Effect of arrangement of inlet air valves in a bus on energy consumption with considering thermal comfort

Investigation on thermal comfort in a public transport has a significant impact on the satisfaction of this environment. Therefore, in this study, the thermal comfort conditions in a bus was investigated and among the different factors affecting on the thermal comfort in this space, the shape and the location of the inlet valves are studied in order to achieve optimum thermal comfort index for seated people. Hence, three different inlet valves with the same area and the same inlet air velocity was considered; circular cross-sections under each seat, rectangular valves on the floor and rectangular valves on the body and at the height of 0.2 meters from the floor. The results show that in order to achieve the optimal thermal comfort index, temperatures for circular air inlet must be 24.0
̊ C, for rectangular valves on the floor must be 20.1
̊ C and for the rectangular valve of the body must be 21.6
̊ C. These results suggest that the use of circular air inlet in the cooling system is more economical. To evaluate the effect of height on the thermal comfort index, the difference of the index was calculated with the height of 0.1 and 1.1 meters for three different inlet valves. The results show that by the use of rectangular valve on the body, the distribution of thermal conditions on the body of the passengers will be more uniform.