Effect of Return Air Vent on Indoor Thermal Environment

The air distribution & ventilation method, position of return air vent and air change rate having significant role on thermal environment, human comfort and energy consumption as well for an air conditioned space. In order to improve thermal environment of space, study of temperature distribution as well as air distribution is required. In this paper, author has numerically simulated the temperature and velocity contour of space in two different position of return air vent in air conditioning system. These positions are return air vent on the same wall as inlet wall and another at opposite wall. In present work computational fluid dynamics software (ANSYS-FLUENT 6.3.26 Solver) has been used for simulation. Air flow (ANSYS-FLUENT) module has been used in present work. Air flow (ANSYS-FLUENT) module predicts the temperature and velocity at three test locations which are 1 meter apart from both side walls. The Standard k-ε model is used in this numerical simulation with SIMPLE approach of pressure velocity compounding. The convergence of solution of the continuity, energy and momentum equation is obtained within the set standard criterion. The Standard k-ε model is used in this numerical simulation with SIMPLE approach of pressure velocity compounding. The convergence of solution of the continuity, energy and momentum equation is obtained within the set standard criterion. From the result it has been found that the location of the return air position in the same wall gives better human comfort, however the location of the return air position in the opposite wall gives better energy savings.