Behaviour of well-mixed zones (WMZs) in an imperfectly mixed ventilated room

In this paper the behaviour of 3D well-mixed zones (WMZs) of temperature is studied using numerically generated data. A WMZ of temperature is a 3D zone of improved mixing whereby an acceptably low spatial temperature difference occurs. Here it was anticipated to set a criterion to define a WMZ that takes into account the comfort and health of building occupants. It was found that WMZs are irregular in shape and unpredictable in size in imperfectly mixed ventilated rooms. Furthermore airflow exchange between the considered WMZ and its surrounding was quantified. The results of the analysis show the potential of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in quantifying the shape, size and volume of WMZs that may not be possible to perform using experimental methods because of the practical limitation of placing thousands of sensors inside a ventilated room.