Coupling effect on thermal comfort in a typical cubicle-based office with personalized floor diffuser control

A typical office layout with cubicles, in which occupants have their own control of the micro-environment by adjusting supply air flow rate of the floor diffuser, is numerically investigated for the impact of the discrepancy in personal thermal sensation preference on thermal comfort. The comparison among different scenarios indicates that whether the local thermal comfort is significantly affected by the neighboring cubicle (coupling effect) depends on whether the doorway is closed or not whereas the “openness”, of upper space has no influence on such coupling effect but observably on the thermal comfort. The effect of thermoregulation is also presented and compared with conventional constant heat flux assumption for the occupants.