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Characteristics of the recirculation zone in a cylindrical confined space and its suppression by an annular orifice plate

  • Research Article
  • Indoor/Outdoor Airflow and Air Quality
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Abstract

The accumulation of pollutants in the recirculation zone can worsen ventilation. It is critical to reduce recirculation zones to improve the ventilation efficiency of buildings. However, the variation rule of the recirculation zone in a cylindrical confined space (CCS) is unclear, and there are few solutions to suppress or eliminate the recirculation zone at present. In this paper, an annular deflector orifice plate for suppressing the recirculation zone was developed based on the structural characteristics of the CCS. This device is simple in structure and can be used flexibly. Through experiments and numerical simulations, the variation rule of the recirculation zone length and the influence of structural parameters of the device on the vortex suppression were explored. Firstly, empirical formulas for calculating the length of the recirculation zone in the CCS were obtained. In addition, it was proved that placing the annular orifice plate inside the CCS effectively reduced the recirculation zone and improved the ventilation efficiency. Compared to the system without the annular orifice plate, the dimensionless length of the recirculation zone was decreased by 76.3%, and the time to completely discharge the pollutants from the CCS was decreased by 16.7%. Finally, parameters of the annular orifice plate that form the best vortex suppression effect were proposed: the porosity range was 40%–50%, uniform in shape with equal ring spacing, and placed more than one inlet diameter away from the inlet. The results help guide the ventilation design of CCS.

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Abbreviations

a :

width of open loop part

b :

width of the annular orifice plate

CCS:

cylindrical confined space

d :

diameter of the inlet in the CCS (m)

D :

inner diameter of the CCS (m)

L :

length of the CCS (m)

r :

opening radius of the annular orifice plate

Re :

Reynolds number

s :

opening area of the orifice plate (m2)

S :

cross-sectional area at the location of the orifice plate (m2)

u :

velocity (m/s)

u 0 :

initial inlet velocity (m/s)

X :

distance between the orifice plate placement and the inlet (m)

X, Y, Z :

Cartesian coordinates

X r :

length of the recirculation zone (m)

y + :

dimensionless distance from the ground

ΔP :

pressure difference (Pa)

β :

open porosity s/S (%)

ρ :

air density (kg/m3)

μ :

dynamic viscosity (Pa·s)

μ t :

turbulent dynamic viscosity (Pa·s)

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially sponsored by the Collaborative Innovation Foundation of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education (No. 20JY035).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Green Building in Western China, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an, 710055, China

    Yu Zhou, Wan-Rong Ren, Mengfan Quan, Lei Jia & Yi Wang

  2. School of Building Services Science and Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, No.13 Yanta RD., Xi’an, 710055, China

    Yu Zhou, Wan-Rong Ren, Mengfan Quan, Lei Jia, Manning Wang & Yi Wang

Authors
  1. Yu Zhou
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  2. Wan-Rong Ren
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  5. Manning Wang
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Review and editing of the manuscript, project administration, formal analysis, conceptualization and funding acquisition were performed by Yu Zhou. The first draft of the manuscript, numerical simulation and validation were completed by Wan-Rong Ren. Methodology was performed by Mengfan Quan. Visualization was performed by Lei Jia. Investigation was performed by Manning Wang. Funding acquisition was provided by Yi Wang. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yu Zhou.

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Zhou, Y., Ren, WR., Quan, M. et al. Characteristics of the recirculation zone in a cylindrical confined space and its suppression by an annular orifice plate. Build. Simul. 16, 1391–1408 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-023-1038-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-023-1038-9

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