Impact of furnishing on room airflow

In building simulation it is common to use idealized empty rooms for simulation. However, furnishing elements may cause local microclimates. These microclimates can be critical for instance if furniture is placed close to poorly insulated external walls in Nordic countries, where the external temperatures in the winter season may lead to condensation or high relative humidity on the internal side of the building envelope. Therefore it was important to investigate the influence of furniture on the airflow patterns in rooms and on the local airflow behind the furniture. The current paper presents an investigation of the airflow patterns behind a piece of furniture placed near a cold external wall. The investigation is based on a combination of Particle Image Velocimetry experiments and Computational Fluid Dynamics. The main topic of the investigation is to highlight the effect of increasing the distance between the wall and the furniture as well as between the wall and the floor. As expected the results showed that increased gap widths give increased airflow rates. Comparison of measurements and simulations indicated a good predictability for the cases, where radiation played a minor role.