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The
International Journal of Ventilation
Volume 3 No 2 September 2004:
Paper 3: Zonal Models for Indoor Air Flow - A Critical Review
E.J. Teshome and F. Haghighat
Department of
Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Concordia University, Montreal, Canada H3G 1M8
Abstract
A zonal model is an intermediate
approach between computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and single-room models. It
can give results faster than CFD and be more accurate than single-zone models.
It has been used to provide some global information regarding thermal and flow
parameters within a room. In this review, due emphasis is given to the commonly
used pressurized zonal model - the power law. Qualitative validations show that
the power law model reasonably predicts well for natural convection.
Nevertheless, for the case of forced convection it was found that zonal models
fail to predict the recirculation loop reasonably. This is due to the fact that
the power law model employs a constant flow coefficient throughout the flow
field. A validated room CFD simulation was employed to illustrate the
variability of the flow coefficient in the flow field.
Key words:
CFD, zonal model, flow coefficient, power law, simulation.
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