Effective Mixed-Mode Ventilation System With Intermittent Personalized Ventilation for Improving Thermal Comfort in an Office Space

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elvire Katramiz ◽  
Nesreen Ghaddar ◽  
Kamel Ghali
Author(s):  
Elvire Katramiz ◽  
Nesreen Ghaddar ◽  
Kamel Ghali

Abstract The mixed-mode ventilation (MMV) system is an energy-friendly ventilation technique that combines natural ventilation (NV) with mechanical air conditioning (AC). It draws in fresh air when the outdoor conditions are favorable or activates otherwise the AC system during occupancy hours. To improve performance of the MMV system, it is proposed to integrate it with an intermittent personalized ventilation (IPV) system. IPV delivers cool clean air intermittently to the occupant and enhances occupant thermal comfort. With the proper ventilation control strategy, IPV can aid MMV by increasing NV mode operational hours, and improve the energy performance of the AC system by relaxing the required macroclimate set point temperature. The aim of this work is to study the IPV+MMV system performance for an office space application in terms of thermal comfort and energy savings through the implementation of an appropriate control strategy. A validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of an office space equipped with IPV is used to assess the thermal fields in the vicinity of an occupant. It is then coupled with a transient bio-heat and comfort models to find the overall thermal comfort levels. Subsequently, a building-performance simulation study is performed using Integrated Environmental Solutions-Virtual Environment (IES-VE) for an office in Beirut, Lebanon for the typical summer month of July. An energy analysis is conducted to predict the savings of the suggested design in comparison to the conventional AC system. Results showed that the use of IPV units and MMV significantly reduced the number of AC operation hours while providing thermal comfort.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Csáky ◽  
Kalmár ◽  
Kalmár

Using personalized ventilation systems in office buildings, important energy saving might be obtained, which may improve the indoor air quality and thermal comfort sensation of occupants at the same time. In this paper, the operation testing results of an advanced personalized ventilation system are presented. Eleven different air terminal devices were analyzed. Based on the obtained air velocities and turbulence intensities, one was chosen to perform thermal comfort experiments with subjects. It was shown that, in the case of elevated indoor temperatures, the thermal comfort sensation can be improved considerably. A series of measurements were carried out in order to determine the background noise level and the noise generated by the personalized ventilation system. It was shown that further developments of the air distribution system are needed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongxin Xie ◽  
Sauchung Fu ◽  
Chili Wu ◽  
Christopher Y.H. Chao

Since the concept of personalized ventilation was introduced in the late 1990s, many studies on thermal comfort have been conducted and a number of parameters identified. In this research, the influence of three parameters, the airflow speed, airflow fluctuating period and a parameter which has drawn less attention in previous studies – the airflow distance between the human subject and the nozzle of the personalized ventilation device on air movement perception, thermal sensation and thermal comfort – are studied. The combinations of fluctuating period and airflow amplitude were selected based on the Power Spectrum Density method. Then 25 human subjects participated in the thermal comfort experiment, each of them underwent 54 tests of different experimental conditions and expressed their thermal feelings by completing the survey questionnaire. Our findings showed that a longer airflow distance could lead to cooler thermal sensation, but not cause any difference in thermal comfort. Changing the fluctuating period of the sinusoidal airflow from 10 s to 60 s did not cause an influence on thermal sensation, but a shorter fluctuating period could result in a higher air movement perception. When dealing with thermal comfort issues, a joint effect with airflow speed and fluctuating period occurs and this should also be considered.


2014 ◽  
Vol 935 ◽  
pp. 329-332
Author(s):  
Bin Yang ◽  
Chandra Sekhar

As one kind of newly developed personalized ventilation (PV) system, the relation was explored between thermal comfort and air movement perception/acceptability/preference with tropical subjects, who had become passively acclimatized to hot conditions in the course of their day-to-day life. The tests were conducted in field environmental chamber (FEC) of National University of Singapore. 32 subjects (16 males and 16 females), performed normal office work, can choose to expose to four different PV airflow rates (4, 8, 12, 16 L/s) so as to simulating individual control. Ambient temperatures of 26°C and 23.5 °C and PV air temperatures of 26 °C, 23.5 °C and 21 °C were utilized to conduct parametric variation studies. Each combination was maintained for 15 minutes during which the subjects responded to computer-administered questionnaires. Under different PV airflow rates and ambient/PV temperature combinations, the relation between thermal comfort and air movement perception/acceptability/preference was analyzed.


2020 ◽  
pp. 65-74
Author(s):  
Eusébio Conceição ◽  
Mª Inês Conceição ◽  
Mª Manuela Lúcio ◽  
João Gomes ◽  
Hazim Awbi

In this study the numerical simulation of a Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system, based in a personalized ventilation system, installed in an occupied office desk is made. The energy is produced in a Dual Skin Facades (DSF) system installed in the outdoor environment. The personalized ventilation system, placed above and below the writing area, installed in the desk central area. The office desk is occupied by eight virtual manikins. The numerical simulation is made in a winter typical day. This numerical study considers a coupling of a differential numerical model and an integral numerical model. The differential numerical model simulates the Computational Fluids Dynamics (CFD), evaluates the air velocity, air temperature, turbulence intensity and carbon dioxide concentration and calculates the indoor air quality. The integral numerical model simulates the Multi-Node Human Thermo-physiology Model, evaluates the tissue, blood and clothing temperatures distribution and calculates the thermal comfort level. The HVAC system, based on a DSF system, is built using three DSF unities, is equipped with internal venetian blinds. Each one, installed in a virtual chamber, is turned to south. The personalized ventilation system, made with eight upper and eight lower air terminal devices, is installed in the desk central area. On each table top two upper and two lower air terminal devices are considered in the left and right manikin area, while on each side of the table two upper and two lower air terminal devices are placed between the manikins. The office desk is occupied by eight virtual manikins, one sitting on each table top and three sitting on each side of the meeting table. In this numerical study, carried out in winter conditions, the occupants’ clothing level is 1 clo. In these situations a typical activity level of 1.2 met is considered. The evolution of indoor environmental conditions, in the DSF and in the office room, are calculated during a full winter typical day. The thermal comfort, the indoor air quality, the effectiveness for heat removal, the effectiveness for contaminant removal and the Air Distribution Index (ADI), are evaluated. In accordance with the obtained results the thermal comfort levels increase when the air renovation rate increases and the indoor air quality level increases when the air renovation rate increases. However, the ADI is quite constant when the inlet airflow rate increases, because the thermal comfort number decreases when the inlet airflow rate increases and the air quality number increases when the inlet airflow rate increases.


2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 505-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ferenc Kalmár

In a closed space, appropriate thermal comfort and proper indoor air quality are extremely important in order to obtain the optimal work performance and to avoid health problems of the occupants. Using advanced personalized ventilation systems, different comfort needs can be locally satisfied even in case of warm environments. Thermal sensation and the subjective evaluation of indoor air quality of young and elderly people, men and women respectively, were studied in warm environment using advanced personalized ventilation system combined with total volume ventilation system. Using an advanced personalized ventilation system, 20 m3 h−1 air flow was alternately introduced by three air terminal devices built-in the desk and placed on a horizontal plane at the head level of the sitting subject. Thermal sensation was significantly cooler in case of young women in comparison with the other groups. Odor intensity was evaluated to be significantly lower in case of elderly women in comparison with the other groups. Evaluation of air freshness is in correlation with the general thermal sensation. Variation of the direction of the air velocity vector has a cooling side-effect, which, in warm environments, might be useful in order to improve the thermal comfort sensation. Practical application: From the basic factors that influence the thermal comfort sensation, air velocity is the one and only parameter that must be treated as a vector. The air flow velocity has an important effect on the convective heat quantity released by the human body, but the changes in the air velocity direction have a cooling side-effect. This cooling side-effect should be exploited properly in warm environments by advanced personalized ventilation systems to improve the thermal comfort sensation of the occupants without supplementary energy use.


2021 ◽  
Vol 263 (2) ◽  
pp. 4226-4237
Author(s):  
Eusebio Conceição ◽  
Mª Ines Conceição ◽  
Mª Manuela Lúcio ◽  
João Gomes

In this study an integrated virtual thermal-acoustic manikin design used inside ventilated and occupied office spaces is developed and applicated. The component of the virtual thermal manikin evaluates the internal airflow and occupants' thermal, thermo-physiology and clothing systems and calculates the thermal comfort and the indoor air quality levels. The component of the virtual binaural manikin evaluates the direct and indirect sound and calculates the reverberation time. The space geometry with complex topology is developed using a Computer Aid Design (CAD), while the occupants' geometry is made using geometric equations. The grid generation, in the surrounding space surfaces and around the external occupants' surfaces geometry, is used to calculate the radiative heat exchanges and the sound propagation. In this study, performed in an office room occupied by eight persons and equipped with personalized ventilation system, the thermal comfort level, the air quality level and the space reverberation time is evaluated and discussed. In accordance with the obtained results the values are, in general, in accordance the actual standards.


Author(s):  
Douaa Al Assad ◽  
Kamel Ghali ◽  
Nesreen Ghaddar ◽  
Elvire Katramiz

Abstract The aim of this work is to evaluate the performance of an intermittent personalized ventilation (IPV) system assisting a displacement ventilation (DV) system to improve thermal comfort and save energy. This will be conducted by developing a transient 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of an occupied office space equipped with systems. The occupant is modeled by a heated thermal manikin replicating the human body. The CFD model is coupled with a transient bio-heat model to compute segmental skin temperatures and their rate of change. The latter are taken as input into Zhang’s comfort model to predict and overall thermal comfort. The model was used to conduct a case study, where the overall thermal comfort and energy savings will be assessed for the IPV + DV These results will be compared with those of steady personalized ventilation (PV) + DV and standalone DV systems. By varying the IPV frequency in the typical indoor range of [0.3 Hz – 1 Hz], it was found that the IPV + DV system was able to enhance comfort compared to steady PV + DV and a standalone DV. In addition, an energy analysis was conducted and it was shown that the IPV was able to achieve considerable energy savings compared to a steady PV + DV at the same thermal comfort level. Moreover, relaxing the DV supply temperature to higher occupied zone temperatures, can provide additional energy savings while still maintaining comfort levels in the space.


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