Computational fluid dynamics simulation of breathing zone of the human for air quality with a personalized air curtain

Abstract

In this article, the air quality is maintained in the breathing zone of a human using personalized air curtain. The breathing zone is modeled and simulated with ANSYS-Fluent 18.1 software and predicted the thermo-fluids flow characteristics in the breathing zone. The clean air is supplied from the air curtain device to distribute in the breathing zone of a human. There are 11 nozzles created in the front portion of the air curtain device to supply clean air in front of the face of the human. The air curtain provides a sealed cover between the pollutant and face, which protects the inward flow of pollutants. The flow becomes turbulent even at low Reynolds numbers 136-686 due to the mixing of air jets from multinozzles in the air curtain device and entrainment of ambient air into the breathing zone. The thermal balance (comfort) between breathing zone and atmosphere was maintained using isothermal air jets. The standard k-e model is used for predicting the turbulent characteristics of air flow. The results obtained from the simulation was analyzed for optimum airflow velocity to occupy the breathing zone with clean air completely. The best flow pattern is achieved for the optimum nozzle exit velocity of 3 m/s, height y = 70 mm from the bottom of breathing zone for nozzle width of 2 mm. These conditions ensured the air quality and the comfort velocity (0.5 to 0.8 m/s) and pressure about 1 bar in the breathing zone.

Full-size experimental assessment of the aerodynamic sealing of air curtains for particulate matter

“…The study of the use of air curtains to avoid contaminant spreading has been reported, for tobacco smoke control, 17,18 for operating rooms, 7,[19][20][21][22][23][24] in offices, 25 for protection of art works in museums and of cultural heritage, 26,27 in personalized air curtains, 28 in open refrigerated display cabinets [29][30][31] and in public transportation. 32 The studies on the performance of air curtains have been based on CFD models, 25,27,28,31,[33][34][35][36] on semi-analytical models, 16,37 and on experiments. 3,15,[38][39][40][41][42][43] Qi et al 33 presented a parametric study about air curtain performance.…”

Full-Size Experimental Assessment of the Aerodynamic Sealing of Low Velocity Air Curtains

“…Air curtains have been used with several objectives, such as Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) [1][2][3], smoke control in passageways [4,5] and airborne pollutant and biological control [6][7][8]. Regarding the need to avoid the contaminant spreading, several developments and applications have been reported, namely, in operating rooms [7,[9][10][11][12][13][14], for tobacco smoke control [15,16], for protection of art works in museums and of cultural heritage [17,18], in open refrigerated display cabinets [19][20][21], in offices [22], in personalized air curtains [23] and in public transportation [24]. These studies show that air curtains have the potential to reduce the pollutants transferred from one compartment to another.…”