An Air Zonal Model for Predicting Air Flow, Temperature Distribution and Humidity Distribution in Buildings

The design of air-conditioning systems for energy saver buildings relies on fast and accurate methods able to predict the details of the indoor environment. In this paper, it is shown that the air zonal method is able to quickly assess the indoor environment quality. The zonal method is based on energy and mass balance equations in macroscopic volumes. Zonal models use a coarse grid and balance equations, state equations, hydrostatic pressure drop equations and power law equations. The aim of this paper is to study the simulation of temperature and humidity distributions through a large horizontal opening in a room with mixed ventilation by means of air zonal method and the results are compared to Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) calculations and experimental data. It has been shown that for the simple rectangular geometries, the air zonal method gives reasonably an accurate air temperature and humidity results in engineering applications even for the whole year.