COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS ANALYSIS ON UNDERFLOOR AIR DISTRIBUTION (UFAD) SYSTEM IN BTLAB

摘要

As an alternative to Conventional Air Distribution (CAD) systems, underfloor air distribution (UFAD) systems have been widely used in different country. Although many advantages of a well-designed UFAD system can be found, there is still a higher risk to designers and building owners due to a lack of objective information and standardized design guidelines. UFAD systems design have been influenced by increasing emphasis on indoor air quality (IAQ), energy conservation, environmental effects, safety, and economics. To investigate the performance of the UFAD system, a detailed 3-D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis on the turbulent buoyancy flow and heat transfer inside the BTLab, which locates at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has been made in this paper. The particular interest has been concentrated on the flow distribution through underfloor swirl diffuser. By CFD analysis with unstructured meshes associated with using parallel processing, the impact of different operating parameters on the air flow and temperature distribution has been studied in detail. Usefully information has been provided on the development of high energy efficiency with human comfort of UFAD systems.