Numerical investigation on the thermal environment of a large lecture theater in transient seasons

The study efficiency of students is strongly subjected to the environment in the classroom.This paper studied the thermal environment of a large independent lecture theatre in Xi'an by means of numerical simulation and evaluated its effect on the thermal comfort of the people indoor.The transient season was chosen as the simulated period(the outside temperature is between 5℃ to 17℃). Moreover, the scene of window closed and students wearing 1 clo clothing was selected as a representative situation.The computational results show that the students' and the teacher's surface temperatures with cloth and the average temperature in the lecture theatre increase equally to the growth of outside temperature(rising from 7℃ to 15℃). The results also show that students in the front rows and near the external walls, pass ways and doors have a low surface temperature and the comfort index of the thermal environment in the lecture theatre is far below the minimum value of the recommended comfort range when the temperature outside is low(7℃ to 10℃). However, the people in the lecture theater can obtain a satisfying thermal environment when the temperature outside is high(about 15℃).