Numerical investigation on the buoyancy-driven infiltration airflow through the opening of the cold store

With the rapid growth of the total gross of the cold store, the energy consumption problem of the cold store is attracting increasing attentions. Infiltration through the door, which accounts for a very large part of the total heat load, has been highlighted in the previous simulation studies. However, the transient simulation of the infiltration in the cold store is not sufficient and the complex condition such as infiltration coupled with the cooling fans on is not covered. In this paper, a transient infiltration simulation model is established based on the unsteady RANS model. The model is validated by the experimental data of a cold store under conditions with different temperature differences, opening sizes and operation mode of the cooling fans. The results show that the predicted value and change trend of the infiltration air volume, local wind speed and temperature by the established model agree well with the experimental data. By using this model, the characteristics of the infiltration is analyzed. The results show that the position of the velocity boundary around the doorway plane and the tendency of the velocity distribution are almost invariable and are not affected by the door opening sizes and the temperature differences of the cold store.