Air supply and return modes optimization of radiation air conditioning in ship cabin using lattice order decision-making approach

Objective The study in this paper aims to investigate the impacts of cabin atmosphere quality on the comfort and the work efficiency of crew member aboard the ship, thereby the degree of thermal comfort of ship air conditioning system can be improved.

Method Airpak software is used to simulate and analyze the temperature, relative humidity, PMV-PPD and air age in the four air supply and return modes of a typical single-occupant cabin of a ship, namely ‘different side up and down cycles’, ‘same side up and down cycles’, ‘different side down and up cycles’, and ‘same side down and up cycles’.

Results The simulation results show that the temperature in the cabin can be kept constant at 24℃, humidity can be maintained at about 50% and the humidity field distribution can be more uniform, while PMV (predicted mean vote) distribution is more uniform with its value tending to zero, and the air age PPD (predicted percentage of dissatisfied) distribution is more uniform with a very low value in the cabin.

Conclusion Using the optimization principle of lattice order theory, the air supply and return mode of ‘different side up and down cycles’ is the optimal scheme for a single-occupant cabin of a ship.