Turbulent three-dimensional air flow and trace gas distribution in an inhalation test chamber

Steady incompressible turbulent air flow and transient carbon monoxide transport in an empty Rochester-style human exposure chamber have been numerically simulated and compared with experimental data sets. The system consisted of an inlet duct with a continuous carbon monoxide point source, 45- and 90-degree bends, a round diffuser, a round-to-square transition, a rectangular diffuser, the test chamber, a perforated floor, and again transition pieces from the chamber to an outlet duct. Such a configuration induced highly nonuniform vortical flow patterns in the chamber test area where a pollutant concentration is required to be constant at breathing level for safe and accurate inhalation studies. Presented are validated momentum and mass transfer results for this large-scale system with the main goals of determining the development of tracer gas (CO) distributions in the chamber and analyzing the contributions to CO-mixing. Numerical simulations were conducted employing a k-epsilon model and the latest available RNG k-epsilon model for air and CO-mixing. Both models predict similar velocity fields and are in good agreement with measured steady and transient CO-concentrations. It was found that secondary flows in the inlet section and strong vortical flow in the chamber with perforated flooring contributed to effective mixing of the trace gas at breathing levels. Specifically, in the height range of 1.4 m<h<2.0 m above the chamber floor predicted CO-concentrations rapidly reached a near constant value which agrees well with experimental results. This work can be extended to analyze trace gas mixing as well as aerosol dispersion in occupied test chambers with or without flow redirection devices installed in the upstream section. A complementary application is particle transport and deposition in clean rooms of the electronic, pharmaceutical, and health care industries. [S0098-2202(00)01702-8].