NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF AN AIR CONDITIONING ENERGY-SAVING MECHANISM

Regional air conditioning mechanism (RACM) can control the airflow in a room for the purpose of achieving an individual thermal comfort zone. With this concept, each staff in a different area of the location can not only satisfy with respect to own his/her local environment, but also significantly contribute to energy saving issue of the cooling load. The RACM system was conducted in this study with various the ground effect distance (L2) and air velocity inlet (Vinlet) to obtain the optimal independent airflow cell in occupied zone. The symmetrical two-dimensional (STD) model was applied to save computation time because the results of STD and 3-dimensional models simulations are similar. In addition, the experimental data were used to validate the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model including the temperature and velocity at twenty points in the occupied zone in the room. It is found that the CFD simulation results were in good agreement with the experimental data. The CFD simulation results predicted that the established independent airflow cell is significantly dependent on the suitable adjustment of the L2 for changes in Vinlet. Under these suitable adjustments, a better independent airflow cell could be achieved in occupied zone as the L2 is 0.5 m. Experimental values of temperature between the occupied zone and the middle of the right hand side plane (RSSP) are up to 7.5 C and that at the right corner of the RSSP are up to 6.5 C. Therefore, the regional air-conditioning is successfully turned on for an independent airflow cell in the occupied zone. The concepts in this study are relevant to all kinds of regional air conditioning in any enclosed space