Experimental and numerical analysis of air, tracer gas, and particulate movement in a large eddy simulation chamber

This dissertation focuses on the experimental test results for complex fluid flows inside a full-scale, rectangular hall-cabin model of an aircraft passenger cabin. The primary goal for this research project was to provide the sponsor with the data necessary to validate The Boeing Company's numerical models. These models are expected to be used for investigation of airflow characteristics, gaseous diffusion, and particle disperson within commercial aircraft cabins.; The experiments were carried out in four phases. In the first phase, a draught probe, hot wire anemometer, sonic anemometer, and stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV) system were used to measure airflow characteristics in the half-cabin model for a given inlet diffuser configuration. From the analysis of the data, recommendations were made as to which instruments should be used to measure the airflow characteristics inside the aircraft cabin. The SPIV system was only used in the second phase to measure airflow characteristics in the half-cabin model that was reconfigured with a different inlet diffuser configuration. A comparison was made between the airflow measurements between the first and second phases. The diffusion of a tracer gas inside the half-cabin model was measured during the third phase. The tracer gas was injected via a line source and sampled through stainless steel lines connected to a gas analyzer. In the fourth phase, the particle injection and sampling equipment was validated. The equipment will be used later to investigate the movement of particles injected into the test cabin.; A detailed analysis of the data revealed the measurement uncertainties for all of the equipment and instruments used in all four phases. Autocorrelation and effective sample size calculations were performed to reveal the reasonable sampling rate used in the statistical analysis and measurement uncertainty. Two sets of mass balance equations were used to determine the validity of the tracer gas experiments and measurement of the total number of particles injected into the air. The analysis continued with the calculation of the effective ventilation rate determined from the tracer gas experiments. In addition, the SPIV data collected from the first and second phases were used in conjunction with the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes model to extract the convective term, Reynolds stress, and diffusion parameters. Then, the analysis of the data and literature review was used to produce future research options.