Evaluation of sidewall air supply with the stratified indoor environment in a consultation room

To take advantage of both stratum ventilation and displacement ventilation, while breaking some of their limitations, the sidewall air supply is introduced. Computational fluid dynamics simulations of 16 cases are conducted, to assess the application of the sidewall air supply in a consultation room, referring to thermal comfort, indoor air quality and energy utilization. Two supply air terminal layouts of the sidewall air supply (i.e., single-side supply and double-side supply), four supply air temperatures within 20–26°C, and five air change rates within 2.9–14.7 air changes per hour are applied. The results indicate that the sidewall air supply can provide satisfactory thermal comfort levels up to Category A in ISO 7730, with proper design. Using double-side supply reduces the draft rate by up to 25%, and improves the energy utilization coefficient and contaminant removal efficiency by up to 3.3 and 1.83, compared with the single-side supply. Additionally, for the single-side supply which achieves stratum ventilation, the closer the supply air jet center to the breathing zone, the higher the energy utilization coefficient and contaminant removal efficiency at the breathing zone are. Finally, the energy utilization coefficient and contaminant removal efficiency show a positive relationship for the sidewall air supply. This may be valid for the air distribution methods that provide stratified indoor environments. This study expands the application scenario of displacement ventilation and stratum ventilation, guides to obtain the best thermal comfort, energy utilization and contaminant removal performances simultaneously, while saving the measuring costs of indoor air quality.