Validation of the zonal method for the case of isothermal airflow in a rectangular cavity

The objective of this work is to evaluate the quality of the predictions of the indoor airflow behaviour by the zonal method in comparison to the CFD results. The isothermal airflow of the International Energy Agency Annex 20 test cell was chosen to perform the proposed comparative analysis. This cell represents a rectangular room where the air is supplied horizontally on the upper left and is exhausted through an opening located on the lower right on the opposite side. Results are presented in terms of dimensionless mean velocity between zones considering different zonal grid schemes of the indoor environment.