Numerical simulation to evaluate gas diffusion of turbulent flow in mine ventilation system

Tracer gas technique is a method to analyze the airflow path, measure the airflow quantity, and detect any recirculation or leakages in underground mine. In addition, it is also possible to evaluate the axial gas diffusion of gas in turbulent bulk flow by utilizing the tracer gas data. This paper discussed about the measurement using tracer gas technique in Cibaliung Underground Mine, Indonesia and the evaluation of effective axial diffusion coefficient, E, by numerical simulation. In addition, a scheme to treat network flow in mine ventilation system was also proposed. The effective axial diffusion coefficient for each airway was evaluated based on Taylor's theoretical equation. It is found that the evaluated diffusion coefficient agrees well with Taylor's equation by considering that the wall friction factor, f, is higher than those for smooth pipe flow. It also shows that the value of effective diffusion coefficient can be inherently determined and the value is constant when matching with other measurements. Furthermore, there are possibilities to utilize the tracer gas measurement data to evaluate the airway friction factors.

Effects of supply air temperature and inlet location on particle dispersion in displacement ventilation rooms

The effects of supply temperature and vertical location of inlet air on particle dispersion in a displacement ventilated （DV） room were numerically modeled with validation by experimental data from the literature. The results indicate that the temperature and vertical location of inlet supply air did not greatly affect the air distribution in the upper parts of a DV room, but could significantly influence the airflow pattern in the lower parts of the room, thus affecting the indoor air quality with contaminant sources located at the lower level, such as particles from working activities in an office. The numerical results also show that the inlet location would slightly influence the relative ventilation efficiency for the same air supply volume, but particle concentration in the breathing zone would be slightly lower with a low horizontal wall slot than a rectangular diffuser. Comparison of the results for two different supply temperatures in a DV room shows that, although lower supply temperature means less incoming air volume, since the indoor flow is mainly driven by buoyancy, lower supply temperature air could more efficiently remove passive sources （such as particles released from work activities in an office）. However, in the breathing zone it gives higher concentration as compared to higher supply air temperature. To obtain good indoor air quality, low supply air temperature should be avoided because concentration in the breathing zone has a stronger and more direct impact on human health.

A modified zone model for estimating equivalent room thermal capacity

The zone model has been widely applied in control analysis of heating, ventilation and air conditioning （HVAC） systems to achieve a high building efficiency. This paper proposed a modified zone model which is much simpler in the HVAC system simulation and has the similar accuracy to the complicated simulation model. The proposed model took into consideration the effect of envelop heat reservoir on the room indoor temperature by introducing the thermal admittance of the inner surfaces of the building enclosure. The thermal admittance for the building enclosure was developed based on the building thermal network analytical theory and transfer function method. The efficacy of the proposed model was demonstrated by comparing it with the complicated model -- heat balance method （HTB2 program）. The predicted results from the proposed model well agreed with those from the complicated simulation. The proposed model can then make the HVAC system dynamic simulation much faster and more acceptable for control design due to its simplicity and efficiency.