A HVAC efficiency study was carried out for the Miami Concert Hall Complex which consists of two geometrically complex halls (atriums): a Concert Hall and an Opera House. This complex, once completed, will be the largest installation of its kind in North America. The goal was to optimize the positioning of the supply air and the return air vents in the atriums in order to ensure the occupants' (audience and performers) comfort. In addition to normal HVAC considerations, concert hall ventilation designs have the additional constraint of having to keep the velocity of the air flow in the diffusers below a certain level in order to avoid the generation of undesired noise. Several different arrangements for the ventilation system were investigated and the design finally optimized to yield a quasi-isothermal temperature field of about 72°F within the occupied areas of the Concert Hall and Opera House. The results of the simulations are presented in terms of temperature, velocity and air change fields. This study demonstrates that CFD can be used as a quick response design tool for the optimization of HVAC systems for very large complex enclosures.
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