Effect of Air Curtain on Occupants Thermal Comfort and Indoor Air Quality in an Athletic Swimming Pool with Spectators’ Stand

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

University of Birjand

Abstract

In swimming pools with spectators’ stand, due to differences in skin wetness, metabolic rates and clothing type of the swimmers and spectators, providing thermal comfort conditions for all residents is very difficult. Accordingly, using the air curtain to aerodynamically separate the pool hall and the spectators’ stand is a reasonable idea to provide the mentioned different thermal comfort conditions. In the mentioned conditions, it is possible to use two different ventilation systems for these two parts. In the present study, an Olympic-size swimming pool with the spectators’ stand is modeled and distribution of velocity, temperature, relative humidity, and chlorine concentration have been determined. Also, the results have been analyzed in both cases: using air curtain and without air curtain. The results show that the air curtain can significantly reduce the influence of chlorine pollutants on the spectators' section, so the concentration of chlorine at spectators’ stand with the air curtain is about 0.00016 mg/m3 less than the case without air curtain. In this study, 65 multi node local thermal comfort model has been used to determine the thermal comfort of individuals. In the case of using the air curtain, the standard deviation of thermal comfort index for first to third rows are 0.26, 0.25, and 0.28 respectively; and in the absence of air curtain, for first to third rows the standard deviation of thermal comfort index are 0.33, 0.39 and 0.35, respectively. These results indicate that using the air curtain can lead the thermal sensation to be more favorable and more uniform.

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References

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Amirkabir Journal of Mechanical Engineering
Volume 53, Issue 1
April 2021
Pages 191-208

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