CFD and Wind Tunnel Study of the Performance of Outdoor Commercial Plaza Air-Conditioning System (LB-17-C003)

Temperatures in the Gulf Arab region exceed 50 Celsius during the summer, making cooling one of the biggest issues facing the region. This paper investigates the effect of wind speed, direction and temperature on the air-conditioning system thermal performance in an outdoor shopping and setting area. Moreover, two methods of conditioned air supplying will be tested using displacement diffusers and jet diffusers. The effect of different roof designs will be simulated. Some wind mitigation methods were tested like trees and perforated panels. A three dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model was built to simulate the air flow and temperature patterns between the buildings. Mass and energy conservation equations were added to the model. K-Turbulence model was in the calculations. In order to validate the numerical model, wind-tunnel tests were carried out and compared with the air-flow patterns from simulations. Comparison between air flow simulations and wind-tunnel results yielded good agreement.