Numerical investigation on the ingress of particulate matter from ambient air into the inlet of a building air handling unit

The transportation of ambient particulate matter (PM) from outdoor air into the inlet of a mechanical building ventilation system is poorly understood. No studies have examined the effect commonly used commercial air handling unit (AHU) inlet designs have upon the migration of PM from the ambient environment into the building ventilation system, and implications of this on energy consumption and indoor air quality (IAQ). Through the numerical analysis of commercial AHU inlets, the differences in concentration of PM in ambient air and that within AHUs were determined, more commonly referred to as Aspiration Efficiency (AE %). A 20–50% difference in particle concentrations between ambient air and the in-AHU concentration was observed between forward and rear-facing AHUs relative to ambient wind direction and speed, and at the maximum ventilation flow rate. Furthermore, a decrease in the ventilation flow rates resulted in a significant reduction in PM concentrations entering the rear-facing AHU. Increasing the Stoke number led to lower AE as a continuous decrease was observed for both rear-facing inlets. The findings of this paper show that AHU inlet design has significant implications on IAQ and building energy consumption, and scope exists to design these inlets to impact both aspects positively.