VENTILATION The world is ventilated by natural movement of air. Inequalities of heat distribution drive the climatic air movements. The convection currents in the atmosphere are generally powerful enough to dilute the pollutants which we generate. However, pollution due to industrialisation is not always removed by the wind. The great fog in London in 1952, which killed in excess of 4000 people who had vulnerable lungs, and the photochemical smog in Los Angeles are examples where the natural air movements in an anticyclone are not strong enough to ventilate a city. When considering the ventilation of individual parts of a town, there is the concept of canyon streets where pollution is dispensed slowly and the concentration of Carbon Monoxide is a problem.
Trang 1THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES OF A BUILDING
WITH A WIDE SPAN
Max Fordham Max Fordham & Partners
Fig 1 Model for a competition in Pottsdam designed by Straub & Vogler
This paper examines the environmental consequences of
a building with a wide span
A bridge is wide span but it does not make the kind of
environmental impact which concerns me
I take it that much of this symposium is concerned with
structures like the Dome
:-Sports arenas (Sydney 2000 Stadium), cricket schools,
greenhouses (the Great Glasshouse at the National
Botanic Garden of Wales), cities in Alaska, garden
centres (Manheim), the Albert Hall, the Crystal Palace,
the Pantheon, Gothic Cathedral Enclosure of Manhattan
(Buckminster Fuller)
A wide span building is a building where the enclosing envelope is the top surface and has a wide span This means that the top surface is light in weight and is designed to carry only the minimum load
The wide spanning surface can hardly carry the load of another storey of accommodation and so we are considering single storey buildings
I am not a structural engineer but I suspect there are reasons for wide span structures to be tall at least in places Even though the enclosure of a wide span structure may be light, gravitational forces will be developed These forces are vertical and a vertical component of forces generated in the structure will have
Trang 2at least to equal the weight Members which are inclined
to the horizontal can generate vertical forces even
without bending moments, so most wide span structures
seem to be carried with arches and catenaries
I dare say the structural papers will expand on this theme
and give some credit to Frei Otto who developed ideas
for forming and finding shapes which could support wide
span enclosures with bending moments only needing to
be developed for perturbing forces The wind is a big
perturbation So we get single storey, wide, high spaces
with lightweight cladding
At a smaller scale there are cyclones which are turbulent and chaotic and provide the variability in our weather The scale here is about 1000km
Cumulo nimbus clouds are limited by the height of the atmosphere where the plumes of buoyant gas fan out when they reach the tropopause
The point about this introduction is that the air in very large spaces is mixed by turbulent convection currents The other point to notice is that at the tropopause there is
a temperature inversion (the temperature increases with height), and the atmosphere is stratified
V E N T I L A T I O N
The world is ventilated by natural movement of air
Inequalities of heat distribution drive the climatic air
movements The convection currents in the atmosphere
are generally powerful enough to dilute the pollutants
which we generate However, pollution due to
industrialisation is not always removed by the wind The
great fog in London in 1952, which killed in excess of
4000 people who had vulnerable lungs, and the
photochemical smog in Los Angeles are examples where
the natural air movements in an anticyclone are not
strong enough to ventilate a city
When considering the ventilation of individual parts of a
town, there is the concept of canyon streets where pollution
is dispensed slowly and the concentration of Carbon
Monoxide is a problem
The thermal equilibrium of any part of the world is affected
by ventilation We do not particularly think of the hottest
parts of the world as being places with inadequate
ventilation, but the hottest parts of the world are generally
places subject to anticyclonic weather with low air
movement, where the temperature builds up
A wide span structure clearly modifies the ventilation of the
space it encloses Ventilation is needed to disperse pollution
and to control the thermal conditions in a space The
ventilation of a fire is a particular case where these two
requirements are combined
I believe we have to understand some basic principals about
fluid flow in enclosures so that we accept the possibility that
ventilation can look after itself Imagine looking at a plan of
Paddington station and wondering how to provide adequate
ventilation in this deep structure with combustion engines
inside In fact, the enclosure is adequately ventilated by the
openings in the top and at one end
We live in a very large enclosure It is about 12km high and
7000km radius Convection currents drive strong air
movements The major convection cells (the trade winds)
have a scale of about 10,000km, even though the atmosphere
is only 12km high
In a large span structure, convection cells are likely to develop, with a scale characterised by the size of the space itself
When a strong temperature inversion develops at the top
of the space, a stratified layer is likely to develop
Hot gas<ts f l o w i n g
o t h r o u g h v e n t
1>
V" twfyl"V \ A ; « n t r c n a d by r i s i n g
% y s t r c c m ot goscs
^LAl
Formation of a layer of hot gases
Fig 2 Design of roof-venting systems for single storey buildings, Fire Research Technical Paper No 10; 1964, Fig 2 page 4 Picture on Fire Research
W a r m a i r
d i s c h a r g e
Fig 3 Heat source forming a plume in a dome
Fig 4 Multiple heat sources and plumes in a dome
Trang 3If we need to ventilate a space so as to remove heat from
'h' the lower occupied section of a tall space ' H \ then the
amount of air rising in the plumes to height ' h ' must be
extracted from the upper reservoir and replacement air
allowed to enter at the base of the space
During sunny weather the temperature of the skin will build up The temperature build up depends on the wind speed, the reflection coefficient to short wave radiation
- light, and the emission coefficient to long wave radiation It is likely to be 10°C to 20°C above ambient The entering air must not cause uncomfortable air
movements in the occupied zone and it must not disrupt
the stability of the hot air reservoir Most of the envelope
of a wide span structure is likely to be subject to a low
pressure zone while the elevated pressure stagnation
zone will be developed at low level on the windward
face
It may be possible to rely on input air flowing only from
the windward with discharge at the top Often with
strong winds, too much air will come from the windward,
and it will flow out to leeward If the resulting air
currents are tolerable then the wind driven ventilation is
a good solution If the air currents are too strong then the
air inputs on the windward side have to be throttled off
so that the air enters on the leeward faces driven by the
thermo syphon effect of the reservoir of hot gas This
pattern of air movement requires input around the
perimeter and air outputs at the top I was tempted to
illustrate how this thinking might be applied to the
Millennium Dome
It is important that the warm air is stratified and stable above the occupied zone of the building
Where a hot zone of air is lying above a cooler zone, there is a region with a strong vertical temperature gradient If this region has strong air movements with the air speed changing with height, then the stratification and the turbulence will act in opposition The Richardson number (R S Scorer 1) is defined as
:-dd_
where, 6 =
z =
U =
dU
lz
temperature height horizontal velocity acceleration of gravity
If Ri > 1 then the turbulence will die down and the horizontal air flow will be restrained below the stratified layer
Fig 5 Hypothetical flow for the Millennium Dome
The internal area is, say, 80m high Strong air movement
can be tolerated round the perimeter, say 0.5m/s at the
centre
The heat from the exhibition buildings will be given out as
driven ventilation plumes at a temperature of, say, 25°C I
suggest these discharges should be ducted above the
reservoir
It is tempting to apply the ideas of stratification and displacement ventilation to the heat loads in the Dome, but the following calculation shows how quickly a plume cools down and how much input air is needed
Say there are 50,000 people in the centre of the Dome (25,000 people in the exhibition buildings, and 25,000 people clustered into 13m diameter arrays of 400 people each, producing 53kW per array, then with the addition to
temperature rise in the plume is much less than 1°C
Qf heatsource
radius of heatsource
Fire Research Paper No 7 HMSO 1983 1968 reprlr
acceleration due to gravity 9 8" m-'sec' temperature above ambient : C temperature "K
h e a t s o u r c e kW density of air at source temp 1 2 kg/rrf'
specific heat of a>s kJ/kg
height from point source to plane defined by "y
Trang 4The air flow into the reservoir would be over 4000m3/s
In fact the ventilation requirement for 50,000 people is
inside the building
lOOOmYs of ventilation picking up a heat gain of, say,
temperature of the air by 10°C
If this stratifies in the top 30m of the Dome, the stack
effect is about lOPa, giving a velocity of about 3m/s
be controlled to prevent too much ventilation in cold and
of vent round the perimeter
Of course, keeping the rain out has to be addressed
This crude analysis should be a precursor to more
modern techniques such as salt water modelling and CFD
(computational fluid dynamics)
Salt water modelling gives an accurate representation of
convective turbulence, but it is not able to model the
momentum of incoming air, nor the thermal capacity of
the bounding surfaces
National Theatre warm stage - cool auditorium smoke flows towards fly-tower
cool stage - warm auditorium smoke flows towards auditorium
Fig 7 Air flows in the National Theatre
Then at the Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester which
is a very large enclosure with a theatre inside it
We worked with Professor Manfredi Nicoletti on an entry for the Cardiff Bay Opera House Competition which was to be a large glass enclosure
The modelling of a thermal plume has to be carefully
considered A person is modelled as a 100W heat input
The model should equate to 100W emitted from, say, a
450mm diameter source with an initial plume of, say, 20
1/s at a 5°C temperature rise It should not be a 100W gls
lamp, say, 100mm diameter with a plume of, say, 5 1/s at *
20°C temperature rise The difference here is
represented by different flow rates of salt solution at
different densities
Computational fluid dynamics cannot deal properly with
turbulence Assumptions about the amount of turbulence
have to be built into the finite difference equations as
dummy transfer constants The constants have been
developed for heat transfer in jet turbines, nuclear power
station boilers, meteorological forecasting, and other rich
applications The constants for buildings certainly need
examining as far as I am concerned before I am happy to
have them used in very large and very small spaces with
very different Reynolds numbers
Fig 8 Competition entry for the Cardiff Bay Opera House - Interior Designed by Manfredi Nicoletti
These ideas about ventilation and fluid flow are based on
experience When commissioning the National Theatre,
the convection currents seemed to be preventing the
ventilation operating as required by the fire officer We
turned up the thermostat controlling the stage fan
convectors and the convection currents reversed
Fig 9 Competition entry for the Cardiff Bay Opera House
Trang 5Fig 10 CFD for the Cardiff Bay Opera House - Velocity Vectors
L I G H T I N G
One of the immediate consequences of the single storey property of wide span structures is that the spaces can be roof
lit
The requirements for light to enable people to see are not to
be defined too simplisticaUy
The eye is like a camera with a variable aperture pupil to control the amount of light entering and with a light sensitive membrane retina to generate signals which are focused and transmitted to the brain The signals are processed by the brain and the nerves in the retina to generate sensations which
we interpret as "seeing" The retina can integrate the photons
it receives in a variety of ways
I
CflRDff 8 6 V OPERA MOUSF 'eMPERATI
Fig 11 CFD for the Cardiff Bay Opera House - Temperature Profile
The air flow and temperature were modelled using CFD
as shown on the figure above
The air flow model immediately suggests that the air
entry slot should be above head level and slanted
upwards
There was another issue about the temperature plot We
initially modelled the solar gain onto every node of the
lowest part of the floor level The temperature plots
showed very high temperatures on the floor which we
couldn't understand However, I vaguely remembered a
lecture during which it was explained that mirages in the
desert sometimes occurred when the morning sun heated
the desert surface and the invert layer of air to a high
temperature causing a very strong temperature gradient
close to the ground and making the mirage The hot air
did not rise as a convection current because there was no
trigger to start the convection at any point The
relaxations calculation process of CFD would be similar
if all nodes were at the same temperature with the same
heat gain The heat gain would be equated to the
temperature rise and the relaxation process might be
stopped before getting a proper answer We changed the
input, putting in a double batch of solar input to half the
nodes and immediately the answers looked sensible like
the figure above
I am sure I will raise as many questions as I answer in this brief summary of seeing but I am presenting you with a working designer's basic knowledge
In the absence of light the pupil is wide open and too few photons are received to see anything The sensitivity of the eye/brain system is increased and it takes about half an hour for full sensitivity to be developed
The part of the retina most sensitive to low light levels is not
in the same location as the area most sensitive to detail, so at night air force pilots are trained to look away slightly from a dim object
At low light levels, the retina integrates different coloured photons and integrates them over a period of time before transmitting a signal to the brain Thus the image seen is monochrome and in these conditions the retina cannot catch fast moving objects
The sensitivity varies with age, but a fully adapted night eye can "see" a light coloured object under an overcast night sky
at 0.001 lux
SECURITY (;N'«IM;t.;K]Ni;
Ronge of 'Vidicon' EOffiWa ojtenuW by
doling leni iris
Operating theatre
Wcli iH chart
Drawing ofiice Offices, shops Stairs, corridor
Weil H s»
Upp»f limit of VFiion tolerance
Approximate rong« of 'Newvici camera, using auto ilia «n*
10 ? •
10"*' i Clear nsght
10"*- i OttKCOtt
10 •'•
(0-4t*| f Range of 'V.dicorV and extended b , infra-red
* loop*
|2r,lx| | 102ml«| 1
iO Oorolsjj
Fig 12 Figure 4.8 from the CIBSE Applications Manual AM4: 1991 Relative light level chart showing operational ranges of
Trang 6"See" must mean differentiate between two levels of
brightness of objects of a certain size (not too small) so
the reflective properties of the field of view are
important When I say "see" in quotes I mean the whole
eye/brain process
As the general light level increases, the eye/brain adapts to
the changed signals With more photons arriving the cells
can differentiate between different colours and can send/fire
off signals to the brain at shorter intervals and the brain can
"see" colour and fast moving images
There is a limit to the rate at which a cell can send signals to
the brain After receiving light and sending a signal it has to
reset itself So, as the light received by a cell increases, the
frequency of sending signals increases until it is saturated
and can simply report maximum brightness Indeed, if too
much light is received the cell can overheat and die
I was reminded of the ancient Egyptians who worshipped the
sun god Ra A person accused of offending the god was tied
down on their back in the open and their eyelids cut off At
the end of the day, if they could still see they were innocent
but usually the retina was burnt out by the bright sun and this
was taken as a proof of guilt Bright sun at 100,000 lux
If there is an unevenly lit field of view but all the cells report
saturation, the field of view is not being "seen" very well
The eye needs to adapt so that the bright part of the field of
view just fails to saturate any cells Of course the dimmest
part of the field must provide enough light for good, fast
colour vision Thus, there is a maximum ratio of brightest to
dimmest light for good vision The eye adapts to the average
illumination
If a field of view is uniformly lit then the eye simply receives
a uniform vision and there is very Utile differentiation
between planes and objects I experienced this once when I
went very early to an exhibition at the Satehi gallery The
gallery was painted white all over and lit with fluorescent
uplighters Light was diffusely reflected off the ceiling in all
directions There were very few exhibits and very few
people so everything was white and I felt very disorientated
In order to "see" the field of view must not be uniformly
bright
Hold a pencil vertically up on a sheet of paper and look at the
shadows I hope there are some - usually several A shadow
represents a place where one of the brightest light sources
cannot shine on the paper behind the shadow The light in
the shadow comes from all other sources The contrast
between the brightness of the paper generally and the
brightness in the shadow represents the contrast between the
general diffuse light and the directional light from the source
Set this up in a more disciplined way and we can define the
vector/scalar ratio of an illumination field
Imagine looking at a hemisphere on a table In diffuse light where every surface is uniformly illuminated the hemisphere looks like a disc In purely vector light, the shaded part looks black (like a half moon) A mixture of diffuse and directed light is needed in order to perceive the shape of the hemisphere
Horizontal light from right Generally diffuse light
Fig 13 From Table 10 - Relationship of vector/scalar ratio to assessment of directional qualities of the lighting IES Code for Interior Lighting 1977
The overcast sky is very diffuse and the design minimum figure is taken at about 5000 lux
Under an overcast sky the field of view reflects back a diverse field of light because of different reflection coefficients and different colours The lighting/seeing is pretty adequate despite being viewed in very diffuse light
Inside a building the outside light is usually introduced from a transparent window The light then has a vector component, and shapes and shadows can be seen even on
an object with a uniform surface Compared to outside the light level is reduced but the "seeing" is improved because the light has a stronger vector component
As an illustration of the need for diffuse light, think back
to the difficulty of seeing anything in the region of a matt black motor car engine by the light of a single torch, even when it doesn't wobble
The reason for this discussion is to try to get you away from the view that the amount of light needed in a space can be defined by a single, simple figure of the amount
of light
The contrast between inside and outside is important The shading over a motorway underpass assumes that the speed limit is being kept and the light level can be halved every 3 seconds
In the Mediterranean one walks from the bright sunlight outside at 100,000 lux into a room with the shutters closed It takes some time before you can see anything
Trang 7I guess the shuttered room allows about 0 1 % of the
diffuse sky light (10,000 lux) into the room so that the
light level is about 10 lux
So on entering the room the light level drops from bright
sunlight at 100,000 lux to 10 lux or 1:10,000, ie 213.3 =
10,000 It takes 3 seconds for the eye to adapt to a
halving of the light level and therefore takes 40 seconds
(3 x 13.3 + 40) to adapt to a light level of 10 lux
In the UK, well designed rooms with fixed windows
keep most direct sun out and then provide a daylight
factor of about 1% or 2% I believe this should be
increased for new buildings so as to reduce the amount of
fossil fuel and electricity used for lighting However, this
aim of mine carries an increased risk of buildings getting
too hot in summer
The indoor cricket schools at Lord's and Edgbaston try to
exclude most direct sun and to provide a daylight factor
of 5% to 6% and so give 1000 to 1200 lux on an overcast
day
These buildings do not fit my idea of wide span
enclosures but the cricket school at Lord's was won in a
competition where we expected the opposition would
offer air supported or other lightweight solutions We put
forward a case for natural lighting
A diffuse skin with a transparency of 20 to 2 5 % provides
a light level of 1000 to 1250 lux as required
However, in strong sun the internal light level rises to 20,000 to 26,000 lux and the direct solar gain rises to 200
translucent skin
Another disadvantage of the overall diffuse skin is that it gives a very diffuse light inside The lighting inside a tent or marquee is very diffuse and gives poor figuring to three dimensional shapes
In saying this I am offering opinions which could inform the development of the design of lightweight, wide span enclosures I realise that diffuse skins are provided for indoor tennis centres, millennium domes and so on As structural engineers gain confidence in making lightweight wide span structures using glass as the membrane, then I think the design, for example, of ventilating roof lights will be able to be developed The thinking about the type of lighting needs also to be developed
A solution with 7 5 % to 80% opaque area with 20% to 25% horizontal, transparent area supplies the same level
of light as a diffuse skin It is then possible to insulate the opaque area
1 0 0 , 0 0 0 Lux in
direction of sun
Light Cloud Blue Sky Overcast Sky
2 0 , 0 0 0 Lux 1 0 , 0 0 0 Lux £ , 0 0 0 Lux
No to option one - dark building fitted with fluorescent lighting
No to option two - fabric/translucent roof In sunlight 24,000 Lux
internally can quickly be reduced to 2400 by a small cloud
\
1 1200 - 4 8 0 0 Lux I
Fig 15 Interior of the Indoor Cricket School at Lord's Ground Photograph by Dennis Gilbert
The transparent areas possibly need blinds or shades to protect the space from direct sunlight Or the transparent areas can be diffusing with high transparency
Yes to option three -north roof light Only diffuse light admitted
Light levels in excess of 1200 Lux except after sunset in winter
Fig 14 Sawtooth roof arrangement at the Indoor Cricket School at
Trang 8J H K
Fig 16 Interior of Bespak Stage 1 showing diffusing roof lights
Designed by the Cambridge Design Group
Fig 17 The Menil Collection, Houston Designed by Renzo Piano
Photograph by Hickey Robertson
The lighting solution for the Menil Gallery is a special
case where the external condition was generally strong
direct sun (100,000 lux) and the light level inside had to
be kept low for conservation purposes (50 to 100 lux), so
0 1 % of the light was required and multiple reflections
provided a really clever solution
So a wide span, single storey building can easily provide
adequate light
A light transparency of 2 to 2 5 % is feasible and provides
adequate light
A lighting strategy can be developed to provide shading
for direct sunlight and improve the overall thermal
efficiency of the skin at the expense of a less
homogenous solution
H E A T I N G
The air movement in a large, tall space is likely to be violent The subject of ventilation and air movement has been addressed
The roof of the structure is likely to subtend an angle of 2p steradians from a person so that its radiant temperature will be an important factor
One of the main issues with wide span buildings is that if the skin is to be light and transparent then a single or possibly double skin of fabric is unlikely to meet the Building Regulations for energy conservation
A justification might run
:-1 A conventional building deemed to satisfy the Building Regulations
We need a light level of 1000 lux and a building with
generated by fossil fuel, ie a U-value of 0.3 x 10°C mean
2 Lightweight wide span skin
During a 24 hour mean day with a mean inside to outside temperature difference of 10°C, we have
:-Opaque Conventional Roof Transparent Roof
single skin double skin
U-value Temperature Difference Heat Loss
Heat Loss in 24 hours Electric Light (12 hours) (at 30W/m 2 >
Watt hours per day
0.3 6 3 10°C 10°C 10°C 3W 60W 30W 72Whr 1440Whr 720Whr lOoOWhr
1152 1440 720
This argument can be developed for different conditions The light saved in the summer will improve the argument but for a lower light level, say 500 lux, the electrical energy saved is less impressive
Of course if the space is unheated the insulation value is unimportant
For a competition entry for the Cardiff Bay Opera House (shown previously in Figures 8, 9, 10, and 11), we had postulated a roof of 50% double glazing and 50% insulated panels The enclosed space was a foyer so the electrical energy saved by lighting to 100 lux or so was not significant
Trang 9However spaces which formed the brief were huddled
together rather like a Greek village or the National
Theatre
Fig 18 Sketch by Max Fordham for Cardiff Bay Opera House
competition with Manfredi Nicoletti
The surface area of this convoluted shape implied a heat
loss through walls and windows with ventilation which
we evaluated and compared to the heat loss of the simply
shaped envelope The envelope had a lower heat loss
than that deemed to satisfy the building so the Building
Regulations were satisfied The internal buildings could
have simple, un-insulated walls which notionally helped
to pay for the whole scheme
Fig 19 Buckminster Fuller Dome over mid town Manhattan
This argument follows Buckminster Fuller's for the
dome over mid town Manhattan where the extended heat
transfer of the buildings is replaced by the smooth,
reduced envelope of the dome
In both cases there is a problem enabling heat and
pollution to escape from the inner layer of buildings and
this is basically the ventilation problem addressed in the
next section
Heating large high spaces depends on several levels of consideration
:-Heat Loss
Firstly we have to decide on the heat loss The U-value
of the cladding is important Next, the amount of winter ventilation; how airtight will the enclosure be and what stack effect is likely How much temperature gradient will there be to increase the heat loss at the top
Ventilation air will tend to come in at the bottom and on the windward side The incoming cold, fresh air needs to
be heated before it can lead to discomfort A 4 or 5m/s wind speed coming through the windward cracks or open doors must be heated
Most 50m high buildings have lobbied entrances
A 50m high stack with a 20°C temperature difference will produce air movement through openings of about 8m/s The temperature gradient in the space depends on the types of heat source It is difficult for any part of the space to get hotter than any individual object inside Direct fuel fired warm air heating is designed to be cheap
by recirculating air into a space at around 70°C and using heaters of 300 to 600kW capacity
The air flow is of the order 6 to 12kg/s and the air has to
be supplied at a very high velocity to ensure that it mixes into the room before losing momentum and drifting up to the ceiling
At the necessary velocity noise generation is the problem The parameters of air flow, heat load, noise generation, and temperature gradient have to be considered
In working out warm air heating we have relied on a hypothesis advanced by Holmes and Caygill [2] and repeated by P J Jackman [3], that
:-if thermal forces are not to dominate the pattern of air circulation
This relationship was originally postulated for a specific set of conditions but we have used it successfully in much more extreme situations
Where a heating system provides W kg/s of air at q°C specific heat c kJ/kg = 1 at velocity V
then the momentum M = WV and the heat load q = Wcq The relationship, where H = height, becomes
Trang 10:-wv f 0.07 WOH
or V > qH 0.07
We have used the relation at Churchill College, St Mary's
Church Barnes, and the CZWG office in Bowling Green
Lane
At St Mary's Church Barnes we deliver 4mVs of air at
lOm/s from a nozzle at 70°C into a 10m high space This
does not generate a noise
Fig 20 St Mary's Church, Barnes
At Churchill College, the space is 10.5m x 18.5m x 22m
and the air supply to a dining room is at 12m/s
I have started with crude warm air heating because I
believe it is suitable for large open space of
indeterminate use
Of course, radiant heat has its advocates for tall spaces I
don't want to give a detailed case as to why I am not in
favour Where competing design solutions coexist in a
market then the reasons favouring one rather than the
other are probably marginal
Of course, if a group of open air dining spaces were
under a wide span canopy, radiant heaters to each space
would be a good solution
The behaviour of the air in a space with heat sources
inside it is largely defined by the behaviour of the
plumes A plume is a rising current of air which is
warmer than the surroundings The behaviour of plumes
is described in the book "Environmental Aerodynamics"
by Scorer and it has become a very important topic for
fire engineers
The plume is a particular case of jet flow It is a hot jet Jets are also described by Scorer and are very important
to HVAC engineers in considering how air flows in space and how grilles need to be sized
The best visualisation of a jet which I know and which I expect most of you can visualise is a stream running under a humped back bridge
I idealise the flow in the following figure
r
1
I
^ — Streamline flow
^ — Flow starts to converge Flow remains radial Velocity on circle/sphere
^ — Stagnant: weeds thrive
^ — Rapids form at centre of stream Level drops
Jet expands Velocity drops Momentum is conserved
^ — Quantity of flow in jet increases then reduces as flow is bled off
to serve the eddies
^ — Status quo reinstated
Fig 21 Idealised flow at a hump backed bridge at a quiet stream
C O N D E N S A T I O N
Moisture movement in buildings is not perfectly understood We should remember that the moisture content of air and water vapour has an upper limit The upper limit is a function of temperature
Air and water • separate out into cloud/mist ,
Water content
Upper limit of water content
Temperature
Fig 22