AIAA-2009-4574 1 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics AIR FLOW REGIMES AND THERMAL PATTERNS IN CLIMATIZED CHURCH OF CHRIST, Cairo Eng. Ahmed E. Khalil and Prof.Dr Essam E. Khalil Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University Cairo –EGYPT ABSTRACT Airflow characteristics in ventilated and air-conditioned spaces play an important role to attain comfort and hygiene conditions. This paper utilizes a 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model to assess the airflow characteristics in ventilated and air-conditioned archaeological Church of Christ (hanging Church) in Cairo, Egypt. It is found that the optimum airside design system can be attained, if the airflow is directed to pass all the enclosure areas before the extraction with careful selection of near wall velocities to avoid any wear or aberration of the wall paintings. Still all commonly known factors and evaluation indices have the shortage to describe the influence of the recirculation zones on the occupancy zone of the visitors and also on the fresh supplied air. The mode of evaluation should assess the airflow characteristics in any passage according to its position in the enclosure and the thermal pattern and air quality. The paper ends with brief discussion and concluding remarks. INTRODUCTION The present work raises several questions in the room airflow motion prediction techniques. The present paper represents the results of an ongoing evaluation of a CFD based on computer models for predicting room airflow distribution in the Hanging Church in Egypt. To design an optimum HVAC airside system that provides comfort and air quality in the Climatized spaces with efficient energy consumption is a great challenge. Air conditioning can be identified as the conditioning of the air to maintain specific conditions of temperature, humidity, and dust level inside an enclosed space. The conditions to be maintained are dictated by the function of the space, type of users and the required users comfort. A successful HVAC design is that energy efficient design in addition to all previous factors. For the present work, a numerical study is carried out to define the optimum airside design of the HVAC systems, which provides the optimum comfort and healthy conditions with optimum energy utilization. The present model is packaged as a CFD program. Basically, various airside designs are considered here including floor and or ceiling supply, different obstacle and alternative positioning to introduce the capability of each design to provide the optimum air flow characteristics. The optimum utilization of the air movement to acclimatize and ventilate can be attained by properly locating the supply diffusers and extract ports to minimize the recirculation zone and prevent the air short circuits. Ideally, the optimum airside design system can be attained, if the airflow is directed to pass all the enclosure areas before the extraction, Berglund, L. G., and Cain, W. S. (1989). The primary objective of the present work is to demonstrate the capabilities of the present numerical tool to predict the airflow characteristics and thermal patterns in the different acclimatized Church configurations in view of basic known flow characteristics, Kameel (2000), Khalil (2008). The numerical model, incorporated in the present study, is used to investigate the airflow pattern, temperature and relative humidity distributions inside the church main hall. COMPUTATIONAL TECHNIQUE The present CFD simulations were carried out using commercial code made available to FECU, named FLUENT ® 6.2. 7th International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference 2 - 5 August 2009, Denver, Colorado AIAA 2009-4574 Copyright © 2009 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved.