Center for the Built Environment

During the past ten years as underfloor air distribution (UFAD) has begun to demonstrate significant growth in new commer-cial office building construction in North America, design engineers have often cited methods for airside design sizing as one of the most important unanswered questions regarding UFAD system design. The challenge in this regard has been how to accurately account for differences between a stratified UFAD environment and the familiar well-mixed environment produced by a conventional overhead (OH) variable air volume (VAV) air-distribution system.