CFD study of the effects of furniture layout on indoor air quality under typical office ventilation schemes

The relative freshness of indoor air in breathing zone can be measured by ventilation effectiveness. Numerous research articles in literature have investigated ventilation effectiveness under different ventilation schemes, different inlet/outlet positions, and different diffusor types. These researches seem to have a goal to find a solution to optimize ventilation effectiveness through manipulating ventilation system. In reality, however, the occupants of a rented office room have no right to manipulate the ventilation system; instead, they have to accept whatever rented to them. An important issue thus arises: how to improve ventilation effectiveness without changing ventilation system? This paper has built a CFD model about a typical office room, validated it by published experimental data in literature, and then applied it to twelve typical office situations/cases of different furniture layouts under different ventilation schemes. The simulation results of twelve cases show that furniture layout is an important factor in indoor airflow and temperature fields, and the quality of air in breathing zone can be significantly improved by adjusting furniture layout without making any change in ventilation system.