Performance Evaluation of Natural Ventilation Devices to Improve Thermal Comfort of a Computer Lab of University Building Using CFD as a Tool

Air circulation study is most important part for any building; so that engineers can optimize thermal comfort for buildings. A computer lab located in university building of Jaipur city is used in this study. Main aim of this study is to optimize computer lab for two types of conditions, first is only internal fans are in operational condition and second condition is effect of room window opening and closing. Thermal comfort parameters are used for analysis. Model equations are also generated in this steady using advanced D.O.E. (design of experiment) technique. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) studies were carried out by using the ANSYS FLUENT 14.5 to find the effects of internal ventilation, friction loss and thermal performance factor characteristics in a computer lab at some assumptions. Simulation was performed with inlet vent and outlet vent based natural ventilation conditions with radiation modeling conditions applicable for computer lab. All experiments are designed using taguchi methods and orthogonal array methods.