Evaluation of air curtain system orientated to local environmental control of archaeological museum: A case study for the stone armor pit of Emperor Qin's Mausoleum Museum

Due to the lack of effective environmental control systems, Emperor Qin's Mausoleum Museum is facing problems of air pollution and excessive environmental fluctuations, which threaten the protection of the unearthed historical relics. Air curtain systems have proven to be a feasible way to improve the preservation environment, and will be applied to Emperor Qin's Mausoleum Museum. In order to identify the design requirements of the air curtain system, a theoretical model was employed to analyze the isolation efficiency under different scenarios, and the suitable operation parameter range of the air curtain system of the stone armor pit was then proposed. Based on the geometric structure of the stone armor pit, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was established, and the environmental control performance of the air curtain system was investigated in the case where the jet velocity and elevation angle are 6.0 m/s and 5^。, respectively. The results show that the air curtain system can effectively isolate the relics preservation area of the stone armor pit from the exhibition hall, ensuring the local environmental control of relics preservation. These results provide a basis for the design and operation of the air curtain system of the stone armor pit. Moreover, they provide an effective solution for the local environmental control of relics in pit structure sites.