Effect of door opening on the performance of displacement ventilation in a typical office building

The purpose of this paper is to investigate, using a validated computational fluid dynamics simulation, the effect of the position of doors on performance of the displacement ventilation system. The results are reported in terms of thermal comfort and indoor air quality. The study focuses on a typical Hong Kong office under local thermal and boundary conditions. It was found that the presence of large heat sources such as from a window can cause the lateral movement of airflow, disrupting the convection effect which the displacement ventilation system relies on. Doors can create this situation when they are opened by changing the thermal boundary conditions of indoor spaces. The designer should be made aware of this possibility and make appropriate design decisions to accommodate for this fact. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.