Numerical simulation of the natural ventilation in workshop with different air inlet openings

The authors numerically simulated the natural ventilation in an industrial workshop with heat sources by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method when the height of air inlet opening was set different values. The flow and temperature fields in the workshop were simulated by realizable k-epsilon turbulent model combined with a Discrete Ordinate (DO) radiation. Results showed the height of air inlet opening strongly influenced the flow and temperature fields in the workshop. When the height of air inlet opening increased, the natural ventilation was improved and more fresh air flowed into the workshop. When the height of air inlet opening increased from 1.7 meters to 3 meters, the temperature in the operation zone of the workshop dropped. When the height of air inlet opening increased from 2.7 meters to 3.7 meters, the temperature in operation zone did not change much, while the temperature in the upper zone of the workshop dropped. The heat distribution factor decreased first with the height of air inlet opening and then increased again. When the height of air inlet opening was 3 meters, the heat distribution factor was minimal.