NablaHVAC
A semi-automated analysis of ventilation in closed environment
CHALLENGE
Several customers ask us to identify in a specific closed environment the areas that are poorly ventilated or have no recirculation, in order to improve the air distribution.
In an HVAC system we find many temperature regulation systems that allow to control the comfort of the environment, the following in particular:
An HVAC simulation can be used to check the current operation of a ventilation system and can provide very useful insights to improve the existing air flows. HVAC analyses are also used to improve energy efficiency and reduce the consumption of a system.
The CFD simulations performed by Nablawave can be applied to the air conditioning of an office, the control of the air flows of warehouses/industrial plants, the ventilation of buildings, and so forth.
SOLUTION
An HVAC analysis must be well set up starting from the initial operational assumptions. After a first discussion with the customer, the appropriate numerical simplifications are established keeping in mind the objectives to be achieved. The simplification can be related both to geometry (unimportant details of the objects in the environment should be neglected, otherwise the analysis will become unnecessarily heavy) and to physics (no need to use complex models if the objective does not require them).
Nablawave has developed semi-automatic procedures for ventilation analysis that can be applied to a wide range of cases and can generate data related to the parameters required by customers, starting from 2D or 3D CAD models of the ambient to be simulated.
RESULTS
After an initial analysis of the “current status” of the simulated environment we are able to identify areas of air stagnation. Together with the customer we proceed to define a new configuration of the aeration system (air conditioning), in terms of machine layout, in order to better direct the flows and obtain a more uniform aeration of the environment, avoiding recirculation zones. In addition, we also evaluate the possible insertion of new machines and define their technical specifications (mass flow rate).
It is possible to perform analyses in different environmental conditions (summer/winter) in order to identify the correct setting aimed at improving comfort and reducing energy consumption.
