Experimental investigation on local air age and air distribution of stratum ventilation

Because of the multiple problems on high energy consumption and unbalanced thermal comfort caused by the traditional ventilation system, a new concept of ventilation-stratum ventilation has been proposed, which sends the fresh air to the breathing zone directly. In this paper, the local air distributions of the displacement ventilation and the stratum ventilation in a model office were measured. The air ages in the breathing zone for the displacement ventilation and stratum ventilation were compared with the tracer gas concentration decay method. The decay curves of tracer gas concentration for these two ventilation systems in the breathing zone were obtained, and the air ages were calculated. The experimental results show that the stratum ventilation system can offer lower air age for four mechanically ventilated cases in the breathing zone, and it can also provide better thermal comfort, which renews the air of breathing zone more quickly and reduces the energy consumption in some degree. The experimental investigation provides a theoretical basis for the application of stratum ventilation system.