Three-dimensional effects of an air curtain used to restrict cold room infiltration

The aim of this study was to compare the measured effectiveness of an air curtain device at different jet velocities against a three-dimensional (3-D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. The air curtain device was not as wide as the entrance and had a geometry that encouraged 3-D flow. By carefully setting up the air curtain an effectiveness of 0.71 was achieved compared to the initial value of only 0.31 as set by the air curtain device installer. The 3-D CFD model predicted the infiltration through the entrance with no air curtain to an accuracy of within 20–32%. The predicted effectiveness, E, of the air curtain at different jet velocities was 0.10–0.15 lower than measured. The shape of the effectiveness curve against jet velocity was well predicted. CFD has shown that the flow from this air curtain cannot be considered as 2-D. The central part of the jet is deflected away from the cold store by the Coanda effect caused by the air curtain device’s fan body. The edges of the jet are deflected into the cold store by the stack pressures and turn into the void caused by the deflected central jet.