Numerical Evaluation of the Efficiency of an Indoor Air Cleaner under Different Heating Conditions

Abstract

For an efficient indoor air purification, it is important to know the detailed airflow distribution in the room. A series of numerical simulations are carried out for five heating regimes using an air–air heat pump, capillary mat on the ceiling, capillary mat on the walls, heated floor, and radiator. The most homogeneous temperature field is obtained for the case with the heated floor. The highest velocity is obtained for the air–air heat pump, while the lowest is obtained for the capillary mat on the ceiling. A portable air cleaner based on the prototype device is introduced into the model and its influence on the velocity and temperature distributions is calculated. Our simulations additionally consider is the transport of an infectious aerosol and its purification inside the air cleaner. The time dependency of the concentration is exponential, and the purification rate depends on the air cleaner’s orientation and heating regime. The efficiency is higher for a purifier with flow in the upwards direction compared to in a horizontal one. In the experimental part, an NaCl solution is dispersed into the air, and the efficiency of purification in the case of the air–air heat pump is evaluated by measuring the time-dependent particle concentrations. These experimental results corroborate the numerical model.

Keywords

• air filtering
• COVID-19
• computational fluid dynamics
• aerosol transport