Ventilation in an Office using Chilled Beams
Air temperatures and velocities in an office
This simple model illustrates how CFD can be applied to simulate the ventilation performance and the consequent temperature distributions in an office.
The office is about 7m square, with one wall glazed - on the left in the graphic above. The solar gain is about 4.3 kW. There is assumed to be an additional gain of 2.4 kW from the occupants and various electrical equipment. The office is cooled by a set of active chilled beams in the ceiling, air being extracted through the luminaires. The active chilled beams are the long parallel boxes on the ceiling; they operate by extracting air from the room, and then re-injecting it with an admixture of cool fresh air. A set of passive chilled beams is located close to the window, to diminish the effect of the warm plume rising off it.
The simulation shows that the chilled beams successfully counteract the plume of warm air originating from the glazing. Under the conditions specified for the simulation, the mean temperature at 1m height is about 27oC.
