Merging Thermal Plumes in the Indoor Environment

This experimental work deals with the basic problem of merging thermal plumes from heat sources situated in the vicinity of each other. No studies have been made yet of how close two heat sources must be to each other, before they can be considered as a single source with a cumulative heat effect, and how far apart they must be to be considered separate. Also, it is not known how the flow field behaves in the intermediate fase, where the plumes are neither completely joined nor completely separate. A possible, very simple, solution of the velocity distribution between two plumes is to assume addition of the velocities from each plume.

The main objective of his research is to compare this assumed distribution with measurements made in a full scale experiment with typical room air temperatures and with heat sources similar to human beings.