Study on the performance of airducts

Airducts are ubiquitous in Chinese urban residential buildings to eliminate air pollution in kitchens and bathrooms. However, there are two serious problems in the practical use of airducts. One problem is that the efficiency of airducts cannot be ensured in current airduct designs, and the other is the exhaust gas penetration among floors through airducts. For solving these two problems, the performance of airducts needs to be investigated, by describing the aerodynamic parameters of airflow in airducts. In this paper. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is applied to numerically evaluate the aerodynamic characteristics of airflow in airducts, which include pressure distribution and velocity field. The airflow in the airducts will be considered as a three dimensional turbulent flow, and k-ε equations are used in numerical simulation. By studying the variation of the aerodynamic characteristics, the key factors which influence the performance of airducts are identified. A series of geometric parameters of the airducts will be explored through computer simulation by considering the variation of the key factors. Based on the CFD simulation, some suggestions will be made to China Institute of Residential Building for improving the airduct design specification of Chinese urban residential housing.