Air curtain performance: Introducing the adapted separation efficiency

Claudio Alanis Ruiz; Twan van Hooff; Bert Blocken; Gert Jan van Heijst

doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.107468

Air curtain performance: Introducing the adapted separation efficiency

Claudio Alanis Ruiz (Corresponding author)
, Twan van Hooff
, Bert Blocken
, Gert Jan van Heijst

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

26 Citations (Scopus)

1037 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Air curtains (ACs) are plane turbulent impinging jets that are used to separate two environments in terms of heat and mass transfer while still allowing traffic between these environments. The many applications of ACs across a wide variety of industries makes the evaluation of their performance an important but difficult task. The aim of this paper is to introduce a performance indicator, called the adapted separation efficiency, that is suitable for different types of systems that may involve different AC configurations (downward blowing, upward blowing, lateral blowing, multiple jets, etc.) at multiple scales, different transported quantities (heat, water vapor, particles, gases, etc.) subjected to various transport mechanisms (advection, molecular and turbulent diffusion) and varying environmental conditions (gradients in environmental pressure and/or density). It is defined using a conventional efficiency formula. The principle of this performance indicator is illustrated with a generic case study where the performance is evaluated for two basic AC configurations involving cross-jet pressure and density gradients, as well as different jet momentum fluxes. The case study is conducted based on computational fluid dynamics employing validated large eddy simulations.

Original language	English
Article number	107468
Number of pages	11
Journal	Building and Environment
Volume	188
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.107468
Publication status	Published - 15 Jan 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) is acknowledged for the financial support of the first author (project FWO G085618N ). In addition, Twan van Hooff is currently a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) and acknowledges its financial support (project FWO 12R9718N ). This work was sponsored by NWO Exacte Wetenschappen (Physical Sciences) for the use of supercomputer facilities, with financial support from the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, NWO) . Finally, the authors gratefully acknowledge the partnership with ANSYS CFD.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Funding

The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) is acknowledged for the financial support of the first author (project FWO G085618N ). In addition, Twan van Hooff is currently a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) and acknowledges its financial support (project FWO 12R9718N ). This work was sponsored by NWO Exacte Wetenschappen (Physical Sciences) for the use of supercomputer facilities, with financial support from the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, NWO) . Finally, the authors gratefully acknowledge the partnership with ANSYS CFD.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

Keywords

Air curtain
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
Impinging jet
Infiltration
Separation efficiency

Access to Document

10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.107468

published versionFinal published version, 9.75 MBLicence: TAVERNE

Cite this

@article{15db199e0c0146b597793efad849510e,

title = "Air curtain performance: Introducing the adapted separation efficiency",

abstract = "Air curtains (ACs) are plane turbulent impinging jets that are used to separate two environments in terms of heat and mass transfer while still allowing traffic between these environments. The many applications of ACs across a wide variety of industries makes the evaluation of their performance an important but difficult task. The aim of this paper is to introduce a performance indicator, called the adapted separation efficiency, that is suitable for different types of systems that may involve different AC configurations (downward blowing, upward blowing, lateral blowing, multiple jets, etc.) at multiple scales, different transported quantities (heat, water vapor, particles, gases, etc.) subjected to various transport mechanisms (advection, molecular and turbulent diffusion) and varying environmental conditions (gradients in environmental pressure and/or density). It is defined using a conventional efficiency formula. The principle of this performance indicator is illustrated with a generic case study where the performance is evaluated for two basic AC configurations involving cross-jet pressure and density gradients, as well as different jet momentum fluxes. The case study is conducted based on computational fluid dynamics employing validated large eddy simulations.",

keywords = "Air curtain, Computational fluid dynamics (CFD), Impinging jet, Infiltration, Separation efficiency",

author = "\{Alanis Ruiz\}, Claudio and \{van Hooff\}, Twan and Bert Blocken and \{van Heijst\}, \{Gert Jan\}",

note = "Funding Information: The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) is acknowledged for the financial support of the first author (project FWO G085618N ). In addition, Twan van Hooff is currently a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) and acknowledges its financial support (project FWO 12R9718N ). This work was sponsored by NWO Exacte Wetenschappen (Physical Sciences) for the use of supercomputer facilities, with financial support from the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, NWO) . Finally, the authors gratefully acknowledge the partnership with ANSYS CFD. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 Elsevier Ltd Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",

year = "2021",

month = jan,

day = "15",

doi = "10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.107468",

language = "English",

volume = "188",

journal = "Building and Environment",

issn = "0360-1323",

publisher = "Elsevier B.V.",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Air curtain performance

T2 - Introducing the adapted separation efficiency

AU - Alanis Ruiz, Claudio

AU - van Hooff, Twan

AU - Blocken, Bert

AU - van Heijst, Gert Jan

N1 - Funding Information: The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) is acknowledged for the financial support of the first author (project FWO G085618N ). In addition, Twan van Hooff is currently a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) and acknowledges its financial support (project FWO 12R9718N ). This work was sponsored by NWO Exacte Wetenschappen (Physical Sciences) for the use of supercomputer facilities, with financial support from the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, NWO) . Finally, the authors gratefully acknowledge the partnership with ANSYS CFD. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 Elsevier Ltd Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/1/15

Y1 - 2021/1/15

N2 - Air curtains (ACs) are plane turbulent impinging jets that are used to separate two environments in terms of heat and mass transfer while still allowing traffic between these environments. The many applications of ACs across a wide variety of industries makes the evaluation of their performance an important but difficult task. The aim of this paper is to introduce a performance indicator, called the adapted separation efficiency, that is suitable for different types of systems that may involve different AC configurations (downward blowing, upward blowing, lateral blowing, multiple jets, etc.) at multiple scales, different transported quantities (heat, water vapor, particles, gases, etc.) subjected to various transport mechanisms (advection, molecular and turbulent diffusion) and varying environmental conditions (gradients in environmental pressure and/or density). It is defined using a conventional efficiency formula. The principle of this performance indicator is illustrated with a generic case study where the performance is evaluated for two basic AC configurations involving cross-jet pressure and density gradients, as well as different jet momentum fluxes. The case study is conducted based on computational fluid dynamics employing validated large eddy simulations.

AB - Air curtains (ACs) are plane turbulent impinging jets that are used to separate two environments in terms of heat and mass transfer while still allowing traffic between these environments. The many applications of ACs across a wide variety of industries makes the evaluation of their performance an important but difficult task. The aim of this paper is to introduce a performance indicator, called the adapted separation efficiency, that is suitable for different types of systems that may involve different AC configurations (downward blowing, upward blowing, lateral blowing, multiple jets, etc.) at multiple scales, different transported quantities (heat, water vapor, particles, gases, etc.) subjected to various transport mechanisms (advection, molecular and turbulent diffusion) and varying environmental conditions (gradients in environmental pressure and/or density). It is defined using a conventional efficiency formula. The principle of this performance indicator is illustrated with a generic case study where the performance is evaluated for two basic AC configurations involving cross-jet pressure and density gradients, as well as different jet momentum fluxes. The case study is conducted based on computational fluid dynamics employing validated large eddy simulations.

KW - Air curtain

KW - Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

KW - Impinging jet

KW - Infiltration

KW - Separation efficiency

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85097103693

U2 - 10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.107468

DO - 10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.107468

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85097103693

SN - 0360-1323

VL - 188

JO - Building and Environment

JF - Building and Environment

M1 - 107468

ER -

Air curtain performance: Introducing the adapted separation efficiency

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this