Air Curtains
A CFD-analysis (Computational Fluid Dynamics) conducted by Mechartés has concluded that installing an air curtain from Frico would significantly reduce the exchange of air-conditioned air from the inside and hot air from the outside. The results show great energy and economic savings as well as an improved indoor climate.
CFD can simultaneously predict airflow, heat transfer and contaminant transport in and around buildings. The focus in this case was to examine the efficiency of one of our air curtains in the Pamir series located in a petrol station outside of Dubai.
It’s not an understatement to say that the conditions where extreme with outside temperatures reaching 46 °C while the air-conditioned inside temperature was measured at 24 °C.
The air curtain used in this case, Pamir PAFEC3520A, is part of our new generation of air curtains equipped with EC fans. The report states that the air curtains in the Pamir range are, despite a lower reported air flow as effective as their predecessors in the PA range with AC fans, even though they are running at a lower operating cost.
The results of this CFD-analysis show that our efficient EC fans in combination with Fricos Thermozone Technology help maintain air-conditioned spaces cool even in extreme conditions with a temperature difference of 22 °C.
Another result of the CFD-analysis shows the importance of a correctly performed installation to achieve optimal effect, with the air curtain mounted as close to the door opening as possible, covering its whole width.
The data gathered in this case shows that the air curtain was not optimally mounted, resulting in hot air entering the room from the gap between the air curtain and the wall. However, Mechartés concluded that even though there was a slight amount of hot air entering the room from the gap between air curtain and wall, there was no large increase in the room temperature.
When the air curtain was OFF, hot air entered the room from the open door at a high level, causing increased room temperature.
When the air curtain was turned ON, the entry of hot air into the room was highly restricted. Even though there was a slight amount of hot air entering the room from the gap between air curtain and wall, there was no large increase in the room temperature due to physical limitations to install the air curtian in an optimum way.
Mechartés is an advanced engineering services company, conducting mathematical modelling and engineering simulations to provide optimised and performance-based design. CFD analyses usually examine a very simplified version of the reality; unique with this one is that it considers many different external factors such as furniture, wind speed and wind direction.