You are on page 1of 12

Indoor Air 2016; 26: 274285

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ina
Printed in Singapore. All rights reserved

2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
INDOOR AIR
doi:10.1111/ina.12208

Experimental investigation into the interaction between the human


body and room airow and its eect on thermal comfort under
stratum ventilation
Abstract Room occupants comfort and health are aected by the airow.
Nevertheless, they themselves also play an important role in indoor air
distribution. This study investigated the interaction between the human body
and room airow under stratum ventilation. Simplied thermal manikin was
employed to eectively resemble the human body as a ow obstacle and/or free
convective heat source. Unheated and heated manikins were designed to fully
evaluate the impact of the manikin at various airow rates. Additionally,
subjective human tests were conducted to evaluate thermal comfort for the
occupants in two rows. The ndings show that the manikin formed a local
blockage eect, but the supply airow could ow over it. With the body heat
from the manikin, the air jet penetrated farther compared with that for the
unheated manikin. The temperature downstream of the manikin was also higher
because of the convective eect. Elevating the supply airow rate from 7 to 15
air changes per hour varied the downstream airow pattern dramatically, from
an uprising ow induced by body heat to a jet-dominated ow. Subjective
assessments indicated that stratum ventilation provided thermal comfort for the
occupants in both rows. Therefore, stratum ventilation could be applied in
rooms with occupants in multiple rows.

Y. Cheng1, Z. Lin2
1

Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City


University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong,
2
Division of Building Science and Technology, City
University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Key words: Stratum ventilation; Air distribution; Human
body; Blocking effect; Thermal plume; Thermal comfort.

Z. Lin
Division of Building Science and Technology
City University of Hong Kong
Kowloon
Hong Kong
Tel.: +852 3442 9805
Fax: +852 3442 9716
e-mail: bsjzl@cityu.edu.hk
Received for review 11 December 2014. Accepted for
publication 30 March 2015.

Practical Implications

This study reports the interaction between the human body and room airow and its eect on thermal comfort under
stratum ventilation, which can have a number of implications for both knowledge and understanding of the thermal
environment in a stratum-ventilated room. With respect to the former, it expounds the interaction between the human
body and room airow with this air distribution method; and with respect to the latter, it reveals the mechanism of
the uniform thermal environment in the occupied zone under stratum ventilation.

Introduction

Prevalence of thermal discomfort complaints (Bos and


Love, 2013; Melikov et al., 2005) and indoor air quality (IAQ) problems such as sick building syndrome
(SBS) (Lee and Chang, 1999) and airborne infectious
diseases (Li et al., 2007) has been drawing considerable
concerns as people spend about 90% of their time
indoors (Awbi, 2003). Air distribution is used to create
comfortable and healthy indoor environments. Therefore, understanding of the interaction between the
occupants and indoor airow is essential.
Room occupants comfort and health are aected by
the airow in rooms. Air movement in rooms is
inuenced by many factors: momentum ux at the sup274

ply terminal, type and location of supply terminal,


obstacles and furniture, buoyancy ux and location of
heating/cooling load, movement of objects, etc. (Etheridge and Sandberg, 1996). From the view point of uid
dynamics, a room occupant plays a dual role to inuence air movement (Nielsen, 1999): a ow resistance
due to the physical obstruction and a heat source creating uprising convective ows. The previous results demonstrated that the natural ows around a human body
could produce a maximum vertical velocity of typically
0.20.3 m/s (Homma and Yakiyama, 1988; Licina
et al., 2014; Voelker et al., 2014), even up to 0.5 m/s
(Clark and Edholm, 1985). This velocity scale is comparable to conventional air velocity in an occupied zone
(typically <0.25 m/s). Thus, it is reasonable to assume

Interaction between human body and room airflow


that the convective ows induced by body heat may
aect indoor air distributions. Therefore, it is necessary
to investigate the eect of human bodies on room airows because occupants will become the major heat
sources in future buildings (Zukowska et al., 2012a).
Using a standing unheated manikin as ow obstruction, Chang and Gonzalez (1991) measured the airow
pattern in an environmental chamber. Results indicated
that the manikin caused the blocking eect, obviously
decreasing the air velocity both in front of and behind
it, but little variance above its head. A similar study
was performed by Myers et al. (1998), at which the
eects of the unheated manikin and the heating manikin were discussed, respectively. Measurements showed
that the blockage of the manikin dominated the velocity distributions around the manikin, while the natural
convection from the heating manikin had a pronounced
eect on the temperature pattern. These studies and the
others (Chang and Gonzalez, 1993; Cho and Awbi,
2002; Nielsen et al., 2008; Topp et al., 2003) provide
information on the impact of a human body on mixing
ventilation. In displacement ventilated rooms, the eect
of a human body could be more prominent because the
ows are thermally driven. The upward convective
ows surrounding human body can deliver the clean air
into the breathing zone resulting in improved inhaled
air quality (Brohus and Nielsen, 1996), but also have
the potential to transport the contaminants from the
oor level to the breathing zone leading to increased
occupants exposure to contaminants (Rim and Novoselac, 2009; Salmanzadeh et al., 2012). More recently,
a comprehensive study about the interaction between
human convective boundary layer and uniform ventilation airow with dierent velocities and directions was
conducted by Licina et al. (2015). Results revealed that
the human body can have an obvious eect on the air
pattern. The airow interaction depended on the direction and the magnitude of the invading ow.
Recently, to accommodate the elevated room temperatures recommended by several governments in
East Asia (EMSD, 2006; Ministry of Knowledge and
Economy, the Republic of Korea, 2008; MoE, 2005;
NDRC, 2005; NOW news, Taiwan, 2008), a novel air
distribution solution, stratum ventilation (SV), was
proposed for use in small to medium size rooms (Lin
et al., 2005). This ventilation method is realized by
positioning the supply terminal(s) at the side walls or
columns slightly above the height of occupants and
extraction air terminal(s) on the opposite wall. It
supplies cool clean air directly to the occupants head
chest level (i.e., the breathing zone) for achieving thermal comfort and good IAQ. As reviewed above, both
the blocking and the free convective ows of occupants
could aect room airows, and consequently thermal
comfort and IAQ. However, most previous studies
focused on mixing ventilation (MV) and displacement
ventilation (DV). For SV, it is also necessary to investi-

gate the interaction between a human body and room


airows as supply of cool fresh air horizontally entered
into the occupants head-chest level. Therefore, this
study aims to experimentally investigate the eect of a
human body on global airow pattern and temperature
prole under SV. The experiments are conducted in an
environmental chamber with sixteen simplied thermal
manikins in two rows. The measurements are mainly
conducted in the region near a manikin facing a supply
terminal. The detailed objectives of this study are to:
analyze the blockage eect of an unheated manikin
on supply jets;
study the impact of thermal plume from a heated
manikin on the airow pattern and temperature prole; and
investigate the inuence of the incoming air speed on
the airow pattern.
Human subject tests are also carried out to evaluate
thermal comfort for investigating the eect of the presence of the front-row subjects on the rear-row subjects
thermal comfort. The ndings of this study are expected
to provide some fundamental knowledge about the
eect of a human body on stratum-ventilated airows.

Methods
Objective measurements of airflow pattern and temperature profiles

Pilot study. A pilot study was conducted before the


main study to determine the measurement zone and the
arrangement of sampling positions. The analysis of the
results showed that the existence of a seated human
body (height = 1.2 m) has a more pronounced eect on
the air distribution on the leeward side than that on the
windward side. The airow on the upper zone (>1.4 m
above the oor) is less disturbed. Therefore, more measurements are concentrated on the leeward side; the
measurement height is limited between 0.8 m and 1.4 m
because in a stratum-ventilated room, the largest variations in air velocity and temperature occur at the head
level as the supply air jets are at this level (Tian et al.,
2011). In this study, the supply diusers were installed at
1.3 m above the oor as the occupants were sedentary.
Manikin. Employing a real person is dicult to conduct measurements because of unstable human behavior and a measurement duration of up to several weeks
(Zukowska et al., 2012b). Thus, thermal manikin is
used to resemble human body as the ow obstacle and
the free convective ow source. The breathing of
thermal manikins is not included as the breath almost
has no eect on the incoming airow higher than
0.24 m/s (Schmees et al., 2008). The geometry of
thermal manikins is important to accurately assess
indoor environments (Melikov, 2004). Depending on
the studies, dierent complexities of geometry were

275

Cheng & Lin


chamber with the dimensions of 8.8 m (L) 9 6.1 m
(W) 9 2.4 m (H), as shown in Figure 1. Various air
distribution strategies could be applied to ventilate this
chamber. The installed air conditioning system consisted of a ceiling-mounted variable air volume-type
air-handling unit, ceiling-mounted air terminals, wallmounted terminals, and associated motorized dampers
and ductwork. Two air plenums in the front and rear
walls were installed to assist the wall-mounted air
terminals (the two photographs in Figure 1a). In this
study, air is supplied horizontally from four active
wall-mounted diusers (S1S4) installed on the
front wall at 1.3 m level and returned through four

employed, ranging from a rectangular box to a humanlike thermal manikin. However, a number of studies
have demonstrated that the geometry of manikins has
an impact only in the local ow pattern around them
and, reversely, has little inuence on the airow at
some distance from them (Gao and Niu, 2005; Topp
et al., 2003). A less detailed geometry is thus sucient
and ecient to evaluate the global airow pattern.
Therefore, the rectangular box is adopted in this study
to simulate the human body.
Environmental chamber and experimental setup. All
experiments were conducted in an environmental
(a)

(b)
vertical measurement zone for velocity vector

16

L3

L1

8
L8

L7

L6 L5

L2

S4

1203
1398

800 -1400

2400

L4

Fig. 1 Experimental set-up and measurement layout (mm). (a) Plan view. S1S4 and R1R4 are the supply and return air terminals,
respectively. (b) Section view across the center of the supply terminal S4

276

Interaction between human body and room airflow


wall-mounted air terminals (R1R4) on the rear wall at
the same height. The free opening area of each air
terminal is 0.038 m2 (0.195 m 9 0.195 m). The perforation diusers and the double deection grilles were
used as the supply and return terminals, respectively,
because they exhibited good performances (Cheng
et al., 2014). The supply airow rate could be varied by
adjusting the operating frequency of the frequency
conversion fan inverter. The room air temperature was
maintained with a precision of 0.5 C, and the relative humidity was controlled between 50% and 65%.
The layout of a typical classroom was arranged for
the present study. Sixteen rectangular boxes with
dimensions of 0.4 m (L) 9 0.3 m (W) 9 0.76 m (H)
were placed at the seats to represent the sedentary students. Combining with the chairs, the total height of
the thermal manikins is 1.2 m above the oor. Each
rectangular box was heated by a 100 W light bulb
(Sandberg et al., 2008). As this chamber was surrounded by air-conditioned spaces, the walls, oor,
and ceiling were assumed to be adiabatic. Hence, thermal manikins, workstation for system control, ceiling
uorescent lights and computers for data logging were
the main contributors to the room cooling load.
Measurement instruments. Two kinds of instruments,
the omnidirectional hot-wire anemometers and ultrasonic anemometer, were employed to measure the airow and temperature distributions. They were proved
to be capable of accurately and eciently measuring
indoor airows (Liu et al., 2012; Yao and Lin, 2014).
The air speed (magnitude of velocity) and temperature
were measured using SWEMA anemometers. The measurement range of air velocity is 0.05~3.0 m/s; the
accuracy is 0.02 m/s for 0.07~0.50 m/s and 0.03 m/s
for 0.50~3.0 m/s; and the dynamic response time is
0.2 s. For air temperature, the measurement range
is 10~40 C and the measurement error is 0.2 C.
This investigation used ultrasonic anemometer (Kaijo
Sonic, WA-790 & TR-90T) to acquire three-dimensional air velocity. The maximal measurable velocity is
10 m/s; the measurement accuracy is  2% reading +
0.02 m/s. The supply airow rate was measured by
ALNOR balometer capture hood EBT731; the measurement range is 42~4250 m3/h; and the accuracy is
3% of reading. Additionally, an infrared camera was
applied to check the room surface temperatures against
the room air temperatures.
Experimental cases. The present study focuses on
investigating the interaction between a human body
and the stratum-ventilated airows. For stratum ventilation, the cool fresh air is horizontally delivered to the
occupants head level. As Manikin 8 directly faced the
supply terminal S4 (Figure 1), the airow eld
around it was measured to investigate its eect on the
ow pattern. To fully evaluate the inuence of the ow

blockage and thermal plume, three states of Manikin 8


were strategically designed while the other manikins
were heated, that is, absence of Manikin 8 (Absent), an
unheated Manikin 8 (unheated), and a Manikin 8
heated by a 100 W light bulb (heated). Three typical
supply airow rates were adopted to study the eect of
the incoming wind speed: 7 air change rate (ACH), 10
ACH and 15 ACH (Yao and Lin, 2014). Thus, in total,
nine cases were studied experimentally (Table 1).
In this study, the room temperature was measured
and represented by the central monitoring sensors positioned 1.1 m above the oor, that is, the monitored
point M (Figure 1). For all cases, the room temperature was maintained at 27 C (Fong et al., 2011). Supply airow rates varied from 7 ACH to 15 ACH, so
additional air heaters were necessary so as to ensure
that the supply air temperature satised the design
requirement of 20 C or above (Lin et al., 2011). The
maximal heating capacity of each air heater was
2000 W. Table 2 summarizes the space cooling load
for all cases. The supply air temperature and velocity
were monitored and measured, as shown in Table 1.
Measurement procedure. All measurements were taken
for steady states. When the monitored air temperature
and velocity in the chamber arrived at statistical

Table 1 Conditions of experimental cases*


Case
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

ACH
7

10

15

State of Manikin 8

troom (C)

ts (C)

U0 (m/s)

Absent
Unheated
Heated
Absent
Unheated
Heated
Absent
Unheated
Heated

27.027.1

20.221.0

1.79

27.127.3

19.620.2

2.82

26.627.3

21.521.6

4.71

*ACH, air change rate; troom, room air temperature; ts, supply air temperature; U0, the
measured supply velocity.

Table 2 Space cooling load for all studied cases


Equipment (W)

Case

Thermal manikins
(W)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

1,500 (15
1,500 (15
1,600 (16
1,500 (15
1,500 (15
1,600 (16
1,500 (15
1,500 (15
1,600 (16

9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9

100)
100)
100)
100)
100)
100)
100)
100)
100)

Workstation

Ceiling
lights

Computers

Heater*

Total
(W)

300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300

1,176
1,176
1,176
1,176
1,176
1,176
1,176
1,176
1,176

300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300

0
0
0
1,000
1,000
1,000
2,000
2,000
2,000

3,276
3,276
3,376
4,276
4,276
4,376
5,276
5,276
5,376

*Maximum 2,000 W heat output.

277

Cheng & Lin


stabilization, a steady state was assumed to be
achieved. This investigation employed ten sets of
SWEMA omnidirectional anemometers to measure the
air speed and temperature along eight plumb sampling
lines (L1~L8), located in front of and behind Manikin
8 (Figure 1). The measurement levels are 0.8 m, 0.9 m,
1.0 m, 1.1 m, 1.15 m, 1.2 m, 1.25 m, 1.3 m, 1.35 m
and 1.4 m above the oor. Due to the limited number
of instruments, the measurements were proceeded one
plumb line by one plumb line. For each plumb line, the
measurement duration is at least 3 min and the sampling frequency is 4 Hz. When the anemometers were
moved from one plumb line to another, an interval of
at least 5 min was allowed for the ow eld to stabilize
to avoid the disturbance caused by moving the anemometers. As the supply airow rate is high and the
air is directly delivered to the upper torso, a 5-min
measurement interval was found to be long enough for
the ow eld to recover.
To fully investigate the eect of the manikin on the
overall ow pattern, we measured the airow distribution around Manikin 8 on the horizontal plane at
1.1 m (breathing zone) above the oor and at a vertical
section intersecting the center of the manikin (Figure 1). Dimensions of the horizontal plane and vertical
section were 1.2 m (X) 9 1.5 m (Y) and 1.5 m (Y) 9
0.6 m (Z), respectively. Because only one ultrasonic
anemometer is available, it was moved manually from
one location to another. For each location, the air
velocity was measured for at least 5 min at the sampling frequency of 10 Hz. After moving the anemometer, at least 5 min was required to ensure that the ow
eld reached steady state again. The measurement spatial resolution was 0.1 m along the length (X), 0.1 m
along the width (Y) and 0.05 m along the height (Z).
As a result, if the manikin was absent, a total of 154
measurement points for the horizontal plane and 154
measurement points for the vertical section were generated. When the manikin was present, this spatial resolution was composed of 134 measurement points for
the horizontal plane and 122 measurement points for
the vertical section, respectively.
Subjective thermal comfort survey

To examine the eect of the front-row subjects on the


rear-row subjects thermal comfort, human subject
tests were conducted under the conditions as identical
as practically possible to those with the sixteen thermal
manikins (Table 1). The layout was identical (Figure 1a), and the supply airow rate was also varied
from 7 ACH and 10 ACH to 15 ACH while the room
temperature setting was kept constant at 27 C. Fortyseven subjects were employed to participate in the subjective assessments. However, for some sessions, a few
subjects were absent due to their personal reasons.
The subjects all reported that they were accustomed to
278

staying in air conditioning environments. They


received remuneration for their participation in the
experiments. All of the subjects were in good health
without chronic diseases or allergies. Before participating in the scheduled tests, a brief session was conducted
to explain the experimental procedures. They were
briefed to wear typical local summer clothing such as
short-sleeved shirts, long trousers, underwear, socks,
and shoes and to carry out reading/writing activities
during the tests. Thus, the clo value of their clothing
and their activity levels were limited to 0.57 clo and 1.0
met, respectively.
The 47 subjects were divided into three groups: 16
subjects, 16 subjects, and 15 subjects. Each of the three
subject groups was in turn exposed to a series of three
supply airow rates. Thus, each test condition was
repeated three times with three dierent subject
groups. During each 120-min session, each subject was
required to answer one set of a questionnaire at 30-min
intervals. The questionnaire focused on evaluating
thermal sensation and thermal comfort. The ASHRAE
7-point scale, (3) cold, (2) cool, (1) slightly cool,
(0) neutral, (+1) slightly warm, (+2) warm, and (+3)
hot, was used to assess subjects thermal sensation.
Thermal comfort was reported at a 6-point scale, that
is, 2, 1, 0, +0, +1, and +2 representing very
uncomfortable, uncomfortable, just uncomfortable,
just comfortable, comfortable, and very comfortable,
respectively. Opinions on temperature and air movement preference were also collected.

Results and discussion: objective measurements


Validity of measurements with simplified manikin

To verify the validity of the measurements with the


simplied manikin, the experiment with a real human
subject instead of Manikin 8 was conducted. The
seated height of the human subject was about 1.18 m,
similar to that of the manikin (total height = 1.2 m).
Comparison of the results with the heated manikin and
human subject, shown in Figures 2 and 3, indicates a
satisfactory agreement of the overall ow pattern.
However, a small dierence was observed for the measurement point immediately behind the occupant. Due
to the uniform width along the height, the manikin
produced larger ow blocking to supply airow, and
resultantly, an increased portion of the air owed over
the top of the manikin (Figure 2). In comparison with
the human subject, this resulted in slightly higher
velocities above 1.2 m level and slightly lower velocities
below 1.2 m level behind the manikin (Figure 3). Further away from the occupant, the discrepancy became
small. A fairly good agreement was found for the
upstream (e.g., L2). These results reveal that the rectangular box could be used for simulating the eect of a
human body on the global air distribution of SV.

Interaction between human body and room airflow

Fig. 2 Smoke tests of ow pattern with a heated manikin (left) and a real human occupant (right)

1.4

L2

1.2
1.1
1.0

Thermal manikin
Human body

1.2
1.1

0.9

0.8

0.8
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Air speed (m/s)

Thermal manikin

1.0

0.9

L6

1.3

1.3
Height (m)

Height (m)

1.3

1.4

L4

Human body

Height (m)

1.4

1.2
1.1
1.0
0.9

Thermal manikin
Human body

0.8
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Air speed (m/s)

0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0


Air speed (m/s)

Fig. 3 Air speed (magnitude of velocity) proles in front of and behind Seat 8 at 10 ACH

Effect of manikin on global airflow pattern and temperature profile

In terms of the airow pattern and temperature proles


around Manikin 8, the blockage eect of an unheated
manikin, the eect of thermal plume from the heated
manikin and the eect of the incoming wind speed were
investigated. An ultrasonic anemometer was used to
generate the graphical results. In Figures 4, 5, and 7,
the arrows represent the mean velocity eld, which is
normalized by the measured supply velocity (U0). The
length of the arrow is proportional to the air speed,
and the direction indicates the ow direction. The base
of the arrow is the location of measurement. The normalized temperature, T = (tc ts)/(troom ts), was calculated from the local air temperature (tc), the supply
air temperature (ts) and the room air temperature
(troom).
Blockage eect of unheated manikin. Because the nonisothermal jet directly entered the occupants breathing zone at the head level of the room, the highest
velocity and lowest temperature are sandwiched in
the mid-layer at the head level (Figures 57). This
feature was consistent with those found by Tian et al.
(2011). The cooling eect was therefore stronger at
the head level to cool the occupants eectively, where
they need it most (Brown and Williams, 1982; Cohen
et al., 1989).
Figures 4 and 5 present the airow pattern on the
horizontal plane and the vertical section under 10

ACH, respectively. Comparison of the results indicates


the blocking eect of the manikin on the incoming airows, but a part of supply jet owed over the manikin
and moved forward because of the jet momentum.
Qualitatively, this was also demonstrated by the ow
visualizations by means of smoking tests (Figure 2).
Figure 4 compares the airow pattern in the breathing zone (1.1 m above oor) for the cases without
Manikin 8 and with unheated Manikin 8. With
unheated Manikin 8, the upstream ow decelerated
when it approached the manikin. Then, the supply jet
split as it owed around the manikin and formed a
wider jet region. However, due to the presence of the
manikin, the blockage eect was observed downstream, evidenced by the lower velocities therein.
Dierence in the airow pattern on the vertical section is seen in Figure 5. The results illustrate that the
main dierence between the two cases occurred on the
downstream side of the manikin, whereas similar ow
patterns were found upstream for both cases. As
shown in Figure 5, because of the blocking eect, the
supply airow split when approaching the manikin. As
a result, a part of the cool fresh supply airow deected
downward, while the other rst rose slightly and then
owed over the top of the manikin. However, owing to
the buoyancy, this jet gradually dropped and owed to
the rear row. A weak wake with the length of about
0.1 m was formed immediately downstream.
Figure 6 shows the comparison of the normalized
temperature proles in front of and behind the manikin
279

Cheng & Lin


(a)

(a)

(b)

(b)
(c)

Fig. 5 Measured air velocity vectors on the vertical section


under 10 ACH. (a) Absent: the manikin (dashed) is shown for
the purpose of comparison. (b) Unheated. (c) Heated

Fig. 4 Measured air velocity vectors on the horizontal plane


under 10 ACH. (a) Absent: the manikin (dashed) is shown for
the purpose of comparison. (b) Unheated

for the cases without Manikin 8 and with unheated


Manikin 8. Similar to the airow pattern, the presence
of the unheated manikin mainly aected the leeward
side of the manikin. Blocked by the manikin from the
cool supply jet, the air temperatures were higher at the
near eld behind the manikin because less mixing with
the jet occurred there. However, further away from the
manikin, the temperature proles were almost the
same, indicating that the temperature eld recovered
from the disturbance of the manikin at a short distance
downstream.
Eect of thermal plume. Figure 5c displays the airow
pattern in the case of heated Manikin 8 under 10 ACH.
Due to the strong supply jet, no rising convective ows
in front of and above the manikin were observed. The

280

fresh supply jet penetrated into the breathing zone.


However, benetted by the blockage of the heated
manikin, an uprising airow induced by the body heat
was formed behind the manikin. But the upward ow
is very weak at 0.05 m/s, which was much lower than
0.19 m/s measured by Johnson et al. (1996). This
might be mainly ascribed to the higher incoming velocity than that adopted by Johnson et al. (1996), in
which the incoming velocity is low at approximately
0.2 m/s.
The eect of thermal plume can be examined by
comparing the situations with unheated Manikin 8 and
with heated Manikin 8. Comparison of these results,
shown in Figure 5b and c, suggests that thermal plume
had a measurable inuence on the ow pattern
although the transverse incoming velocity (0.55 m/s on
average) was higher than the plume velocity (typically
at 0.20.3 m/s). Compared with the case of the
unheated manikin, the jet over the head of the heated
manikin dropped more slowly and consequently

Interaction between human body and room airflow

Fig. 6 Normalized air temperature proles in front of and behind Seat 8 under 10 ACH

penetrated farther. This could be because the cool jet


over the head entrained the warm thermal plume above
the thermal manikin. Therefore, the negative buoyancy
acting on the jet was reduced. Behind the heated manikin, the resulting wake region is larger with the length
of approximately 0.5 m than that in the unheated manikin case.
The comparison of the normalized temperature proles between unheated Manikin 8 and heated Manikin
8 is presented in Figure 6. The heat generated by the
manikin had little eect on the upstream temperature
proles but inuenced the temperature proles downstream. Due to the horizontally incoming airow, the
heat loss from the heated manikin is transferred to the
downstream airow by convection. Therefore, higher
temperatures are observed behind the heated manikin.
Nevertheless, with the airow diusion along the jet
path, the temperature dierence gradually diminished.
Eect of incoming wind speed. Previous studies in lowspeed wind environments showed that the airow
pattern around a human body was closely related to
the incoming wind speed (Heist et al., 2003; Schmees
et al., 2008). To examine the eect of the wind speed
under SV, three supply airow rates (i.e., 7 ACH, 10
ACH, and 15 ACH) were applied in this study. The
average incoming air speed near the manikin is
0.4 m/s, 0.55 m/s, and 0.7 m/s, respectively. Comparing the results, shown in Figure 7, the airow pattern
was found to be a function of the incoming wind
speed. The eect of the body heat decreased with the

elevation in the incoming air speed. The obvious difference occurs downstream of the manikin while the
jets were able to penetrate into the breathing zone
under these three airow rates because no uprising
ow was observed in front of the manikin. At the
lowest 7 ACH, because of the low supply momentum, no jet reached the downstream side of the manikin and consequently, a slow uprising ow is formed
there due to the body heat (Figure 7a). Thus, the
weak air movement may deteriorate thermal comfort
in the rear row. The increased supply airow rates of
10 ACH and 15 ACH enabled the jets to ow over
the manikin, resulting in an elevated air movement
downstream (Figure 7b,c). This may help to improve
comfort conditions of the rear row in a warm environment.
To quantify the relative strengths of the momentum
of buoyancy from the heated manikin and of the
momentum of the incoming airow, Heist et al. (2003)
dened an overall Richardson number (Ri), as follows:
Ri

FB
gQ

;
3
FU LU qCp Troom

where FB represents the ux of momentum due to


buoyancy; FU represents the ux of momentum due to
the incoming airow; g is the gravitational acceleration, m/s2; Q is the heat ow rate of the heated manikin, W; L is a length scale based on the windward area
of the manikin, m; U is the incoming velocity in front
of the manikin, m/s; q is the density of the air, kg/m3;
281

Cheng & Lin


(a)

Table 3 Values of thermal length and Richardson number (Ri)*


ACH

Ar

Thermal length (m)

7
10
15

11.9 9 103
5.46 9 103
1.55 9 103

Ri

1.79
0.052
2.64
0.036
4.95
0.030
p
h
i
*Ar, the supply Archimedes number ArgU 2ATt roomt s ; A, the free area of supply terminal.
0 room

Results and discussion: subjective thermal comfort survey


(b)

(c)

Fig. 7 Measured air velocity vectors on the vertical section in


the case of heated Manikin 8 under dierent supply airow
rates. (a) 7 ACH. (b) 10 ACH. (c) 15 ACH

Cp is the thermal heat capacity of the air, J/(kgK); and


Troom is the absolute room air temperature, K.
The signicance of buoyancy forces can also be measured by thermal length (Elvsen and Sandberg, 2009).
Table 3 summarizes the thermal length and the Richardson number values for the three supply airow
rates. For 7 ACH, the short thermal length and/or the
relatively high Richardson number indicated that the
ows downstream of the heated manikin were dominated by buoyancy forces. However, with higher supply airow rates (10 ACH), the momentum of the
supply jet dominated the downstream ows.
In summary, the objective measurements showed
that the presence of the human body imposed a local
blocking eect, but with suitable supply conditions, the
supply airows were able to ow over it to provide sufcient air movement downstream. As can be seen, with
proper supply parameters, necessary air movement and
thus thermal comfort for occupants in both rows were
provided. This was also demonstrated by the subjective
survey of thermal comfort.
282

Human subject tests were conducted to evaluate thermal sensation and comfort in a stratum-ventilated
room with two-row occupants. During the test duration of 120 min, the subjects reached the thermal
steady state (Figure S1 in Supporting Information).
As the analysis was conducted for the thermal steady
state, the last votes by the subjects are used. For the
supply airow rates of 7 ACH, 10 ACH and 15 ACH,
the average thermal sensation was 0.07, 0.13, and
0.08, respectively. This indicated that the subjects felt
neutral at the room temperature of 27 C, which is in
agreement with the ndings of our previous studies
(Cheng et al., 2014; Fong et al., 2011).
Tables 4 and 5 provide the distributions of thermal
sensation and comfort votes, respectively. For the supply airow rate of 7 ACH, 65% (38% for the rst row
and 27% for the second row) of the subjects voted
thermal sensation as neutral. Combining the votes of
the comfort side (+0, +1 and +2), 78% (47% for the
rst row and 31% for the second row) of the subjects
felt comfort. As shown in Table 5, the thermal discomfort mainly occurred at the second row. This was
attributed to the short thermal length at this supply airow rate, which produced insucient air movement,
particularly for the second row. It is also seen from the
cross-tabulation of thermal comfort and air movement
preference (Table S1 in Supporting Information). For
Table 4 Distribution of thermal sensation votes (showing the number of the subjects and
the corresponding percentage in parentheses)
Supply airflow rate
7 ACH

10 ACH

15 ACH

Thermal
sensation*

First row

Second
row

First row

Second
row

First row

Second
row

3
2
1
0
+1
+2
+3
Total

0
1 (2%)
4 (9%)
17 (38%)
1 (2%)
0
0
23 (51%)

0
0
1 (2%)
12 (27%)
9 (20%)
0
0
22 (49%)

0
0
2 (4%)
18 (41%)
2 (4%)
1 (2%)
0
23 (51%)

0
0
3 (7%)
14 (31%)
3 (7%)
2 (4%)
0
22 (49%)

0
0
3 (7%)
19 (42%)
1 (2%)
0
0
23 (51%)

0
0
5 (11%)
14 (31%)
3 (7%)
0
0
22 (49%)

*3, 2, 1, 0, +1, +2 and +3 represents cold, cool, slightly cool, neutral, slightly warm,
warm and hot, respectively.

Interaction between human body and room airflow


Table 5 Distribution of thermal comfort votes (showing the number of the subjects and
the corresponding percentage in parentheses)
Supply airflow rate
7 ACH

10 ACH

15 ACH

Thermal
comfort*

First row

Second
row

First row

Second
row

First row

Second
row

2
1
0
+0
+1
+2
Total

0
0
2 (4%)
11 (25%)
9 (20%)
1 (2%)
23 (51%)

2 (4%)
0
6 (13%)
5 (11%)
8 (18%)
1 (2%)
22 (49%)

1 (2%)
0
3 (7%)
10 (22%)
6 (13%)
3 (7%)
23 (51%)

0
1 (2%)
3 (7%)
12 (27%)
4 (9%)
2 (4%)
22 (49%)

0
1 (2%)
1 (2%)
12 (27%)
7 (16%)
2 (4%)
23 (51%)

1 (2%)
0
2 (4%)
13 (29%)
5 (12%)
1 (2%)
22 (49%)

*2, 1, 0, +0, +1 and +2 represents very uncomfortable, uncomfortable, just uncomfortable, just comfortable, comfortable and very comfortable, respectively.

10 ACH and 15 ACH, the percentage of the subjects


feeling neutral is 72% and 73%, respectively. And the
percentage of the subjects feeling comfort is 82% and
90%, respectively, which satised the requirement of at
least 80% prescribed in ASHRAE 55-2013. This shows
that the thermal comfort of the second-row subjects
was not deteriorated by the presence of the rst-row
subjects. Thus, with suitable supply conditions, stratum ventilation, a total-occupied-zone ventilation
method, can provide thermal comfort for a substantial
majority of occupants in two rows.
Further discussion

As indicated by the measurements, under SV, the body


heat had a measured eect on the temperature eld
and the airow pattern at the downstream side of the
manikin. The body heat reduced the negative buoyancy
acting on the supply air jets, thus enhancing the penetration of the jets and the air movement in the rear
rows (Figure 5). From the point of view of thermal
comfort, this helped to improve comfort conditions in
rear rows to some extent in a warm environment, but
probably the contribution is small. It is because that
the ows created by SV are typically dominated by the
ow sources, that is, the jet momentum of the supply
air (Cheng and Lin, 2015).
One of the main ndings of the present study is that
SV can achieve thermal comfort for occupants
arranged in two rows. This is most likely because the
supply airows can ow over the front-row occupants
to provide sucient air movement in the entire occupied zone, which depends on the thermal length, that
is, the supply air temperature, supply air velocity, supply terminal size, and room temperature (Elvsen and
Sandberg, 2009). It should not be determined by the
number of rows as the presence of occupants only creates local blocking eect. Furthermore, with airow
diusion, the jet region expanded; consequently, the
blockage eect of the occupants decreased. Accord-

ingly, it was hypothesized that SV might be able to


provide comfort conditions for more than two rows.
To justify this, additional computational uid dynamics (CFD) simulations were conducted for the same
chamber with 24 occupants in three rows. The simulated results show that SV can achieve satisfactory
thermal comfort for occupants in three rows quantied
by PMV (predicted mean vote) and PD (percentage
dissatised due to draft) indices (which will be reported
separately). For cases with multiple rows, supply of air
from side(s) is also a potential solution. Therefore, with
proper design of the supply parameters (thermal
length), SV can be applied to rooms with more than
two rows. However, the number of rows depends on
the room type and size.
Summary and conclusions

This study experimentally examined the eect of a


human body on the airow pattern and the temperature proles under stratum ventilation (SV). The
human body was modeled by simplied thermal manikin of the box shape. The blockage eect of the
unheated manikin, the eect of thermal plume from
the heated manikin, and the eect of the incoming
wind speed are investigated, respectively. Results show
that the presence of the manikin modied the airow
and the temperature elds, particularly on the downstream side. Human subject tests were also carried out
to evaluate thermal comfort. The main conclusions
could be summarized as follows:
The manikin established a local blocking eect, but
the supply airows can ow over it. A weak wake
was formed behind the manikin.
The body heat had a measurable eect on the airow
pattern and temperature eld. A fairly weak uprising
ow at 0.05 m/s was observed behind the manikin.
Because of the body heat enhancing the jet penetration, a larger wake was formed behind the heated
manikin compared with the case of the unheated
manikin. Therefore, the body heat should not be
neglected under SV even though the horizontally
incoming velocity is typically several times higher
than the thermal plume velocity.
The airow pattern changed with the incoming wind
speed. On the downstream side of the manikin, the
elevation of supply airow rate from 7 ACH to 15
ACH resulted in that the upward ow induced by
the body heat transformed to the jet-dominated
ow.
The subjective assessments of thermal comfort indicated that SV achieved thermal comfort for the
occupants in the both rows.
Based on objective experimental measurements and
subjective human tests, it is reasonable to assume that
with proper supply parameters, SV could provide
283

Cheng & Lin


thermal comfort for a room with occupants in multiple
rows.
Acknowledgements

The work described in this paper is supported by a


General Research Grant from the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Project No. 51178407).
The authors would also like to express their gratitude
to Miss Wu Weiqin and Mr. Ai Zhengtao for their
suggestions.

Supporting Information

Additional Supporting Information may be found in


the online version of this article:
Figure S1. Variation of average thermal sensation with
time.
Table S1. Cross-tabulation of thermal comfort and air
movement preference (showing the number of the subjects and the corresponding percentage in parentheses).

References
ASHRAE (2013) ANSI/ASHRAE Standard
55-2013: Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy, Atlanta,
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers, Inc.
Awbi, H.B. (2003) Ventilation of Buildings,
New York, Taylor & Francis.
Bos, M.A. and Love, J.A. (2013) A eld
study of thermal comfort with underoor
air distribution, Build. Environ., 69, 233
240.
Brohus, H. and Nielsen, P.V. (1996) Personal
exposure in displacement ventilated
rooms, Indoor Air, 6, 157167.
Brown, G.A. and Williams, G.M. (1982) The
eect of head cooling on deep body temperature and thermal comfort in man,
Aviat. Space Environ. Med., 53, 583586.
Chang, S.K.W. and Gonzalez, R.R. (1991)
Air velocity mapping of environment test
chambers, ASHRAE Trans., 97, 3137.
Chang, S.K.W. and Gonzalez, R.R. (1993)
Air velocity proles around the human
body, ASHRAE Trans., 99, 450458.
Cheng, Y. and Lin, Z. (2015) Experimental
study of airow characteristics of stratum
ventilation in a multi-occupant room
with comparison to mixing ventilation
and displacement ventilation, Indoor Air,
doi: 10.1111/ina.12188.
Cheng, Y., Fong, M.L., Yao, T., Lin, Z. and
Fong, K.F. (2014) Uniformity of stratum-ventilated thermal environment and
thermal sensation, Indoor Air, 24, 521
532.
Cho, Y. and Awbi, H.B. (2002) Eect of heat
source location in a room on the ventilation performance, 8th International Conference on Air Distribution in Rooms,
Copenhagen, Denmark, 811 September,
445448.
Clark, R.P. and Edholm, O.G. (1985) Man
and his Thermal Environment, London,
Edward Arnold.
Cohen, J.B., Allan, J.R. and Sowood, P.J.
(1989) Eect of head or neck cooling used
with a liquid-conditioned vest during simulated aircraft sorties, Aviat. Space Environ. Med., 60, 315320.
Elvsen, P.A. and Sandberg, M. (2009) Buoyant jet in a ventilated room: velocity eld,

284

temperature eld and airow patterns


analysed with three dierent whole-eld
methods, Build. Environ., 44, 137145.
Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) (2006) Government of
Hong Kong S.A.R., Energy Conservation Chapter 2006 - Suitable Room Temperature. Available at: http://
www.energyland. Emsd.gov.hk/blue_sky/
eng/index.htm.
Etheridge, D.W. and Sandberg, M. (1996)
Building Ventilation: Theory and Measurement, New York, John Wiley & Sons.
Fong, M.L., Lin, Z., Fong, K.F., Chow,
T.T. and Yao, T. (2011) Evaluation of
thermal comfort conditions in a classroom with three ventilation methods,
Indoor Air, 21, 231239.
Gao, N.P. and Niu, J.L. (2005) CFD study
of the thermal environment around a
human body, Indoor Built Environ., 14,
516.
Heist, D.K., Eisner, A.D., Mitchell, W. and
Wiener, R. (2003) Airow around a
child-size manikin in a low-speed wind
environment, Aerosol. Sci. Tech., 37,
303314.
Homma, H. and Yakiyama, M. (1988)
Examination of free convection around
occupants body caused by its metabolic
heat, ASHRAE Trans., 94, 104124.
Johnson, A.E., Fletcher, B. and Saunders,
C.J. (1996) Air movement around a
worker in a low-speed ow eld, Ann.
Occup. Hyg., 40, 5764.
Lee, S.C. and Chang, M. (1999) Indoor air
quality investigations at ve classrooms,
Indoor Air, 9, 134138.
Li, Y., Leung, G.M., Tang, J.W., Yang,
X., Chao, C., Lin, J.Z., Lu, J.W.,
Nielsen, P.V., Niu, J., Qian, H.,
Sleigh, A.C., Su, H.-J., Sundell, J.,
Wong, T.W. and Yuen, P.L. (2007)
Role of ventilation in airborne transmission of infectious agents in the
built environment a multidisciplinary systematic review, Indoor Air, 17,
218.
Licina, D., Melikov, A., Pantelic, J., Sekhar,
C. and Tham, K.W. (2014) Experimental
investigation of the human convective

boundary layer in a quiescent indoor


environment, Build. Environ., 75, 7991.
Licina, D., Melikov, A., Sekhar, C. and
Tham, K.W. (2015) Human convective
boundary layer and its interaction with
room ventilation ow, Indoor Air, 25, 21
35.
Lin, Z., Chow, T.T. and Tsang, C.F. (2005)
Stratum ventilation? A conceptual introduction, Proceedings of the 10th international conference on indoor quality and
climate, Beijing, 49 September 2005,
32603264.
Lin, Z., Yao, T., Chow, T.T., Fong, K.F.
and Chan, L.S. (2011) Performance evaluation and design guidelines for stratum
ventilation, Build. Environ., 46, 2267
2279.
Liu, W., Wen, J.Z., Chao, J.Y., Yin, W.,
Shen, C., Lai, D., Lin, C.-H., Liu, J.,
Sun, H. and Chen, Q. (2012) Accurate
and high-resolution boundary conditions
and ow elds in the rst-class cabin of
an MD-82 commercial airliner, Atmos.
Environ., 56, 3344.
Melikov, A. (2004) Breathing thermal manikins for indoor environment assessment:
important characteristics and requirements, Eur. J. Appl. Physiol., 92, 710713.
Melikov, A., Pitchurov, G., Naydenov, K.
and Langkilde, G. (2005) Field study on
occupant comfort and the oce thermal
environment in rooms with displacement
ventilation, Indoor Air, 15, 205214.
Ministry of Knowledge and Economy, the
Republic of Korea (2008) The Standard
of Energy Management. Available at:
http://www.mke.go.kr/info/law/gosiView.jsp? (Item No. 2008-219) (Accessed
29 December 2008).
Japanese Ministry of the Environment
(MoE) (2005) National Campaign to Fight
Global Warming. Available at: http://
www.env.go.jp/en/press/2005/0428b.html
Myers, J.B., Hosni, M.H. and Jones, B.W.
(1998) Interaction of air motion with the
human body, ASHRAE Trans., 104, 863
882.
National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the State Council of
China (2005) Citizens Pact for Deed of

Interaction between human body and room airflow


Thrift. Available at: http://
www.ndrc.gov.cn/gzdt/
t20051223_54462.htm.
Nielsen, P.V. (1999) The importance of thermal manikins as a source and obstacle in
full-scale experiments, Proceedings of the
3rd international meeting on thermal manikin testing 3IMM, Stockholm, Sweden,
1213 October 1999.
Nielsen, P.V., Winther, F.V., Buus, M. and
Thilageswaran, M. (2008) Contaminant
ow in the microenvironment between
people under dierent ventilation conditions, ASHRAE Trans., 114, 632638.
NOW news, Taiwan (2008) Campaign in
Oce of President for Saving Energy and
Reducing Carbon Emissions. Available at:
http://www.nownews.com/2008/05/24/
10844-227-9584.htm.
Rim, D. and Novoselac, A. (2009) Transport
of particulate and gaseous pollutants in
the vicinity of a human body, Build. Environ., 44, 18401849.

Salmanzadeh, M., Zahedi, G., Ahmadi, G.,


Marr, D.R. and Glauser, M. (2012) Computational modeling of eects of thermal
plume adjacent to the body on the indoor
airow and particle transport, J. Aerosol
Sci., 53, 2939.
Sandberg, M., Lundstrom, H., Nilsson, H.
and Stymne, H. (2008) Experimental
methods in ventilation, Advances in Building Energy Research, 2, 163175.
Schmees, D.K., Wu, Y.H. and Vincent, J.H.
(2008) Visualization of the airow around
a life-sized, heated, breathing mannequin
at ultralow windspeeds, Ann. Occup.
Hyg., 52, 351360.
Tian, L., Lin, Z. and Wang, Q.W. (2011)
Experimental investigation of thermal
and ventilation performances of stratum
ventilation, Build. Environ., 46, 1309
1320.
Topp, C., Hesselholt, P., Trier, M.R. and
Nielsen, P.V. (2003) Inuence of geometry of thermal manikins on room airow,

Proceedings of Healthy Buildings 2003,


National University of Singapore, Singapore, Vol. 2, 339344.
Voelker, C., Maempel, S. and Kornadt, O.
(2014) Measuring the human bodys
microclimate using a thermal manikin,
Indoor Air, 24, 567579.
Yao, T. and Lin, Z. (2014) An experimental
and numerical study on the eect of air
terminal layout on the performance of
stratum ventilation, Build. Environ., 82,
7586.
Zukowska, D., Melikov, A. and Popiolek, Z.
(2012a) Impact of personal factors and
furniture arrangement on the thermal
plume above a sitting occupant, Build.
Environ., 49, 104116.
Zukowska, D., Melikov, A. and Popiolek, Z.
(2012b) Impact of geometry of a
sedentary occupant simulator on the
generated thermal plume: experimental
investigation, HVAC&R Res., 18, 795
811.

285

You might also like