Numerical modelling of industrial indoor environments: A comparison between different turbulence models and supply systems supported by field measurements

Ventilation, heating and cooling systems in industrial premises are important issues as they are related to both energy cost and indoor climate management and the health of the premises’ occupants. The present paper has two aims: (1) to evaluate the performance of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for planning new or renovating existing industrial ventilation systems, and (2) to evaluate the performance of two different supply principles in a contaminant-intensive process with temperature and density stratification. The comparisons between measurements and simulations show good agreement, with an average deviation of 1.1 °C for temperature and 0.11 m/s for velocity when using the most accurate model. Of the compared two-equation models (RNG, SKE and RKE), the RNG model produced the results most in agreement with the measurements. Good agreement was also found when measured and predicted values for contaminant removal efficiency were compared. When the mixing and displacement ventilation systems at the facility were compared, an increase in contaminant removal efficiency by a factor of 6 was found during winter for the displacement system, and the performance in terms of heat removal effectiveness increased by a factor of 3 for the same case. One drawback, however, was the slightly higher predicted discomfort and risk of draughts in the winter cases. In the summer cases, the difference in performance between the two systems was smaller. The overall performance of the displacement system decreased due to the diminishing stack effect as the temperature difference between supply air and the air in the room decreased.