Computational analysis of indoor air and temperature distribution in an office space.

There is a growing demand for buildings to have a high indoor air quality environment. Twoof the main elements that contribute to this quality are temperature and air distribution withinthe occupied space. In modern office buildings particularly in hot climates, care must be takento design the most economical air distribution system that provides comfort for the occupants.There are many techniques available to predict the air distribution patterns in the space atdesign stage, but these are often not very accurate. In one of the techniques, scaled models areused to collect data on air distribution patterns but this is expensive, time consuming and it isnot possible to include all the room parameters. There are also problems associated withscaling.Recent innovations in air modelling are more wide-ranging in their analysis and are also morecost effective. These include computer simulation modelling in two or three dimensional formso that spatial factors such as air temperature, velocity and pollutant concentration distributioncan be predicted with a reasonable degree of accuracy.In this paper a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model was used to predict air velocities,temperatures and air distribution patterns in an office building in a hot climate. Experimentaldata was collected in an office space in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and the space was thenmodelled in a CFD code. Measured data was compared with that predicted by the software togain confidence in the technique. Once confidence had been gained, the office air supply andextract system were re-designed to improve the quality of the indoor air in the space.The paper reports on the technique and shows how computer modelling can be usedsuccessfully at design stage to predict and consequently improve the final air qualityparameters in an occupied space.