Verification of the ventilation dampers’ aerodynamic characteristics

Abstract

Engineering solutions of air conditioning systems require the operation analysis and the aerodynamic characteristics verification of the ventilation dampers installed on ventilation, air heating, air conditioning, supply and exhaust smoke ventilation systems to prevent air overflow and combustion products from one room to another, as the dampers’ characteristics affect the systems’ technological reliability and energy efficiency as a whole. Thus, the leakage through the closed dampers leads to a decrease in the useful work of the ventilation unit, characterized by the efficiency coefficient, which is due to the mismatch between the actual and the calculated performance of the ventilation systems. This removes the fan operation from the optimal area. The non-tightness reasons of the ventilation dampers for various purposes were analyzed. To reveal these reasons, the experiments were carried at a laboratory-industrial stand. The use of modern computer programs for processing the experimental data made it possible to build the mathematical models providing the necessary conditions for the adequacy and reliability of the ventilation dampers’ studies. A visual description of the digitized three-dimensional flow in the investigated ventilation damper is given. This description can be used in the future to accurately assess the characteristics of ventilation dampers affecting the ventilation systems’ technological reliability and energy efficiency.