Fluid dynamics of air curtains in ventilated buildings

This project funded by the EPSRC and supported by Biddle BV seeks to improve the energy efficiency of air curtains under a wide range of operating conditions. This objective will be achieved through an experimental and theoretical investigation of the performance of an air curtain in the open doorway of a building when the indoor space is additionally mechanically or naturally ventilated. A new experimental technique in the field of air curtains will be established: measurements will be conducted on small-scale models with water as working fluid rather than on currently used expensive real-scale installations. These will be compared with full-scale tests previously carried out by Biddle BV. The results of this study will be used by Biddle BV to develop automatic control algorithms for air curtains to optimise their performance under a range of climatic conditions and thus to improve energy savings.

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PEOPLE

Principal Investigator

Paul Linden DAMTP

Biddle

Thomas van Cann

Post-doctoral Researchers

Daria Frank         DAMTP

Narsing Jha    DAMTP

Shadowgraph images of different air curtain

regimes. For further information see 134fl14.pdf