Experimental measurement of industrial ventilation effectiveness and thermal comfort.

The evaluation of the ventilation effectiveness and thermal comfort for various industrial ventilation schemes has been carried out by 1:4 scale model experimentation. Measurements of air speed, temperature, and contaminant concentration allowed the contaminant removal and thermal comfort to be quantified using ventilation effectiveness and thermal comfort indices, respectively. Archimedes number scaling was used to convert the small scale measurements to full scale conditions. The ventilation efficiency generally increased when the heat load was increased and/or the flow rate decreased. Increasing the number of diffusers in the occupied zone increased the ventilation effectiveness. The thermal comfort results depended on the diffuser configuration and the activity level of the worker. Most of the configurations produced acceptable thermal comfort results for a seated worker condition, and unacceptable conditions at an increased activity and clothing level.