- Author
- Walton, G. N.
- Title
- AIRNET: A Computer Program for Building Airflow Network Modeling.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Sponsor
- Department of Energy, Washington, DC
- Report
- NISTIR 89-4072, April 1989, 85 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Contract
- DE-AI01-36CE2101-3
- Keywords
- air flow; buildings; models; ventilation; ventilation fans; ducts; air conditioning
- Identifiers
- infiltration; computer applications; user manuals (computer programs)
- Abstract
- In spite of its importance, the analysis of airflows has significantly lagged the modeling of other building features because of limited data, computational difficulties, and incompatible methods for analyzing different flows. Methods have been developed to analyze airflows in HVAC ducts and to estimate infiltration, but the interaction between building HVAC systems and infiltration airflows has seldom been studied. The report describes a computer program for modeling networks of airflow elements such as openings, ducts, and fans. It emphasizes the numerical aspects of an airflow network method which would provide a unified approach to building airflow calculations. It also discusses the limitations of the method and poorly understood factors that could profit from further research.