Investigating indoor air quality and thermal comfort using a numerical thermal manikin

In this paper, we investigated the pollutant exposure reduction and thermal comfort that can be achieved with personalised ventilation (PV) design when a PV system is combined with two types of background air conditioning systems. For the investigation of inhaled air quality, pollutants emitted from building materials are the targeted pollutants; and for the investigation of thermal comfort, local discomfort associated with non-uniform thermal environment is focused upon. These investigations were performed by combining CFD simulation of the 3D air flow and a multi-nodal human-body thermo-regulation model. The results reveal some new characteristics of the three typical air distribution designs, i.e. mixed ventilation, displacement ventilation and PV, and provide insight into the possible optimisation of system combinations.