Open Access

ARTICLE

Impact of Varying Blower Opening Degrees on Indoor Environment and Thermal Comfort

Shengqiang Shi^1,2,*, Abdelatif Merabtine³, Rachid Bennacer⁴, Julien Kauffmann²

1 UR LASMIS, Université de Technologie de Troyes, 12 Rue Marie Curie, Troyes, 10300, France
2 EPF Campus de Troyes, Rosière-prés-Troyes, 10430, France
3 Construction Engineering Department, École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS), University of Québec, 1100 Rue Notre-Dame Ouest, Montreal, QC H3C 1K3, Canada
4 LMT/ENS-Paris-Saclay/CNRS, Université Paris Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, 91190, France

* Corresponding Author: Shengqiang Shi. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Materials and Energy an Updated Image for 2023)

Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing 2024, 20(8), 1703-1716. https://doi.org/10.32604/fdmp.2024.050547

Received 09 February 2024; Accepted 11 April 2024; Issue published 06 August 2024

Abstract

At present, air handling units are usually used indoors to improve the indoor environment quality. However, while introducing fresh air to improve air quality, air velocity has a certain impact on the occupants’ thermal comfort. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the optimization of air-fluid-body interaction dynamics. In this study, the indoor air flow was changed by changing the opening and closing degree of the blower, and the thermal manikin is introduced to objectively evaluate the human thermal comfort under different air velocities. The main experimental results show that the air change rate increases with the increase of the opening and closing degree of the blower considering an ACH (air changes per hour) range between 3.8 and 10. For a better prediction, a linear correlation with a coefficient of 0.995 is proposed. As the blower’s opening is adjusted to 20%, 25%, 30%, 35%, and 40%, the air velocity sensor positioned directly beneath the air inlet records average velocities of 0.19, 0.20, 0.21, 0.28, and 0.34 m/s over four hours, respectively. Observations on thermal comfort and the average sensation experienced by individuals indicate an initial increase followed by a decline when the blower’s operation begins, with optimal conditions achieved at a 35% opening. These findings offer valuable insights for future indoor air ventilation and heat transfer design strategies.

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Keywords

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