Civil Aerospace Medical Institute

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-06/27

Title and Subtitle: Validation for CFD Predication of Mass Transport in an Aircraft Passenger Cabin

Report Date: November 2006

Authors: Baker AJ, Ericson SC, Orzechowski JA, Wong KL, Garner RP

Abstract: A joint project was established to validate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as a quantitative methodology for prediction of the distribution of pathogens released into the environmental control system (ECS)-generated ventilation flowfield of an aircraft passenger cabin.

Acquisition of the requisite experimental databases for three-dimensional velocity and contaminant distributions was accomplished in the FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute�s (CAMI�s) Aircraft Environmental Research Facility (AERF).

The associated CFD simulations were conducted by the University of Tennessee CFD Laboratory staff, on the resident Beowulf PC cluster and/or the University of Tennessee Innovative Computing Laboratory SiNRG Cluster, using both commercial and proprietary CFD computer codes. The results of this CFD validation project are reported herein.

Key Words: Aircraft Airflow, CFD Analysis, Environmental Control System, Aircraft Cabin Airflow, Aircraft Ventilation Flowfield, Aircraft Contaminant Distribution

No. of Pages: 55