Comparative research on the air pollutant prevention and thermal comfort for different types of ventilation

Abstract

In this article, a comparative study on the outdoor air pollutant prevention and indoor thermal comfort for different types of ventilation was carried out. Both objective experiment, subjective experiment and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation were conducted to investigate the differences in air pollutant prevention and thermal comfort between four common ventilation methods, namely supplying on the ceiling and returning on the ceiling (SC-RC), supplying on the ceiling and returning on the side wall (SC-RSW), supplying on the side wall and returning on the ceiling (SSW-RC), and supplying on the side wall and returning on the side wall (SSW-RSW). Results show that SSW-RSW can provide the highest indoor air quality according to the indoor average PM2.5 concentration. Overall thermal sensation was introduced to evaluate the indoor comfort under the four ventilation methods. The voting results show that the indoor thermal comfort can be enhanced by 29–36% under SSW-RSW and SSW-RC. Therefore, SSW-RSW is more suitable for providing a healthy and comfortable indoor environment.