Numerical Simulation of the Air Flow and Thermal Comfort in Aircraft Cabins

Results of a numerical study of the air flow and the thermal comfort of the passengers in an aircraft cabin which includes thermal radiation effects are presented. The computations have been performed by coupling flow simulations with the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code OpenFOAM with finite element simulations of the heat transport within the passengers using the code THESEUS-FE. With the latter the bodies of passengers are modeled based on various layers with different heat transport characteristics to account for effects like blood flow, skin, clothing as well as activity levels and ambient humidity. Computations of the flow, the thermal radiation and the modeled passenger comfort in the cabin of the Airbus A320 and Do728 are discussed. The predicted numerical temperature distributions in the cabin of Do728 have been supported by experimental measurements.