Various air distribution modes on commercial airplanes. Part 1: Experimental measurement

Abstract

Airplanes currently distribute conditioned air by overhead diffusers or personal gaspers to the passenger cabin. Such an air distribution mode promotes air mixing; therefore, it has low ventilation efficiency and may impose considerable risks of draft to the passengers. To remedy the above problems, an under-aisle displacement air distribution mode and a personal air distribution mode are proposed. The under-aisle air mode supplies conditioned air from perforated panels in the aisles, whereas the personalized air mode applies the under-aisle air mode as background ventilation and simultaneously supplies outdoor conditioned air from the chair–armrest-embedded terminals to the passenger's inhalation region. To evaluate the three air distribution modes, a twin-aisle aircraft cabin mockup with a Boeing 767 as the prototype is constructed. The airflow pattern and temperature profiles are measured by a three-dimensional ultrasonic anemometer, and the ventilation efficiency is evaluated by the CO₂ tracer gas concentration. This study finds that the personalized air distribution mode coupled with the under-aisle air supply as the background ventilation is promising to improve the current cabin environment. Unstable airflows are ubiquitous on airplanes and require advanced test instruments for better characterization.

Acknowledgments

The work presented in this article is in part to fulfill the research project of the National Key Basic Research and Development Program of China (the 973 Program) through grant 2012CB720100.

Tengfei (Tim) Zhang, PhD, Member ASHRAE, is Associate Professor. Penghui Li is Master's Student. Yue Zhao is Master's Student. Shugang Wang, PhD, is Professor.