Over recent years, the occupancy density in offices has been increasing due to urban and energy efficiency needs which challenged maintaining go od indoor air quality (IAQ). Higher occupancy density increases the possibility of disease transmission. Cross-contamination can take place via particle spread in the space and inhalation by exposed occupants or by deposition on surfaces at their vicinity being susceptible to re-suspension by human contact. The ventilation configuration plays a major role in particle distribution. Therefore, a proper design of the ventilation system should be selected in crowded office spaces to insure acceptable IAQ. Localized ventilation consists of providing each occupant locally with its comfort and breat hable air quality needs. Ceiling personalized ventilation (CPV) is a recent type of localized ventilation compromising between ease of integration, and reduction of the energy consumption. By proper control of the airflow interactions in the human body microclimate, the breathable air quality can be largely improved. This control is possible by the introduction of fans at the proximity of the occupant assisting the CPV system which suppress the rising occupant thermal plumes and improve the CPV performance. In this work, the performance of CPV was investigated when aided with i) desk fans and ii) chair mounted fans. The CPV with desk and chair fans were compared in terms of reducing disease transmission between occupants. A validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to simulate the flow and concentration fields in a two-station office space. A parametric study was conducted to assess the effect of the fan type, fan flow rate, and distance between occupants on the probability of cross-contamination. The ventilation configuration was optimized for reduced cross-infection between occupants with efficient use of the space. Chair fans ensured better performance in terms of reducing disea se transmission between occupants compared to desk fans. The optimal CF flow rate per occupant was found to be 10 L/s.
Citation: 2nd Intl Conf: Efficient Bldg Design
Product Details
- Published:
- 2016
- Number of Pages:
- 8
- Units of Measure:
- Dual
- File Size:
- 1 file , 2.4 MB
- Product Code(s):
- D-ICEB16-16
