Microclimatic control in the museum environment: air diffusion performance

For the conservation of cultural heritage, museums need appropriate HVAC systems. Besides the time stability of the microclimatic parameters in the exhibition rooms, a high spatial uniformity is necessary and, thus, an optimal performance of the air diffusion systems. Using numerical codes based on Building Energy Performance Simulation (BEPS) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques, in this paper an analysis has been carried out to compare different suitable air diffusion equipments, as regards uniformity of thermal-hygrometric and kinetic fields in a modelled typical exhibition room. For various part load conditions, the values of thermal-hygrometric parameters in different volumes of the room have been evaluated, as well as an innovative spatial thermal-hygrometric performance index. Globally estimating indoor temperature, relative humidity and their uniformity, for high exhibition rooms (5 m) the swirling diffusers have shown the best average performances, followed by the perimetrical stripes of slot diffusers, while for very high rooms (9 m) nozzles have resulted preferable.