A computational and experimental investigation of the human thermal plume

The behavior of the buoyant plume of air shed by a human being in an indoor environment is important to room ventilation requirements, airborne disease spread, air pollution control, indoor air quality, and the thermal comfort of building occupants. It also becomes a critical factor in special environments like surgery rooms and clean-rooms. Of the previous human thermal plume studies, few have used actual human volunteers, made quantitative plume velocity measurements, or considered thermal stratification of the environment. Here, a study of the human thermal plume in a standard room environment, including moderate thermal stratification, is presented. We characterize the velocity field around a human volunteer in a temperature-stratified room using particle image velocimetry (PIV). These results are then compared to those obtained from a steady three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solution of the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS) using the RNG k-epsilon two-equation turbulence model. Although the CFD simulation employs a highly simplified model of the human form, it nonetheless compares quite well with the PIV data in terms of the plume centerline velocity distribution, velocity profiles, and flow rates. The effect of thermal room stratification on the human plume is examined by comparing the stratified results with those of an additional CFD plume simulation in a uniform-temperature room. The resulting centerline velocity distribution and plume flow rates are presented. The reduction in plume buoyancy produced by room temperature stratification has a significant effect on plume behavior.