Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling of air flow field, mean age of air and CO2 distributions inside a bedroom with different heights of conditioned air supply outlet

• Published in: Applied energy Vol. 164; pp. 906 - 915
• Main Authors: Ning, Mao, Mengjie, Song, Mingyin, Chan, Dongmei, Pan, Shiming, Deng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 15-02-2016
• Subjects: Air change efficiency; CFD method; CO2 concentration; Height of supply air outlet; Mean age of air; Sleeping environments; CO2 concentration; CFD method; Sleeping environments; Air change efficiency; Mean age of air; Height of supply air outlet
• ISSN: 0306-2619; 1872-9118
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.10.096

•An A/C system at five settings with different heights of supply outlet.•Its ventilation performance was numerically evaluated.•Air flow field, distributions of MAA and CO2 concentrations were studied.•Air change efficiency was studied.•Better performance was achieved with a lower supply outlet.
It was revealed in a previous related study that for an air conditioning (A/C) system used in a sleeping environment, the height of its supply air outlet would significantly affect its ventilation performance in terms of effectiveness. To further examine the underlying reasons of the differences in ventilation performance, the air flow field, distributions of mean age of air, air change efficiency and distributions of CO2 concentrations inside an experimental bedroom were numerically studied using CFD method under five different settings, where its supply air outlet was positioned at 5 different heights. The study results suggested that positing a supply air outlet at a lower level was effective in both saving energy and removing the exhaled CO2 in a breathing zone, and when a supply outlet was positioned at a higher level, less CO2 was removed from the region near the mouth of a sleeper.