Three-dimensional analysis of airflow and contaminant particle transport in a partitioned enclosure

Determination of the distribution of contaminant particles within zones becomes of great interest, with the increasing concern for indoor air quality. In order to improve the indoor air quality in a realistic building, the air movement and contamination transport in a partitioned enclosure with ventilation have been studied numerically and experimentally. A 3-D analysis of air movement, temperature distribution and contaminant particle transport is made to investigate airflow patterns and deposition of contaminant particle in a partitioned enclosure. An experimental program was also performed to validate the airflow field and temperature distribution. The experiment is carried out in a full-scale environmental control chamber with inlet/outlet ventilation systems inside a university laboratory. The agreement between the computed and the measured results of temperature and velocity fields are quite well. It is also shown that prediction results of contaminant particle's trajectory will give valuable information to be used for evaluating the indoor air quality in the design procedure. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.