HVAC Analysis of the Airport

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The Objective:
To evaluate the HVAC capability of the proposed airport design considering real heat loading scenarios
Challenge:

Developing computational domain to capture the flow physics inside the airport

Calculating heat loads inside the building including people queue

Determining inlet and outlet boundary conditions

Measuring the efficiency of supply air outlets and suggesting required design changes
Solution:
HVAC analysis for the international airport was executed to evaluate the air flow and temperature uniformity inside the building. Heat
loads of shops, offices and people were taken into consideration to identify the mass flow rate and temperature requirements for
effective thermal comfort inside the building. Effects of doors, windows and glass roof were also taken into consideration, in order to
comprehensively evaluate the efficiency of the HVAC system for the building.
Evaluating the effectiveness of the HVAC system design for a building is often one of the complex tasks for engineers. Suitable
placement of supply air outlets, degree of freshness of air inside the building, heat loads within the building and ventilation
availability are some of the required parameters to determine the comfort conditions suitable for humans.
A leading infrastructure enterprise from India partnered with Hi-Tech to measure the performance of their HVAC system designed
for the international airport through Computational Fluid Dynamics.

Solution
The drawings provided by the client were converted into 3D CFD model including the equipments, shops & offices within the
building. Heat loads for the same were determined to replicate real thermal conditions including the long people queue situations.
The effects of glass roof, doors & windows were also taken into account to measure the addition of heat inside the building.
Boundary conditions for the inlet and outlet air flow were applied along with suitable turbulence model to calculate velocity and
temperature distribution inside the building. Critical regions with higher air velocity (above 0.2m/s) and temperature (above 260C)
were identified through post-processing to measure the efficiency of the supply air outlets (Binnacles). The results suggested a need

of changing the placements of binnacles and also reducing the supply air temperature to maintain sufficient thermal comfort within
the building.

Benefits

Identified the HVAC system effectiveness and the need for design changes to meet the thermal comfort requirements

Significantly reduced the HVAC equipment development time

Predicted critical regions within the building subjected to high velocity air and high temperatures

Reduced number of trials required to modify the HVAC design and binnacle placements