Literature Review of Airflow Fluid Characteristics and their Impact on Human Thermal Comfort

Abstract

Airflow dynamics significantly impact indoor thermal environment and human thermal comfort. Studies on the effects of airflow fluctuations on thermal comfort mainly focus on the effects of turbulence intensity and fluctuation frequency. The fluctuant characteristics of natural wind and mechanical wind are obviously different. However, the fluctuant characteristics of mechanical wind can shift to those of natural wind in some conditions. With the development of turbulence statistical theory, chaos and fractal theory, researchers began to use these theories to describe the structural characteristics of the fluctuating airflow in different environments or by different generating sources. The results of studies on airflow fluctuation and thermal environment are reviewed in this paper from two aspects: 1) the effect of the airflow fluctuations on thermal comfort, and 2) the physical structure of airflow fluctuations. This paper first reviews these achievements, and then summarizes studies conducted at Tsinghua University.