Mixing of a point-source indoor pollution: Numerical predictions and comparison with experiments

In most practical estimates of indoor pollutant exposures, it is common to assume that the pollutant is uniformly and instantaneously mixed in the indoor space. It is also commonly known that this assumption is simplistic, particularly for point sources, and for short-term or localized indoor exposures. We report computational fluid dynamics (CFD) predictions of mixing time of a point-pulse release of a pollutant in an unventilated mechanically mixed isothermal room. We aimed to determine the adequacy of the standard RANS two-equation (k-?) turbulence model to predict the mixing times under these conditions. The predictions were made for the twelve mixing time experiments performed by Drescher et al. (1995). We paid attention to adequate grid resolution, suppression of numerical diffusion, and careful simulation of the mechanical blowers used in the experiments. We found that the predictions are in good agreement with experimental measurements.