Three-dimensional analysis of the effect of human movement on indoor airflow patterns.

Abstract

Human activity is known to leave significant effects on indoor airflow patterns. These patterns are carefully designed for many facilities such as cleanrooms, pharmaceutical settings, and healthcare environments, where human-induced wakes contribute to the transport of contaminants. Therefore, the knowledge about these wakes as it relates to indoor air quality is critical. As a result, a series of experiments were conducted in a controlled chamber to study the three-dimensional effects of true human walking on airflow. Experiments were designed to capture the effect of human walking under three different flow conditions, and for two different walking schemes. The results show that the effect of walking on the airflow is not negligible and can sustain up to 10seconds after the moving body has passed. Walking on a straight line creates significant change in the velocity normal to the walking path and vertical to the plane of walking movement. These changes were detectable till 1.0m away from the walking track. Also, the similarity between airflow patterns of walking once and twice illustrated a promising opportunity of predicting the flow patterns of random walk from a set of base cases.