Theoretical and numerical studies of coupling multizone and CFD models for building air distribution simulations

Multizone network models employ several assumptions, such as uniform temperature and pressure and quiescent air inside a zone, which may lead to inaccurate results in flow calculations. These assumptions can be eliminated in the zones, where the assumptions are inappropriate, by coupling a multizone network program with a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program. Through theoretical analysis, this paper proves that the solution of air distribution by using the coupled program exists and is unique. Three possible coupling methods have been discussed in the paper. The best method is pressure-pressure coupling that exchanges pressure between the multizone and CFD because it is most stable and can always lead to a converged solution. Numerical tests were further performed to verify the theory and it demonstrated that the coupled program is able to effectively improve the accuracy of the results.

The results of this paper provide a theoretical basis for improving the accuracy for modeling airflow and contaminant distributions in buildings. The coupled multizone and computational fluid dynamics can give high fidelity results, so field measurements may not be needed in the future. Designers of indoor environment in the future can use such a tool to evaluate different alternatives in design and identify the best solution for a building that can provide a healthy indoor environment.