The evolution of the temperature profile in a warm room driven by a natural ventilation flow which develops when the room is connected to a cold exterior by two openings at different vertical heights is explored. With the openings at the top and base of the room, we find the classical displacement ventilation regime provides a leading order description of the flow. With openings at the centre and top of the room, the ventilation is hybrid, with the lower part of the room being well-mixed, and the upper part being stratified by an upward displacement ventilation flow.

The numerical investigation of airflow and chemical transport characteristics for a general class of buildings involves identifying values for model parameters, such as effective leakage areas and temperatures, for which a fair amount of uncertainty exists. A Monte Carlo simulation, with parameter values drawn from likely distributions using Latin Hypercube sampling, helps to account for these uncertainties by generating a corresponding distribution of simulated results.

Zonal models have been proposed to bridge the gap between the whole-building macroscopic modeling methods of programs like CONTAM or COMIS and the more detailed microscopic modeling metho.ds based on solutions of the time-smoothed Navier-Stokes equations for room airflows. This paper identifies a critical shortcoming of conventional approaches to zonal modeling by introducing alternative approaches a) to formulate the key cell-to-cell flow relations upon which zonal models are based and b) to assemble the zonal system equations.

Tracer gas measurements have Jong been used to quantify the performance of ventilation systems by exploring such scales as the air exchange efficiency, the local mean age of the air, the residence time distribution and so on. The present work deals with a numerical reexamination and calibration of some relations previously derived from tracer gas analysis.

In this study the spatio-dynamic temperature response in a ventilated room to variations of the supply air temperature was modelled for a wide range of ventilation rates. The model structure was first formulated by applying standard heat transfer theory to zones of better mixing. Spatio-temporal temperature data were then exploited in statistical terms to estimate the physically meaningful model parameters. The dynamic model yielded an excellent fit to the experimental data and was found to characterise the spatially heterogeneous nature of the air flow pattern quite well.

In order to achieve a satisfactory level of hygiene and comfort in premises and to assess the pollutant transfers, it is necessary to control the air flow distribution. An intermediate approach between predictive numerical simulation and experimental determination of aerodynamic parameters characterizing air distribution in rooms, is the systemic approach. The paper presents the principles of this approach which is based on the residence times distribution (RTD) theory, commonly used in chemical engineering.

The aim was to develop a simple dynamic model for predicting air exchange caused by short time single-sided ventilation and necessary window opening time in classrooms. Tracer gas measurements have been made in a full-scale room. The comparison indicates that the model can be used when rough estimates of air exchange are of interest.

In dwellings ventilated by extract ventilation there are common complaints of cold draught caused by the supply air entering the room through openings close to the windows. This paper reports on studies of unconventional ways to distribute the supply air in order to minimise the risk of such problems. Experiments have been done where the supply air device is located in the hall of an apartment. The ventilation efficiency in the rooms adjacent to the hall has been studied with open and closed doors. The behaviour of gravity currents has also been studied in scale models.

Symmetry is not a sufficient condition for the design of a ventilated room to generate two-dimensional airflow. Three-dimensional effects were observed in a symmetrically designed 3m x 5m x 8.5m test mom having a 0.019m slot inlet opening height under the ceiling in the one end wall. The ceiling jet velocity profile measured in the symmetric plane agreed well with the jet models for two-dimensional !low, but large differences were found out of the symmetric plane.