Underfloor Air Distribution System Research Articles

Energy analysis of under-floor air distribution (UFAD) system: An office building case study

This paper presents the results of an experimental and theoretical investigation to evaluate an under-floor air distribution (UFAD) system existed in an office building working on hot climate. Air temperature a distribution and supply air velocity are measured in two measuring stations; each consists of eight temperature sensors which were installed to measure room air temperatures along zone height. The obtained data shows an inefficient operation of the UFAD system which deteriorates the advantages of energy saving that presumed by UFAD system.The building energy simulation program, EnergyPlus, was used to identify the best setting of UFAD system and compare it with the existed UFAD and the conventional ceiling based air distribution (CBAD) system. The simulation results show that setting of room thermostat at 26°C and supply air temperature at 18°C provides the best efficient UFAD system. Due to improper operation of the tested UFAD system, its actual consumption is found to be higher than the best simulated UFAD by 23–37% during July to October. Also, the simulation results show that the HVAC demand of UFAD is lower than CBAD by 37–39% during July–September and 51% in October.

Thermal comfort prediction of an underfloor air distribution system in a large indoor environment

The use of air distribution in HVAC has grown in popularity in buildings, and, to this end, the method chosen to deliver the conditioned air is strongly associated with increasing concerns about indoor environmental quality and its effect on occupants’ well-being. In the underfloor air distribution (UFAD) system, air is directly supplied to the base of the occupied zone, which causes temperature stratification from the lower to the upper layer of the zone. This flow pattern gives UFAD the advantage of using less energy while providing better thermal comfort than overhead air distribution (OHAD) system. This paper investigates the effectiveness of UFAD in a large space with a higher ceiling for various velocities of supply air and locations of diffusers at an identical air supply temperature. In particular, the goals of providing satisfactory comfort conditions for the occupants and its practical application to buildings have been examined. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software was used to simulate the thermal environment, along with the control variables for a huge theater space equipped with a UFAD system. Results show that the UFAD is capable of creating smaller vertical variations of air temperature and a more comfortable environment than conventional OHAD systems

Inhalation exposure to particulate matter in rooms with underfloor air distribution

This work investigated the personal exposure to indoor particulate matters using the intake fraction metric and provided a possible way to trace the particle inhaled from an indoor particle source. A turbulence model validated by the particle measurements in a room with underfloor air distribution (UFAD) system was used to predict the indoor particle concentrations. Inhalation intake fraction of indoor particles was defined and evaluated in two rooms equipped with the UFAD, i.e., the experimental room and a small office. According to the exposure characteristics and a typical respiratory rate, the intake fraction was determined in two rooms with a continuous and episodic (human cough) source of particles, respectively. The findings showed that the well-mixing assumption of indoor air failed to give an accurate estimation of inhalation exposure and the average concentration at return outlet or within the overall room could not relate well the intake fraction to the amount of particle emitted from an indoor source.

실내 부하조건에 따른 바닥공조 시스템의 에너지 성능 평가

The present study has been conducted for evaluating and comparing the performance of the underfloor air distribution system(UFAD) and the ceiling based air distribution system(CBAD) under cooling condition. Simulations and experiments were carried out for verifying the model by TRNSYS program about UFAD and CBAD. The results of simulation for various conditions of thermal load are summarized as followings. UFAD had an advantage for making thermal comfort because of lower temperature of the floor surface. Moreover, UFAD showed lower fan power about 30~50% than CBAD under the same conditions of thermal load. The energy saving rates of UFAD were increased to 17.7% in proportion to the thermal load on unoccupied zone(lighting). Ultimately, additional investigations should be done for analyzing optimized operating conditions of UFAD with considering the thermal performance of building envelop and the thermal load.

Thermal environment in indoor spaces with under-floor air distribution systems: Part 2. Determination of design parameters (1522-RP)

This article reports on the continued study of the thermal environment in indoor spaces with under-floor air distribution systems, with a focus on the determination of supply airflow rate. Supply airflow rate of under-floor air distribution needs to be carefully determined to achieve thermally comfortable conditions in an occupied space. The design parameters, such as airflow rate, temperature of supply air, and types and number of diffusers, need to be properly calculated to ensure an acceptable vertical temperature difference between the head and ankle of occupants. This study introduced an empirical model to predict the vertical temperature difference between the head and ankle of occupants and calculated the supply airflow rate for under-floor air distribution design. This investigation developed the model based on a database summarizing vertical temperature distributions that correspond to various airflow and thermal conditions. The model used dimensionless numbers to group design parameters in order to represent the two driving factors of thermal stratification, namely, inertial and buoyance forces. Linear regression analysis was conducted to correlate the empirical equations of stratification for swirl, square, and linear diffusers. With the model, this study developed an airflow calculation method for under-floor air distribution as well as a graphical interface for designers.

Thermal environment in indoor spaces with under-floor air distribution systems: Part 1. Impact of design parameters (1522-RP)

The under-floor air distribution system creates a cleaner indoor environment and provides enough energy saving potential for it to have become increasingly popular in North America. The system also generates thermal stratification in an occupied zone since it supplies cold air directly to the occupied zone of an indoor space. This study identifies the impact of different design parameters on thermal stratification. The investigation used the orthogonal method to identify the most important parameter and to establish a set of test cases for the parametric study. The parametric study used both experimental measurements in an environmental chamber and numerical simulations by computational fluid dynamics. The environmental chamber was used to simulate an office, a classroom, and a conference room with swirl, square, and linear diffusers. The experimental data were used to validate the numerical results by computational fluid dynamics. These results indicate that swirl diffusers created the largest thermal stratification, while linear diffusers provided almost uniform distribution of the air temperature in the occupied zone. The swirl diffuser can create a very good mixing in the occupied zone so the supply air temperature can be lower. The thermal stratification was smaller when the cooling load was higher in indoor spaces such as conference rooms.

Supply air temperature impact in underfloor air distribution systems under Korean climatic conditions: Energy, humidity and comfort

Underfloor air distribution (UFAD) systems have received increasing attention during the past decades due to potential advantages over conventional overhead (OH) forced air systems. Among design and operating parameters, air handling unit (AHU) supply air temperature (SAT) has significant impacts on the overall UFAD performance. In this study, the detailed whole-building energy simulation program, EnergyPlus version 6.0, was used to perform the analysis on the impact of SAT on the UFAD system performance such as energy, humidity and comfort under Korean climatic condition. It turns out that raising AHU SAT causes increased HVAC energy consumption due to heating and fan energy increase despite the cooling energy reduction. The increase in the heating energy was mainly due to the increased central AHU heating coil demand increase with the higher SAT. In addition, raised SAT elevated relative humidity in the room space during the summer season due to the fact that higher SAT set-point in the central AHU was not able to sufficiently dehumidify conditioned air compared to the lower SAT. However, the increased SAT reduced the number of hours when the occupants might feel cold during the heating season in the interior zone where the heating is not provided.

Co-occupant's exposure of expiratory droplets—Effects of mouth coverings

Infectious disease transmission in enclosed environments has become one of the major public concerns since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome. Mouth covering, acting as a non-pharmaceutical intervention, is one feasible measure to mitigate viral infection and has been extensively studied. However, its performance in reducing airborne infections under different ventilation conditions was seldom investigated. In this article, the effects of mouth covering on the co-occupant's exposure are numerically studied under three commonly employed ventilation systems, and the dispersion of exhaled droplet residuals at different coughed airflow velocities is also evaluated under a mixing ventilation system. The results show that the use of mouth covering can interrupt the horizontal transportation of exhaled air to protect the co-occupant from direct exposure to the coughed droplets for all systems, but the effects on the later-stage indirect exposure of the co-occupant are very different for the three ventilation systems. The displacement ventilation system can achieve the lowest exposure for all droplets investigated when the mouth of the polluting person is covered. The total inhaled dose can be reduced by more than 70% under displacement ventilation by wearing a mouth covering and by about 40%–60% under mixing ventilation and under-floor air distribution systems. Meanwhile, the research on varying coughing velocities indicates that the expiratory velocity can only influence the co-occupant's direct exposure, and the inhaled dose at the later stage is primarily associated with the specific ventilation method.

Characteristics of physical blocking on co-occupant's exposure to respiratory droplet residuals.

Existed evidences show that airborne transmission of human respiratory droplets may be related with the spread of some infectious disease, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and H1N1 pandemic. Non-pharmaceutical approaches, including ventilation system and personal protection, are believed to have certain positive effects on the reduction of co-occupant’s inhalation. This work then aims to numerically study the performances of mouth covering on co-occupant’s exposure under mixing ventilation (MV), under-floor air distribution (UFAD) and displacement ventilation (DV) system, using drift-flux model. Desk partition, as one generally employed arrangement in plan office, is also investigated under MV. The dispersion of 1, 5 and 10 μm droplet residuals are numerically calculated and CO2 is used to represent tracer gas. The results show that using mouth covering by the infected person can reduce the co-occupant’s inhalation greatly by interrupting direct spread of the expelled droplets, and best performance can be achieved under DV since the coughed air is mainly confined in the microenvironment of the infected person. The researches under MV show that the two interventions, mouth covering and desk partition, achieve almost the same inhalation for fine droplets while the inhalation of the co-occupant is lower when using mouth covering for large droplets.

바닥공조 시스템이 적용된 사무공간의 거주후 성능평가

In this study, an underfloor air distribution(UFAD) system installed on the S. office building was evaluated for its indoor environmental quality performance. Field measurement and survey were conducted for the overall POE(Post Occupied Evaluation). PMV(including temperature, humidity, air velocity and globe temperature) and several environmental components were measured while thermal comfort, thermal sensation, acoustical environment and others. were investigated through survey. Except for the direct upper part of the air supply diffuser on the floor, the indoor velocity was less than 0.25m/s, which has been suggested by ASHRAES tandard 55 as the limit for thermal comfort. MRT of the perimeter zone of the room showed a higher value than that in the interior because of the introduced solar radiation through the building envelope. PMV was generally maintained in the range of thermal comfort (from -0.5 to +0.5), though it weighted to the warm side. It was reported to have 61% positive response on thermal comfort and 55% on neutral thermal sensation. The results of each survey item showed some gender-based differences. Specifically, female respondents had higher degree of dissatisfaction with indoor air cleanness and acoustical privacy. The working surface showed more than 400 lux and the equivalent noise level showed less than 50 dB(A). In conclusion, the results of the measurement and survey showed good agreement. Indoor environmental quality of the subject office room where the UFAD system was installed showed an overall excellent performance.

Thermal decay in underfloor air distribution (UFAD) systems: Fundamentals and influence on system performance

Underfloor air distribution (UFAD) is a mechanical ventilation strategy in which the conditioned air is primarily delivered to the zone from a pressurized plenum through floor mounted diffusers. Compared to conventional overhead (OH) mixing systems, UFAD has several potential advantages, such as improved thermal comfort and indoor air quality (IAQ), layout flexibility, reduced life cycle costs and improved energy efficiency in suitable climates. In ducted OH systems designers have reasonably accurate control of the diffuser supply temperature, while in UFAD this temperature is difficult to predict due to the heat gain of the conditioned air in the supply plenum. The increase in temperature between the air entering the plenum and air leaving through a diffuser is known as thermal decay. In this study, the detailed whole-building energy simulation program, EnergyPlus, was used to explain the fundamentals of thermal decay, to investigate its influence on energy consumption and to study the parameters that affect thermal decay. It turns out that the temperature rise is considerable (annual median = 3.7 K, with 50% of the values between 2.4 and 4.7 K based on annual simulations). Compared to an idealized simulated UFAD case with no thermal decay, elevated diffuser air temperatures can lead to higher supply airflow rate and increased fan and chiller energy consumption. The thermal decay in summer is higher than in winter and it also depends on the climate. The ground floor with a slab on grade has less temperature rise compared to middle and top floors. An increase of the supply air temperature causes a decrease in thermal decay. The temperature rise is not significantly affected by the perimeter zone orientation, the internal heat gain and the window-to-wall ratio.

Thermal comfort and indoor air quality in rooms with integrated personalized ventilation and under-floor air distribution systems

A comprehensive study comprising physical measurements and human subject experiments was conducted to explore the potential for improving occupants’ thermal comfort and indoor air quality (IAQ) using a personalized ventilation (PV) system combined with an under-floor air distribution(UFAD) system. The integrated PV-UFAD system, when operated at relatively high temperature of the air supplied from the UFAD system, provided comfortable cooling of the facial region, improved inhaled air quality, and decreased the risk of “cold feet,” which is often reported in rooms with UFAD alone. This article explores associations between the physical measurements and human responses in a room served with a PV-UFAD system. The experiments were conducted in a field environmental chamber served by two dedicated systems—a primary air-handling unit (AHU) for 100% outdoor air that is supplied through the PV air terminal devices and a secondary AHU for 100% recirculated air that is supplied through UFAD outlets. Velocity and temperature distribution in the chamber were measured. A breathing thermal manikin was used to measure the heat loss from 26 body segments and to determine the equivalent temperature. The responses of 30 human subjects were collected. The experiments were performed at various combinations of room air and PV air temperatures. The results reveal improved overall thermal sensation and decrease of cold feet complaints, as well as improved inhaled air quality (including perceived air quality) with PV-UFAD in comparison with the reference case of UFAD alone or mixing ventilation with a ceiling supply diffuser. Increase of predicted draft rating with the decrease of the local thermal sensation at the feet was identified. The manikin-based equivalent temperature determined for the face was positively correlated with thermal sensation at the face region. The measured inhaled air quality indices (personalized exposure effectiveness and personalized exposure index) were improved by decreasing PV supply air temperature. The perceived inhaled air freshness increased with the decrease of the inhaled air temperature and increase of facial velocity.

Energy Benefit of the Underfloor Air Distribution System for Reducing Air-Conditioning and Heating Loads in Buildings

Although there have been continuing efforts recently for low-energy buildings as parts of the low-carbon green growth movement, particular attention has been paid to architectural design, the elective control of façades, and the efficiency of Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) mechanical systems. To maximize the gains from these efforts, it is essential to consider the energy distribution approach and its layout during the design stage of the building. To this end, air distribution principles in HVAC have grown in popularity in buildings. The method to deliver the energy is strongly associated with increasing concerns about indoor environmental quality on occupants’ well-being, as well as rising energy costs for space heating and cooling. This paper identifies types of air distribution systems for heating and cooling in buildings and addresses the potential energy benefit of an underfloor air distribution (UFAD or UAD) system over the conventional ceiling air distribution system. A series of EnergyPlus simulations shows performance differences between the two distribution systems. One result is that the potential benefits of an UFAD are clearly demonstrated for a large space with a high ceiling.

Performance analysis of an integrated UFAD and radiant hydronic slab system

In this paper, an EnergyPlus model was used to simulate the operation of a novel integrated HVAC system. This system combines an underfloor air distribution system with a cooled radiant ceiling slab. A cooling tower supplies water to pre-cool the structural slabs during the night and early morning period. The paper compares the performance of this system to both a typical overhead system and a typical UFAD system in the cooling season for the Sacramento, California climate. When compared to the overhead system, the integrated UFAD/Radiant system shows a 22–23% reduction in total energy consumption during the peak cooling months (June to August) and a 31% reduction in peak hourly electricity demand. When compared to the UFAD system, these reductions are 21–22% and 24% respectively. An investigation of the simulation results showed that the integrated UFAD/Radiant system also improves occupant thermal comfort and reduces thermal decay issues in the underfloor plenum.

Comparison of underfloor and overhead air distribution systems in an office environment

This study compares thermal environment of two air distribution systems in an office setting. Airflow, heat and mass (water vapor and contaminant gas) transfer in steady-state condition are modeled for an underfloor air distribution system and an overhead air distribution system. The models include a typical cubicle in a large office floor with a chair, a desk with a personal computer on top, and heat sources such as seated person, desktop computer, and lights. For underfloor air distribution system, cool air enters the occupied zone through an inlet located at the floor level supplying a vertical upward inflow. Three different locations of the inlet diffuser are considered. For overhead air distribution, the inlet is located on the ceiling with slower and cooler inflow. Three inlet angles are considered. For both systems, the air return location is on the ceiling at the same place. Distributions of velocity, temperature, relative humidity, and contaminant concentration in various cases for both systems are computed. Thermal comfort factors are assessed for the two systems. The results are compared among cases of each system, as well as between two typical cases of the two systems and to experimental data for an actual office building given in literature. The results provide a detailed understanding of air transport and its consequence on thermal comfort and indoor air quality that are useful for office building air conditioner design. It is found that underfloor system gives better performance than overhead system in contaminant removal and significantly in energy saving while maintaining the same thermal comfort condition.

Simplified calculation method for design cooling loads in underfloor air distribution (UFAD) systems

This paper describes the development of a simplified calculation method for design cooling loads in underfloor air distribution (UFAD) systems. The simplified design tool is able to account for key differences between UFAD and traditional mixing overhead (OH) systems. These include: (1) difference between design day cooling load profiles, (2) impact of a thermally stratified environment for UFAD versus well-mixed for OH, and (3) impact of heat transfer (temperature gain) in underfloor air supply plenums. The new design tool allows the use of a familiar load calculation procedure for OH mixing systems as input to the UFAD design tool. Based on 87 EnergyPlus simulations, four regression models have been developed to transform the OH cooling load into the UFAD cooling load, and then to split this total load between the supply plenum, zone (room), and return plenum. The regression models mainly depend on floor level, and position (interior or perimeter) and orientation of the zone under analysis. Although considered in the analysis, supply air temperature, window-to-wall ratio, internal heat gain, plenum configuration, climate, presence of the carpet and structure type do not strongly influence the developed models. The results show that, generally, UFAD has a peak cooling load 19% higher than an overhead cooling load and 22% and 37% of the total zone UFAD cooling load goes to the supply plenum in the perimeter and interior, respectively.

CFD study of exhaled droplet transmission between occupants under different ventilation strategies in a typical office room

This paper investigated the transmission of respiratory droplets between two seated occupants equipped with one type of personalized ventilation (PV) device using round movable panel (RMP) in an office room. The office was ventilated by three different total volume (TV) ventilation strategies, i.e. mixing ventilation (MV), displacement ventilation (DV), and under-floor air distribution (UFAD) system respectively as background ventilation methods. Concentrations of particles with aerodynamic diameters of 0.8 μm, 5 μm, and 16 μm as well as tracer gas were numerically studied in the Eulerian frame. Two indexes, i.e. intake fraction (IF) and concentration uniformity index R C were introduced to evaluate the performance of ventilation systems. It was found that without PV, DV performed best concern protecting the exposed manikin from the pollutants exhaled by the polluting manikin. In MV when the exposed manikin opened RMP the inhaled air quality could always be improved. In DV and UFAD application of RMP might sometimes, depending on the personalized airflow rate, increase the exposure of the others to the exhaled droplets of tracer gas, 0.8 μm particles, and 5 μm particles from the infected occupants. Application of PV could reduce R C for all the three TV systems of 0.8 μm and 5 μm particles. PV enhanced mixing degree of particles under DV and UFAD based conditions much stronger than under MV based ones. PV could increase the average concentration in the occupied zone of the exposed manikin as well as provide clean personalized airflow. Whether inhaled air quality could be improved depended on the balance of pros and cons of PV.

Analysis on the impact of mean radiant temperature for the thermal comfort of underfloor air distribution systems

Despite the potentially significant advantages of underfloor air distribution (UFAD) systems, the shortcomings in fundamental understanding have impeded the use of UFAD systems. A study has been carried out on the thermal stratification which is crucial to system design, energy efficient operation and comfort performance of UFAD systems with an aim of examining impact of mean radiant temperature (MRT) on thermal comfort. Clear elucidation of the benefit of UFAD systems has been shown by comparing it to the traditional overhead air distribution systems. Keeping the same level of comfortable environment in the occupied zone, UFAD systems require much higher temperature of supply air, which represents significant energy savings. The benefit of UFAD systems is more pronounced at the condition of high ceiling height building. Considerable discrepancies in thermal comfort are found on the assumption that air temperature rather than MRT is used for the evaluation of PMV. However, more rigorous analysis including the full radiation simulation does not show any significant difference in PMV distribution. The result of the full radiation simulations requires much longer simulation time but gives similar air temperature distribution and only slightly higher averaged temperature than present approaches.

Thermal comfort and IAQ assessment of under-floor air distribution system integrated with personalized ventilation in hot and humid climate

The potential for improving occupants’ thermal comfort with personalized ventilation (PV) system combined with under-floor air distribution (UFAD) system was explored through human response study. The hypothesis was that cold draught at feet can be reduced when relatively warm air is supplied by UFAD system and uncomfortable sensation as “warm head” can be reduced by the PV system providing cool and fresh outdoor air at the facial level. A study with 30 human subjects was conducted in a Field Environmental Chamber. The chamber was served by two dedicated systems – a primary air handling unit (AHU) for 100% outdoor air that is supplied through the PV air terminal devices and a secondary AHU for 100% recirculated air that is supplied through UFAD outlets. Responses of the subjects to the PV-UFAD system were collected at various room air and PV air temperature combinations. The analyses of the results obtained reveal improved acceptability of perceived air quality and improved thermal sensation with PV-UFAD in comparison with the reference case of UFAD alone or mixing ventilation with ceiling supply diffuser. The local thermal sensation at the feet was also improved when warmer UFAD supply air temperature was adopted in the PV-UFAD system.

Effects of ventilation strategies and source locations on indoor particle deposition

A computer model for predicting aerosol dispersion in indoor spaces was validated with experimental data found in the literature. The validated model was used to explore the effect of the area or point source locations on aerosol particle transportation in ventilation rooms with rough surfaces. Two different ventilation strategies were studied: mixing ventilation (MV) and underfloor air distribution (UFAD) system. The simulation results show that in MV, the particle concentration and removal effectiveness are little dependent on the position of the pollutant sources. In UFAD, the source location has a strong impact on the distribution and removing of the contaminants. The particle removal performance strongly depends on the ventilation efficiency and the particle deposition loss in the room with rough surfaces. The important consideration in both the relative ventilation efficiency and the deposition rate is the relative position of the sources to the main airflow and the occupied zone in an UFAD room.