Paper Title
Improving Thermal Sensation in Classrooms with Respect to Draft Avoidance by Optimizing the Mechanical Air Supply Method
Abstract
Students spend about 30% of their time in classrooms, so the thermal environment of the classroom is essential to
their study and health [1]. This paper is a study of air temperature and air velocity inside university classrooms in the city of
Jeddah to test their compatibility with relevant standards such as ASHRAE 55. Air velocity and air temperature have been
recorded within two different classrooms to establish a comparison and evaluate the thermal conditions inside the classrooms
using PMV indicator and based on ASHRAE 55 standard. Results showed that PMV values inside the classrooms using the
currently installed ventilation method don’t comply with ASHRAE 55 minimum requirements. However, applying different
ventilation strategies using CFD simulation such as stratum and displacement ventilation resulted in much better PMV
indices and more consistence distribution of air temperature and air velocity inside the classrooms.
Keywords - Thermal sensation, Classrooms, Computational fluid dynamics (CFD), Ventilation strategies, Comfort zone