A thermal comfort study on displacement ventilation in the tropics

This paper presents the performance of a displacement ventilation system in a thermal chamber with tropical subjects. The chamber is served by an Air-Conditioning and Mechanical Ventilation (ACMV) system in either Mixing or Displacement Ventilation modes. In the experiments, tropical subjects were surveyed with respect to their thermal sensations under different room conditions in either displacement ventilation or mixing ventilation. Objective measurements such as room air temperature, air velocity and relative humidity were measured at different heights in the chamber. The results show that the room neutral temperature for a displacement ventilation system is higher than the conventional mixing ventilation system. Subjects in the tropics can accept supply air temperature as low as 16.2°C and relative humidity as high as 77% with room temperature of 23°C.