Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
Numerical simulation of ventilation in subway car using CFD open-source code
Submission Author:
Amanda Sayuri Oizuni , SP
Co-Authors:
Amanda Sayuri Oizuni, Beatriz Cortez Rodriguez dos Santos, Gustavo Saturnino, Cibele Silva, Fernando Kurokawa
Presenter: Beatriz Cortez Rodriguez dos Santos
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-1687
Abstract
The pandemic caused by Coronavirus in 2019 brought the world's attention to biosecurity. Due to the rapid growth of city population and expansion of cities, people are now living further than ever from their workplaces, and underground infrastructure became the solution for an overly crowded urban mesh. This scenario results in intense and prolonged use of underground public transportation systems, such as the subway. At the beginning of the SARS-Cov-2 spread, many measures concerning social distancing and sterilization were taken, but the most efficient and effective way to prevent aero transmissible diseases is by improving the ventilation of the space. The aim of this research is the study of the ventilation and air renovation inside surface trains and subway cars. To this end, CFD simulation (Computational Fluid Dynamics) was carried out in OpenFOAM, an eulerian mesh-based software. As a result of the complex geometries inside train cars and the unique distribution of elements inside the train that affect airflow, such as seats, doors and in and outlets, each case has its own particularities. Using CFD tools properly, it is possible to locate recirculation zones inside the car, which can be dangerous as potential contamination places for airborne diseases, and areas that can reach extreme temperatures given poor air distribution. 2D simulations were carried out based on geometrical and operational conditions observed in cars from subway and trains of São Paulo, Brazil, and the results were validated experimentally, comparing with data measured in the field. Furthermore, it is expected that results obtained from CFD simulations can serve as basis and help with decision making in ventilation projects, as this type of methodology is less financially expensive when compared to experimental methods, and can capture in more detail complex phenomena.
Keywords
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD), Indoor air quality, Ventilation
