A Comparative Study for Forced Ventilation Systems in Industrial Buildings to Improve the Workers’ Thermal Comfort

Abstract

The appropriate ventilation for factory spaces with regard to volume flow rate and air velocity inside the factory is one of the most important factors in the improvement of the thermal comfort of workers and in the reduction of the percentage of pollution they are exposed to, which in turn helps to improve the work environment and increase productivity. It also could improve the performance of machines. Hence, overheating can cause various problems and malfunctions. In this study, three types of mechanical ventilation systems are compared: the wall fan extract ventilation system, the roof fan extract ventilation system, and the spot cooling system. The Ansys software has been used to conduct the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations for the different cases and the ventilation effectiveness factor (VEF) has been used to compare the performances of the three systems. The ventilation factor notably relies on the temperature distribution produced through the modeling and the results show that the most optimal system that can be used for similar factory spaces is the forced ventilation system. Finally, it is also the best in terms of energy consumption, despite the increase in the initial cost of its installation.

Architectural, Civil, and Infrastructure Engineering in View of Sustainability: Editor’s Comment

“…International works have also appeared (c.f. [4,9,11,13]. This tendency should be preserved for the sake of research dedicated to sustainability.…”

“…Another set of articles is to be found in Pro-health activities group (C). Colleagues from Saudi Arabia and Egypt (Elhadary et al [11]) highlight the issue of thermal comfort. Improving the working environment and increasing productivity is the subject of the research.…”

“…Within group (B) Economy-Bio-Morpheme complex design [8], marketplace variants [9], design and testing of steel cubic modules [10] are presented. Within group (C) Pro-health activities-the following topics and articles are indicated: space within the factory [11], green design [12], rural planning [13], bluegreen infrastructure [14].…”

Numerical modeling of a sneeze, a cough and a continuum speech inside a hospital lift

“…Pursuant to this study, for good ventilation paths, inlet and outlet must be in the same height, and avoiding as possible to set the inlet above the outlet. Elhadary et al [ 30 ] also concluded that better ventilation configuration was to set up the outlet on the ceiling. Liu et al [ 31 ] structured a CFD case of an exhalation and a cough directly focused over other human.…”

Ergonomic Rationalization Sequence of Digital Lighting Design in the Working Environment

“…Predicting and evaluating noise, as one of the major environmental factors, through the use of software support is a highly topical issue, which can be confirmed by the contributions in [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ], which deal primarily with mapping, simulation, and assessment of the impact of noise on workers. In addition to assessing noise as a physical factor in the work environment, simulation tools are used to assess thermal well-being at workplaces, as reported in [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. The use of the most modern available tools of the digital age has created space for the gradual implementation of virtual reality in the conditions of ergonomic rationalization and assessment, of both the physical load of workers and the working environment as a whole.…”