Thermal Comfort in an Office Room Using Square Diffuser

Abstract

The office is an important part of daily life, people spend most of their time working inside of the office and thusthe quality of the indoor air environment is a significant factor affecting the productivity and happiness of officeusers. Many factors influence the pattern of airflow: indoor air quality, thermal comfort and energy saving inan office room. In this study, the effects of the square diffusers on thermal comfort investigated numerically foran office room. Numerical research was subsequently carried out using the validated CFD (computational fluiddynamics) model. This model solved the continuity, energy conservation and momentum equations in additionto k–ε model equation for turbulence modelling. Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied (PPD) is a frequentlyused tool for assessing human comfort rating. A PPD based control HVAC (Heating, Ventilating and AirConditioning) system has the potential to provide enhanced thermal comfort inside a location by taking intoconsideration all main thermal comfort variables. The CFD results revealed that the PPD values in the roomvaries on average between 10% and 20% and thus thermal conditions occurred according to ASHRAE standardsin the model office room with a square diffuser.