Comparison of Performances of Displacement and Mixing Ventilations. Part I: Thermal Comfort
Comparison of Performances of Displacement and Mixing Ventilations. Part I: Thermal Comfort
Comparison of Performances of Displacement and Mixing Ventilations. Part I: Thermal Comfort
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Abstract
A numerical simulation using a validated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model of several types of buildings was
used to investigate the difference between mixing and displacement ventilation (DV). The comparison of performances of
displacement and mixing ventilations (MV) will be reported in two parts, one on thermal comfort and the other one on indoor air
quality. This paper, i.e., Part I, compares the performances of floor-supply DV systems with traditional MV systems for offices,
classrooms, retail shops and industrial workshops under a wide range of Hong Kong thermal and flow boundary conditions,
such as a very high cooling load. Through proper design, DV can maintain a thermally comfortable environment that has a low
air velocity, a small temperature difference between the head and ankle level, and a low percentage of dissatisfied people.
q 2004 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Air conditioning; Residential building; Ventilation; Simulation; Calculation; Performance; Comfort
Nomenclature
A floor surface area (m2)
ce contaminant concentration at the exhaust air (ppm)
cs contaminant concentration at the supply air (ppm)
c contaminant concentration in the room air (ppm)
fcl cloth factor
hc convective heat transfer coefficient between the cloth and air (W/m2 K)
Icl clothing insulation (8C m2/W)
K the turbulent kinetic energy
M metabolism (W/m2)
Pa partial water vapor pressure (Pa)
Qt total cooling load in the room (kW)
Qoe heat generated by occupant, desk lamps, and equipment (kW)
Ql heat generated by lighting (kW)
Qex heat from exterior walls and windows and transmitted solar radiation (kW)
T local air temperature (8C)
Tcl cloth temperature (8C)
Tr mean radiant temperature (8C)
Tu turbulent intensity
u air velocity (m/s)
W external work (W/m2)
h ventilation efficiency
r density (kg/m3)
t mean age of air (s)
located within a radius of the diffuser where the air Designers in Hong Kong are not very familiar with the
velocities are in excess of 0.25 m/s and the temperatures performance of DV.
are more than 0.6 8C lower than the room temperature [7]. A lot of research on DV has been conducted in
The vertical temperature gradient appears to stay within Scandinavian countries [18]. A comprehensive investigation
comfort limits when using a whole-floor supply system [8]. into the DV in the United States was carried by a research
A characteristic feature of the floor air supply system was group [18 21]. The guidelines for designing in the United
the vertical S-shaped temperature pattern [9]. States were also developed [22]. However, direct appli-
Supplying cool air directly to the occupied zone of a cation of the aforementioned results for Hong Kong design
building increases the likelihood of local drafts and may not be feasible because the cooling loads of Hong Kong
temperature stratification. Both of these conditions can buildings are higher than those of US buildings, and much
lead to local thermal discomfort despite the provision of higher than those of Scandinavian buildings. Congested land
acceptable whole-body comfort, as specified by existing use also results in building layouts different from those in
comfort standards [10,11]. An experimental study has the other places. This paper evaluates the performance of
investigated this effect and found some limitations with DV systems on the aspect of thermal comfort under Hong
displacement ventilation (DV) in offices [12]. Kong conditions.
Occupant surveys have found that a thermally comfor-
table environment is among the most important attributes of
a space, but also that this comfort has not been well provided
[13]. Thermal comfort deserves serious inquiry since worker 2. Validated CFD model for research into application of
productivity may be related to satisfaction [14]. In 2001, DV
60% of the electrical energy used in Hong Kong is used in
commercial buildings [15], and a large fraction of this is A computational model was developed based on a
used to provide comfort, thus the efficiency with which commercial CFD program [23]. The model was tested by
comfort is provided is quite important. Lin et al. using the extensive experimental data reported by
In 1989 in Nordic countries, it was estimated that DV Yuan et al. [20].
accounted for a 50% market share of industrial applications Validation was conducted by comparing the flow
and 25% of office applications [16]. The application of floor- patterns, vertical profiles of temperature, concentration,
supply DV system in Hong Kong started in 1980s [17]. velocity, and turbulence intensity between measurement and
However, very few applications can be found in Hong Kong. computation for an individual office, a cubicle office, and a
278 Z. Lin et al. / International Journal of Refrigeration 28 (2005) 276287
Fig. 1. Typical rooms studied: (a) an office, (b) a classroom, (c) a retail shop, (d) a workshop. Fig. 1. Les locaux typiques edudies (a) un bureau,
(b) une salle de classe, (c) un magasin au retail; (d) un atelier.
workshops. Using the same case studies MV was applied larger office has eight sedentary occupants, each with a table
and the results were compared with the DV results. and a computer. A photocopier and printer are also located
Fig. 1 shows the typical layout configurations for each close to the wall. In Fig. 1(b) a typical school classroom is
case study. Fig. 1(a) shows the office layout, which consists shown. There are a total of 40 sedentary occupants
of two smaller individual offices on the left side of the room. (students) and one standing occupant (teacher). A projector
Each of the smaller individual office has on seated occupant is located next to the teacher. A retail workshop is shown in
and a table. A computer is also present on each table. The Fig. 1(c). There are a total of 27 standing occupants. At the
Fig. 2. Supply and exhaust location for DV. Fig. 2. Endroit dapprovisionnement et dechappement pour DV.
280 Z. Lin et al. / International Journal of Refrigeration 28 (2005) 276287
Fig. 3. Supply and exhaust location for MV. Fig. 3. Endroit dapprovisionnement e dechappement pour la ventilation de melange.
center of the shop floor is a display cabinet. A small office is obtain more meaningful and applicable results a wide range of
also located within the left hand bottom side of the shop boundary conditions were investigated for both ventilation
floor. A PC, Hi-Fi, fax machine and photocopier are also cases. A total of 29 case studies, including 15 office cases, 6
located in this room. Shelves are also present on the walls of cases of classrooms, 6 cases of retail shops and 2 cases of
the retails shop. The workshop is shown in Fig. 1(d), where industrial workshops were investigated. The thermal and flow
eight occupants are standing next to several worktables. boundary conditions are based on typical design conditions in
Additionally an external wall and window is located on the Hong Kong, and are as follows for both mixing and DV:
west wall of all the different room types. The locations of the
supply and exhausts for all four case studies, for mixing and 1.5 ACH # ventilation rate # 31.3 ACH
DV are shown in Figs. 2 and 3. In the MV shown in Fig. 3, 120 W=m2 # Qt =A # 200 W=m2 (550 W/m2 in the case of
the square shapes indicate the supply inlets, while the industrial workshop)
rectangular shapes denote the exhausts outlets. 0:1 # Qoe =Qt # 0:4
The study focuses on the cooling operation because of the 0:3 # Ql =Qt # 0:75
sub-tropical climatic condition in Hong Kong. In order to 0 # Qex =Qt # 0:9
Table 1
Major parameters used in the simulations. Tableau 1. Les parame`ters principaux utilises dans les simulations
No. of West wall Window TV PC Hi-Fi Lamp Photo-copier Machine Air circulation Fresh air intake
person [W] [W] [W] [W] [W] [W] [W] [W] [m3/s] [l/person/s]
Fig. 6. Temperature distribution for DV (8C). Fig. 6. Distribution de Fig. 8. PD index for DV (%). Fig. 8. Inice PD pour ventilation de
temperature pour ventilation de deplacement (8C). deplacement (%).
Z. Lin et al. / International Journal of Refrigeration 28 (2005) 276287 283
Linear slot diffusers are used in the retail shop with DV.
The retail shop with MV also has four rectangular diffusers
3.4. Temperature distribution
mounted on the ceiling supplying air downward. The
generally flow pattern is similar to that of the previous
two types of indoor space. The air velocity is generally Fig. 6(a) (c) show the air temperature for the office, the
lower than 0.2 m/s for DV and 0.3 m/s for MV, respectively. classroom and the retail shop with DV. The air temperature
Thermal plumes are stronger than those found in the office is nearly uniform in the horizontal direction except in the
and the classroom. This is because the internal heat regions close to a heat source in the displacement-ventilated
generation, especially the lighting load, is higher in the office. The supply air is heated first by the floor and mixed
shop. The results are shown in Figs. 4(c) and 5(c). with room air. As a result, the air temperature near the floor
The industrial workshop is designed for the electronic is higher than that of supply air. The phenomenon was also
production, which is installed with equipment of high heat observed by Yuan et al. [20]. To avoid draft, the supply air
generation rate. The cooling load density for the workshop is temperature cannot be too low. The supply air temperature
very high at about 800 W/m2. The correspondent air depends on the cooling load, room geometry and heat source
circulation rate is therefore also high. This results in the type. Generally, the supply air temperature should be in the
highest air velocities observed amongst the four types of range of 20 22 8C for Hong Kong commercial buildings
space, yet the general flow pattern is still similar to those of (Qt =A 120 200 W=m2 ; Ta 24 8C). There is a vertical
the others. The air velocity is generally lower than 0.4 m/s gradient of the air temperature, which depends on the
for DV and 0.6 m/s for MV (Figs. 4(d) and 5(d)). distribution of the heat sources, especially along the height.
The air velocity of DV is generally lower than that of The gradient in the lower part is larger than that in the upper
MV in the occupied zones for all four types of indoor space. part for the office and the classroom where most of the heat
For DV, the velocity in the vicinity of a floor diffuser sources (sedentary occupants) are in the lower part of the
depends on the airflow rate and the face area of the diffuser. rooms. In contrast, larger gradient exists in the upper part of
The layouts of the floor diffusers for the aforementioned the retail shop due to heavy lighting and standing occupants.
four test cases are all different, yet all result in very similar Although the figures show a high air temperature near the
airflow patterns. ceiling, the ceiling surface temperature is several degrees
284 Z. Lin et al. / International Journal of Refrigeration 28 (2005) 276287
Fig. 11. PPD index for MV (%). Fig. 11. Inice PPD pour ventilation Fig. 13. PPD for MV, office (%). Fig. 13. Inice PPD pour ventilation
de melange (%). de melange (%).
Fig. 14. PPD for DV, for classroom (%). Fig. 14. Inice PPD pour
ventilation de deplacement (%). Fig. 16. PPD for DV, for retail shop (%). Fig. 16. Inice PPD pour
ventilation de deplacement (%).
Fig. 15. PPD for MV, for classroom (%). Fig. 15. Inice PPD pour Fig. 17. PPD for MV, for retail shop (%). Fig. 17. Inice PPD pour
ventilation de melange (%). ventilation de melange (%).
286 Z. Lin et al. / International Journal of Refrigeration 28 (2005) 276287
Fig. 18. PPD for DV, for workshop (%). Fig. 18. Inice PPD pour Fig. 19. PPD for MV, for workshop (%). Fig. 19. Inice PPD pour
ventilation de deplacement (%). ventilation de melange (%).
25% in the industrial workshop for both modes of people due to draft (PD) is 10% and the predicted
ventilation (Figs. 8 and 9). percentage of dissatisfied is less than 20%.
For DV cases, the PPD is generally less than 20% in the The result shows that besides being not energy-efficient
occupied zone for the industrial workshop, 20% for the and being not cost-efficient, a high ventilation rate might
classroom and 20% for the office and the retail shop. For also have adverse effect on thermal comfort. It was also
MV cases, only the office has the PPD generally lower than found that when there are large heat sources in the room as
20%. All the other 3 spaces have significant proportions of in the case of the workshop, the DV system requires higher
region where the PPD exceeds 20% (Figs. 10 and 11). The air recirculation.
PPD is also shown for two different breathing levels at a
height of 0.6 and 1 m, above the floor level (for sedentary
and standing person relatively) for all four different building
types. This is shown in Figs. 12 19. Acknowledgements
Figs. 8 11 show that only in the vicinity of a floor
diffuser or a major heat source (0.3 m) the PD and PPD are The work was supported by Strategic Research Grant
higher. Otherwise DV outperforms MV. Therefore, DV No. 7001434 of the City University of Hong Kong.
presents a comfort level as good as the conventional MV, if
not better, for typical Hong Kong applications.
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