Modeling of gasper-induced jet flow and its impact on cabin air quality

Zhu Shi; Jun Chen; Ruoyu You; Chun Chen; Qingyan Chen

doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.06.038

Modeling of gasper-induced jet flow and its impact on cabin air quality

Energy Build. 2016 Sep 1:127:700-713. doi: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.06.038. Epub 2016 Jun 15.

Authors

Zhu Shi¹, Jun Chen¹, Ruoyu You¹, Chun Chen², Qingyan Chen^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
² Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T. 999077, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
³ Tianjin Key Laboratory of Indoor Air Environmental Quality Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.

Abstract

Gaspers are prevalently installed in aircraft and automobiles to provide supplementary ventilation and improve passengers' thermal comfort. This investigation employed the SST $k - ω$ model to simulate gasper-induced jet flow with the use of detailed gasper geometry, and validated the simulation results using experimental data. The validated CFD results not only revealed the mixing mechanism of a gasper-induced jet with ambient air, but also enabled the development of two mathematical models for characterizing the jet development along the gasper axis and radial velocity profiles in the downstream region. Furthermore, these models enabled the prediction of the entrainment ratio at different locations along a gasper-induced jet, and this ratio was used to evaluate the impact of the jet on air quality in a passenger's breathing zone. The performance of the CFD model and mathematical models was evaluated, and the models were compared on the basis of prediction accuracy and computing time.

Keywords: Computational fluid dynamics; Entrainment; Gasper; Jet flow; Mathematical modeling.