Flow Patterns and Temperature Distribution in an Underground Metro Station

Abstract

Accurate control of thermal conditions in large space buildings like an underground metro station is a significant issue because passengers’ thermal comfort must be maintained at a satisfactory level. The large eddy simulation (LES) model was adopted while using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software “STAR CCM+” to set up a CFD station model to predict static air temperature, velocity, relative humidity and predicted mean vote (PMV), which indicates the passengers’ thermal comfort. The increase in the number of passengers using the model station is taken into consideration. The studied cases covered all the possible modes of the station box, these modes are (1) the station box is empty of trains, (2) the presence of one train inside the station box, (3) the presence of two trains inside the station box. The objective is to bring the passengers’ thermal comfort in all modes to the acceptable level. The operation of under platform exhaust (UPE) system is considered in case of train presence inside the station box. The use of UPE is more energy efficient than depending entirely on the air conditioning system to maintain the thermal conditions comfortable.