Using computational fluid mechanics in combination with experiments for study of personalized ventilation in the tropics

Abstract

The study aims to reveal the details of the flow field characteristics around the upper human body under personalized ventilation when undertaking sedentary officer-type work. The investigation adopts a computational thermal mannequin (CTM) model for simulating a standard human, and utilises measured actual data obtained from a breathing thermal manikin for validation over a number of ambient and PV settings. Human responses (perceived air quality, thermal sensation and thermal comfort) were collected through a series of experiments involving 24 tropically acclimatized subjects in an indoor environmental chamber operating under the same experimental conditions. The simulation results were used to provide a better understanding of these human responses, and to evaluate the performance of one air terminal device, the circular perforated panel, in creating acceptable local environment and providing high quality breathing air to the occupants.