CFD study on micro-environment around human body and personalized ventilation

A seated computational thermal manikin (CTM) with geometry of a real human body is used to study the micro-environment around human body with and without personalized ventilation (PV) system. Two novel evaluation indices, pollutant exposure reduction and personalized air utilization efficiency, are introduced. In the range of the personalized airflow rate from 0.0 to 3.0 l/s, the best inhaled air quality is achieved at the airflow rate of 0.8 l/s in the numerical simulation, whereas in our earlier experiments this occurred at the maximum flow rate 3.0 l/s. Through detailed analysis of interaction between thermal plume around human body and personalized airflow, the mechanism of inhalation process becomes more perspicuous. Results from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and experiment are compared and improvements of CFD simulation accuracy are recommended.