Ventilation Performance and Indoor Air Quality in Workstations under Different Supply Air Systems: A Numerical Approach

This paper describes the results of a computational fluid dynamics study to assess the air freshness and percentage of dissatisfied people due to air quality in a partitioned office with different supply air diffusers. The numerical model involves the finite-volume approach of solving governing equations for mass and momentum, assuming that the buoyancy effects are negligibly small in comparison to the inertial effects. The k-ε two-equation model of turbulence is used to predict the turbulence transport of flow properties. Two typical layouts that provide six individual workstations are studied. The results show that for displacement ventilation and wall jet diffusers, with the exhaust opening placed on the wall opposite to the supply opening, arranging chambers in the central area of the office may be better. When the exhaust opening is placed on the same wall as the supply diffuser, arranging chambers near side walls may be more favourable. The ceiling-mounted four-way diffuser is found to be more suitable for a partitioned office than the wall jet and displacement diffusers.