform temperature distribution, five scenarios are considered regarding different thermal transmittance (U-value) levels, assessed for four RFH temperatures. Firstly, by introducing the near-wall and zonal spaces, the dispersion of particles in each scenario is evaluated. Then, the role of RFH system temperature in conjunction with each scenario is investigated. Finally, simple correlations are proposed allowing for fast evaluation of the decay rate coefficient of PMs2.5. According to the obtained results, the asymmetric temperature distribution causes a striking disparity in the zonal concentration of suspended PMs2.5, i.e., up to 32 % difference in the number of particles between quarters. It is shown that a faster decay rate of PMs2.5 is associated with a larger value of the characteristic temperature difference and the Rayleigh number (Ra). For a given RFH temperature, thermal performance improvement of the envelope reduces the number of deposited particles on the ceiling surface, whereas it gives a boost to the number of particles adhering to the floor. A sensitivity analysis on the results revealed that a 1 °C increment in the RFH temperature leads to an 8.4 % reduction on average in the number of suspended PMs2.5 in the breathing zone, regardless of the level of thermal transmittance from surrounding walls.