Author(s): Goncalves, J. C. ; Costa, José ; Figueiredo, A. Rui ; Lopes, António
Date: 2016
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.19/7916
Origin: Repositório Científico do Instituto Politécnico de Viseu
Subject(s): Air curtain; CFD; Automatic adjustment; Heat transfer; Sealing efficiency
This paper presents the results of a parametric study to quantify the influence of some thermal and geometrical parameters (door height) on the performance of an Air Curtain Device (ACD). The experimental facility consists of two similar adjacent rooms connected by a door over which the ACD device was installed. The tracer gas technique was used to calculate the sealing effect achieved with the air curtain at different jet velocities. Using a commercial CFD software, a numerical study was also performed to simulate the heat and mass transfer phenomena, as well as the aerodynamic sealing efficiency. A good agreement was observed between experimental and numerical results, showing that the optimum discharge velocity of the ACD air jet increases almost linearly with the door height, as well as with the temperature difference between both sides of the air curtain. It was possible to establish an empirical correlation that predicts reasonably well the optimum discharge jet velocity of a vertical air curtain device, depending on the temperature difference and the doorway height. An electronic device can be included in the ACD enabling the automatic adjustment of the air curtain jet velocity based this correlation, in order to continuously operate close to maximum sealing efficiency.
