Experimental study on the impact of large-scale flow structures on the passenger comfort in a miniaturised aircraft cabin

Abstract

The flow structure formation and the dynamics in mixed convective air flow are studied experimentally in a miniaturised aircraft cabin equipped with thermal manikins. With the objective to obtain full-scale characteristic numbers for the down-scaled set-up, temperature measurements and particle image velocimetry are performed at high-pressure P=19.6 bar. To determine the impact of buoyancy flow on the supplied forced convective cold inflow, the flow structure formation and the heat transfer are analysed for a Grashof number range of $8.06 \times 10^9 \leq \Gr \leq 17.72 \times 10^9$ and constant Reynolds number $\Rey = 1.5 \times 10^5$. It is found that the flow structure formation and the velocity distribution strongly depend on the ratio of buoyancy to inertia forces. In conclusion, the structure formation of the flow and its dynamics is discussed in dependency of the Richardson number $\Ri$ considering the consequences for the thermal comfort of the passengers.