• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.806-812
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• 2012

Air curtains are widely used in commercial and public buildings to replace solid doors where traffic of people is predicted. At doorways where the solid door is open continuously or intermittently, an air curtain may be installed in order to reduce the flow of heat and moisture from the enclosed space to the outside. The purpose of this paper is to predict isolation performance of the single-sided air curtain when the wind is blowing. For the study, a numerical simulation is used to find the influence of various jet velocities on the efficiency of the single-sided air curtain device which is mounted at the side of the doorway. The isolation performance of the single-sided air curtain is evaluated by sealing efficiency which provides the assessment of the infiltration air ratio. According to the result of this study, the single-sided air curtain has lower sealing efficiency than downward-blowing air curtain. Therefore, for energy conservation in heating space, the single-sided air curtain is not recommended because of its low effectiveness.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.417-423
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• 2009

Air curtains are widely used for gates of shopping mall, warehouse, cold stores and refrigerated display cabinets. The purpose of the air curtain is to reduce the infiltration of outdoor air and heat loss from the air conditioning space to ambient air. Design data for the air curtain given by previous researchers do not mention the influence of wind speed. Thus, this paper presents a performance of single jet air curtain in heating space when the wind blows toward the opening space of the building. A numerical simulation is used to study the influence of various parameters on the efficiency of the downward-blowing air curtain device which is installed inside of the wall above the door. The performance of the air curtain is evaluated by sealing efficiency which provides the assessment of the energy savings. A new safety factor is also proposed for determination of air curtain jet velocity under the various wind conditions.