Modeling of the effect of using air curtain on occupants thermal comfort and indoor air quality of an athletic swimming pool with spectators’ stand

In swimming pools with spectators’ stand, due to differences in skin wetness, metabolic rates and clothing type of the swimmers and spectators, providing thermal comfort conditions for all residents is very difficult. Accordingly, a reasonable idea to provide the mentioned different comfort conditions is using the air curtain to aerodynamically separate the pool hall and the spectators’ stand. In these conditions,it is possible to use two different ventilation systems for these two parts. In the present study, an Olympic-size swimming pool with the spectators’ stand is modeled and distribution of velocity, temperature, relative humidity and chlorine concentration have been determined.Also, the results have been analyzed in both cases: using air curtain and without air curtain. The results show that the air curtain can significantly reduce the influence of chlorine pollutants on the spectators section, so the concentration of chlorine at spectators’ stand with the air curtain is about 0.00016 mg/m3 less than the case without air curtain.In this study,65 multi node local thermal comfort model has been used to determine the thermal comfort of individuals.In case with the air curtain, the standard deviation of thermal comfort index for first to third rows are 0.26, 0.25, and 0.28 respectively; and in the absence of air curtain, for first to third rows thermal comfort quantities the standard deviation of thermal comfort index for first to third rows are 0.33, 0.39 and 0.35, respectively.These results indicate that using the air curtain can leads the thermal sensation to be more favorable and more uniform.