English

Performance on a long-term period of time of an HVAC installation to ensure thermal comfort conditions can be evaluated by estimating the number of hours when the thermal condiitons are outside a given range. Another method consists in weighing this number of hours according to the indoor temperatures. These methods are demonstrated and discussed using data from measurements in an existing building.

This paper examines the performance of five different air terminal devices for personalized ventilation in relation to the quality of air inhaled by a breathing thermal manikin in a climate chamber. The personalized air was supplied either isothermally or non-isothermally (6 C cooler than the room air) at flow rates ranging from less that 5 l/s up to 23 /s. The air quality assessment was based on temperature measurements of the inhaled air and on the portion of the personalized air inhaled. The percentage of dissatisfied with the air quality was predicted.

Experiments with 30 human subjects were performed in an office equipped with personalized ventilation systems (individual control of flowrate and direction) for 6 workers and with different supply air temperatures to analyse perceived air quality and sick building symptoms.

A special garment was developed to measure heat transfer coefficients (convective and radiative) of the clothed human body. It was tested on male subjects operating seated office work in a environmental room. The measured convective and radiative heat transfer coefficients are in good agreement with the PMV model and a number of previous publications.

Monitoring of temperature and relative humidity was carried out in an air-conditioned office building during the heating season. In addition, occupants filled in health and comfort questionnaire. Without informing the occupants, humidity was reduced in an experimental area compared to the control area. As this reduction was not so great (2% relative humidity), the differences of occupants perception between areas are not significant. A slight reduction of building related symptoms was observed at higher humidity.

A method based on both measurements and questionnaire has been developed to investigate comfort in office buildings. The measurements apparatus records temperature, humidity, noise, light, odours and occupant's perceived comfort. The questionnaire contains information about indoor climate and working environment. Results are given and analysed for 60 offices in France.

The impact on thermal comfort of the way of introducing replacement air (to replace air being exhausted by the hood) in a kitchen was analysed using mathematical models and laboratory experiments with a tyhermal mannequin. Results allow to rank systems for replacement air introduction from the most to the least tolerable : displacement ventilation, mixing ventilation with ceiling air diffusers, front-face discharge and backdrop plenum.

The aim of this study is to investigate an optimal air-conditioning adjustment for an indoor space where people come in and out. The authors conducted the experiments by measuring the physiological and psychological responses of subjects who walked outdoors and then entered a chamber. Psychological responses to summer climate were grouped within three categories of: "cool" - "comfortable," "hot" - "uncomfortable," and "cold" - "uncomfortable." These responses are related with subjects perspiration.

96 human subjects (18 years age students from a Swedish high school) were submitted in an experimental room furnished as a classroom to different air flows issued from different ventilation systems : displacement with constant air flow rate, alternating between displacement (floor diffusers) and mixing ventilation (ceiling diffusers) with constant flow rate, mixing ventilation with varying flow rate, displacement with constant flow rate and with ceiling fans to generate air motions alternatively on and off.

This study describes the development of a three dimensional (3D) Lagrangian code of particle transport in indoor turbulent flows. This approach consists of integrating transport equations for each particle at each time step to determine successive positions of the particle. The first challenge was to calculate instantaneous velocities of the airflow. The mean component of these velocities was calculated by a classic CFD code. A stochastic process based on the Gosman and Ioannides method generated the fluctuating component. Corrections were applied to better fit experimental results.