Energy and Buildings 54 (2012) 534539

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Energy and Buildings

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CFD simulation of leak in residential HVAC ducts

Samir Moujaes , Radhika Gundavelli
University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: A three-dimensional computational uid dynamics model was used to simulate uid ow in a duct and
Duct leakage its simulated leaks with six different air leak geometries placed respectively on its periphery. The k
CFD simulation turbulence model for high Reynolds numbers ows was used for that purpose and the Reynolds numbers
Power law model
were varied to simulate a variety of ow conditions between 27,000 and 82,000. The computer code
Pressure distribution
was used to produce pressure drop data and leak ow rates across the holes necessary to compute the
Air distribution system
pressure loss coefcients, as well as to produce ow eld and static pressure plots that offer insight into
the physics of the ow eld. The ow coefcient and pressure exponent (C and n) were found for different
leak geometries by curve tting the pressure and leak ow data derived from CFD simulations and were
compared to available data in the literature.
2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction In [3] the study characterized the eld performance of residential

Computational uid dynamics packages are now being widely
used in industry and research alike to simulate phenomena like
uid ow, heat transfer and diffusion. They may be used to simulate
physical processes where physical measurements are not possi-
ble or are very difcult or expensive. Currently only experimental
methods are being used to measure leakage from ducts. Very little
insight has been offered into the actual physics of the ow inside
residential HVAC ducts. This study is part of a larger experimental
study funded by the National Center of Energy Management and
Building Technologies (NCEMBT) to develop an alternative method
of trying to determine local as well as global air leakage ow rates
in a residential duct system and hopefully reduce the costs of x-
ing the leaks. This is all part of the overall aim of increasing overall
energy efciency in residential structures in the US. In [1] the paper
describes the results of a eld investigation of duct systems in Cal-
ifornia for light commercial buildings and the nding that some of
these duct systems can have an unusually large leakage rates that
can reach up to 40% ratio of their total supply air ow. Researchers
in [2] discuss the effects of duct leakage and heat transfer on resi-
dential space-cooling energy use. It was found through simulations
in this study that duct leakage and it ensuing heat transfer ef-
ciency loss is highly time dependent and hence can generate larger
electrical demand on systems that are leaky in nature. It was also
found that the air leakage phenomenon is not only reserved for the
supply air side but is found in varying degrees on the return side.
air distribution systems. The ndings were summarized by the fact
that older homes (before 1979) tend to show an increase in leakage
rates as opposed to newer ones and about 20% of heat lost from
furnace installations in a residence tend to be due to duct leakage.
Adding to that the location of duct returns was found to have a large
inuence on duct-system efciency during the cooling system.
Monitoring several eld observations and through visual obser-
vation of different leaks that were also found in our own laboratory
to perform the above mentioned study (i.e. Air Duct leakage Lab-
oratory (ADLL) at UNLV) it was found that there can be different
shapes to the leak structure depending on the installation labor
and the complexity of the layout of the duct system in a particular
residence. These leak shapes were sometimes oblong, sometimes
extended closely resembling a rectangular section or more rounded
somewhat similar to a circular hole section. Hence this study was
inspired because of these different shapes to see how the pres-
sure drop/ow characteristics through simulated but realistic leak
shapes can be obtained.
Hence the current research deals with the study of suggested
different leak geometries using CFD simulations. The effect of
geometry of the leak on the leak rate was studied using different
ow parameters used to characterize these leaks. The models were
simulated for a range of Reynolds numbers between 27,000 and
82,000. The model description, CFD grid description, results and
conclusion will be discussed in the following sections.

2. Model description

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 702 895 3265; fax: +1 702 895 5013. This section presents the CFD simulations that were created and
E-mail address: samir.moujaes@unlv.edu (S. Moujaes). used for uid ow simulation for determination of ow parameters

0378-7788/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2012.02.025
 S. Moujaes, R. Gundavelli / Energy and Buildings 54 (2012) 534539 535

Nomenclature

A area, m2
C ow coefcient, m3 /s (Pa)n
k pressure loss coefcient or k-factor, dimensionless
n pressure exponent, dimensionless
P static pressure loss, Pa
Q ow rate, m3 /s
V mean velocity, m/s

Greek symbols
 density, kg/m3

Subscripts and superscripts

s static

for different leak geometries in ducts. In addition, it also describes

the modeling methodology for the numerical models and running
of these models under the specied conditions.
The assumptions used in the simulation are stated here. These
assumptions hold good for all the simulated leaks:

The inner surface of the duct is assumed to be smooth and with

no slip conditions.
The ow is considered to be isothermal (293 K), incompressible
and turbulent.
The inlet velocity is axial with the cross ow components set to
zero.
The molecular properties of the uid are standard air properties.
The ambient pressure is 0.0 Pa gauge. This was acceptable because
the uid is treated as an incompressible uid not being affected
by any temperature changes.
All the models were simulated for 20.32 cm diameter duct of
1.524 m long with the leakage hole placed at the center of the duct
axially. The following are the different leak geometries simulated
shown in Fig. 1:
1. 2.54 cm square hole.
2. 3.8 cm 2.54 cm rectangular hole.
3. 7.6 cm 2.54 cm rectangular hole.
4. 2.54 cm diameter circular hole.
5. 3.8 cm 2.54 cm (major axis minor axis) elliptical hole.
6. 7.6 cm 2.54 cm (major axis minor axis) elliptical hole.
All the models were created in STAR CD and checked for surface
errors. The surface of the resultant model was then triangulated
using an inbuilt function. A volume mesh was generated at this
stage. Volume renements in areas around the leak and layers near
the duct wall where high gradients were expected were rened.
Trimmed cells were used for volume mesh and cell quality checks
were performed on the resultant volume mesh.
Foe each leak geometry, ve different values of Reynolds num-
bers (0.27 105 , 0.41 105 , 0.55 105 , 0.69 105 and 0.82 105 )
were simulated to demonstrate the variety of ows that are pos-
sible in residential air distribution systems. The inlet axial velocity
was assumed to be uniform with all cross ow components set
to zero. No slip condition was imposed on the inner wall. It has
been found that the standard k produces acceptable results for
pressure distribution in ducts ows [4,5]. The high Reynolds k
model was used for CFD simulation of all the duct leakage geome-
tries. k and were assumed to be 0.0035 and 0.012 respectively.
These were used as the default values [6] as no other experimental
data were available to ne tune these values. All simulations were
Fig. 1. Shapes and dimensions of different leakage geometries used in the simula-
tions.
done in steady state. The default algorithm SIMPLE was used as the
solution algorithm. A tolerance of 1.0 104 was used for conver-
gence. The computer simulations were carried out on SGI Onyx
3800 with InniteReality3 Graphics (at the National Supercomput-
ing Center for Energy and the Environment NSCEE at UNLV) and
the computer runs would take between 4 and 7 h of CPU time to
completely converge. The k model is known not to perform well
in unconned ows, ows with large additional constraints such as
large temperature gradients in the direction of ow. In this study
though it is to be noted that our simulated ow study is basically
of the conned type (internal ow) adding to that that our ow
thermal conditions are assumed isothermal with no temperature
gradients. In addition to that we also based our use of this model
and its accuracy on previous results of papers where similar general
conditions (conned ows and no thermal gradients) existed and
for which these numerical simulations yielded reasonable quanti-
tative agreements with the experimental data for those situations.
These three studies are: The rst paper on which we based our use
of the model and its accuracy is [7] which involved the study of liq-
uid ow in a ball valve for different partial openings of that valve
where good agreement was shown with previously obtained exper-
imental data. The second [8] involves the ow and pressure drop for
air ow in an elbow (with and without ow vanes) was simulated
and compared to experimental results from the literature to yield
good quantitative comparisons. Finally the last study is [9] where
the study of air ow through an air handling unit was made and
compared with experimental data from the literature (for an iden-
tical ow geometry) and where favorable comparisons of previous
experimental data was shown to exist. These three papers used the
k model that is used for the present paper with the same identical
empirical constants provided by the software STAR-CD as default
values.
536 S. Moujaes, R. Gundavelli / Energy and Buildings 54 (2012) 534539
Fig. 2. Y component of velocity (m/s) at the leak cross section in XY plane.
2.1. Grid independency
While creating models with CFD codes it is important to check
whether the solution is independent of the grid. One way to per-
form this study is to increase the number of grids in the simulation
till that accuracy is reached. The solution from two models of dif-
ferent grid densities is compared. One or several such comparisons
can be done to ensure grid independency. If the solutions of the
highest two grids densities are within a sufciently small predeter-
mined tolerance, the original grid density is considered sufciently
accurate for engineering purposes.
The effect of grid density on the results for the current simu-
lations was determined by performing a grid independency study.
This was done by increasing the number of grid nodes in each of the
dimensions and monitoring the solution. Grid independency tests
were carried out for the Y component of velocity over the width of
the hole (Fig. 2) and YZ component of velocity over the height of
the hole (Figs. 3 and 4).
Grid 1 is the coarsest grid and grid 5 is the nest grid. It was
found that the average variation in the velocity component magni-
tude, in the Y direction along the width of the leak was not more
than 0.003% between grid 4 and grid 5. The average variation in
the velocity component magnitude, in the Y direction along the
height of the leak was not more than 2.1% and in the Z direction
along the height of the leak was not more than 0.19% from grid 4
to grid 5. Grid 4 with 600,000 cells was therefore considered to be
sufcient for all the numerical calculations. Due to the volume of
the work undertaken, and as all the models had the same physical
Fig. 3. Y component of velocity (m/s) at the leak cross section in YZ plane.
Fig. 4. Z component of velocity (m/s) at the leak cross section in YZ plane.
dimensions, grid sensitivity studies were not undertaken for all
cases. The maximum numerical error to be expected in the numeri-
cal calculations of air ow and pressure drop through the air leakage
geometry is estimated as i.e. 2.1% which is the more important
direction of ow i.e. Z in the normal plane to the leak. At this point
no present experimental validation has been done but the authors
feel ample evidence has been provided in Section 2 on the reason-
able accuracy of prediction of this model from previous published
work.
3. Results
STAR-CD a CFD code was used to predict airow and pressure
distribution in the duct/leaks geometry described above and over
a range of Reynolds numbers between 27,000 and 82,000 to gain
a better parametric understanding of the relationship between
leakage ow and pressure drop across these leaks. Six generic
geometries of leaks were used i.e. square, rectangular, circular and
elliptical shapes were simulated. This section deals with the results
of these simulations and their comparisons in certain cases to pre-
viously published work.
Fig. 5 shows the static pressure distribution in a duct with a
rectangular leak (with an aspect ratio 3) and with an inlet velocity
of 2.0 m/s (Re 27,000). The static pressure drop along the length
of the duct decreases in the ow direction owing to frictional loss.
The static pressure drop in the duct at different cross sections in
the ow direction has been plotted in Fig. 6. The average static
pressure at each section was calculated as the area average of the
static pressure of the cells lying on that particular section. The slope
of the line AD is 0.52 and that of line GI is 0.3 in Fig. 6. The
change in the slope indicates that the ow is not completely devel-
oped in the rst section upstream of the leak and the slope of that
line decreases downstream of the leakage partially because the net
ow in the duct has decreased downstream and because the ow
is approaching it fully developed prole.
The pressure distribution in the area of the hole and in its vicinity
does not follow this trend as the hole is exposed to atmospheric
pressure transversely, in this case 0 Pa gauge. The pressure loss due
to the hole is higher than the frictional loss along the length of the
duct as the distance between the center of the duct and the outside
of the leak is small compared to distance to the outlet where a 0 Pa
pressure boundary condition has been imposed. The bump in the
graph indicates the sudden surge in pressure loss due to the leak
(Fig. 6). Flow separation and hence loss of momentum causes a large
pressure drop at the leak.
The leak is exposed to a lower pressure than that of the duct,
and hence the ow tries to exit out of the leak. However, the ow
is subject to some inertia before it tries to exit out of the leak. The
velocity components of the ow from the leak are therefore, max-
imum only around the trailing edge of the leak (Fig. 7). Also, the
 S. Moujaes, R. Gundavelli / Energy and Buildings 54 (2012) 534539
Fig. 5. Contours of static pressure drop (Pa) around the leak on the surface of the
duct.
trailing edge of the leak is subject to higher pressures due to the
momentum force of the exiting air stream (Fig. 5).
The Y component of velocity at the center of the leak is as shown
in Fig. 8. Due to the no slip condition at the walls, the velocity at
those points goes to zero. The velocity peaks in this graph are due
to the X component of velocity that acts towards the center of the
hole due to the immediate pressure boundary condition at the leak.
This is evident from Fig. 9.
Two methods were used to try to present the results of these
completed simulations with models that may represent leakage
ows in the literature. The rst semi-empirical model (power law
model) investigates the relationship between the duct leakage ow
and the pressure drop across the leak and the second investigates
the relationship between pressure drop across the leak and the
average kinetic energy of the ow through the leak (pressure loss
coefcient)
Fig. 6. Frictional pressure loss (Pa) vs. static pressure loss (Pa) due to the leak.
537
Fig. 7. Contours of Y component of velocity (m/s) at the leak cross section in YZ
plane.
3.1. Power law model
The functional form of pressure ow relationship can be used to
characterize a leak. The power law relationship has the form
Q = C P n (1)
The power law leakage model provides a convenient method to pre-
dict the leakage ow of a duct system when reliable values for C and
n are available. The power law formulation has gained acceptance
for leakage measurements in ducts [1].
The objective of the CFD simulations is partially to obtain reli-
able values for C and n that can be used to predict the ow in the
duct for a particular geometry and size of leak. All the models for
duct leakage were simulated using ve different Reynolds numbers
ranging from 0.27 105 to 0.82 105 . P in this case is the aver-
age static pressure at the duct cross section in the XY plane passing
through the center of the leak. The static pressures and the face
areas of all the cells lying on this cross section were obtained from
the CFD model.
Fig. 8. Y component of velocity (m/s) at the leak cross section in XY plane.
538 S. Moujaes, R. Gundavelli / Energy and Buildings 54 (2012) 534539

Fig. 9. Contours of X component of velocity (m/s) at the leak cross section in XY

Fig. 10. Characteristic curves for leak geometries.
plane.

P was calculated by taking the area average of static pressures
of all the cells in that cross section.
Q = Aleak V
This velocity component is the Y component of velocity and the
face areas of the cells on the surface of the leak were obtained from
the CFD model and V was calculated by taking the area average of
Y component of velocities of the cells on the surface of the leak.
Values for Q and P for each case were then tted (Fig. 10) using a
simple curve tting model.
Each of the curves thus tted has the form of the power law
model (see the power law equation for the rectangular leak of
aspect ratio 3 in Fig. 10). For instance, the ow coefcient, C and
pressure exponent, n for the rectangular leak of aspect ratio 3 are
0.0006 and 0.44 respectively. The values of ow coefcient and
pressure exponent for each of the leak geometries are listed in
Table 1.
The ratio of area and perimeter is proportional to the frictional force
or the wall shear stresses encountered by the ow through an open-
(2) ing. This ratio for a circular leak is lower than that of a square leak.
The mean velocities through the leak are thus lower for a circular
leak than for a square leak. The k-factor is inversely proportional
to the square of the mean velocity through the leak. Therefore the
k-factor for the circular leak is less than that of the square leak.
The predicted k-factors are found to increase monotonously
with increase in aspect ratio of the leak (Figs. 11 and 12).
For the range of Reynolds numbers simulated, it was found that
the static pressure drop was fairly constant with change in aspect
ratio of the leak. It appears that the mean velocity through the leak
is reduced with increase in aspect ratio. This can again be attributed
to the increase in frictional forces with the increase in aspect ratio.
The k-factor is therefore a function of the geometry of the leak.

3.2. Pressure loss coefcients (k-factor)

The energy loss in the duct due to leakage is assessed using a

parameter called the k-factor [10].
The k-factor for the leaks is dened as
Ps
k= (3)
(1/2)V 2

Table 1
Values of C and n for different leak geometries.

Leak geometry C n

Square leak 0.0003 0.46

Rectangular leak (aspect ratio 1.5) 0.0004 0.46
Rectangular leak (aspect ratio 3.0) 0.0006 0.44
Circular leak 0.0003 0.50
Elliptical leak (aspect ratio 1.5) 0.0004 0.46
Fig. 11. Aspect ratio vs. k-factors for square leaks.
 S. Moujaes, R. Gundavelli / Energy and Buildings 54 (2012) 534539
8 However the results from Figs. 11 and 12 indicate that the k-factor
6 of aspect ratio where larger variations would exist maintaining the
k-factor
4
27000 41000
2 55000
69000
82000
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
Aspect Ratio
Fig. 12. Aspect ratio vs. k-factors for circular leaks.
4. Discussion and conclusions
Six different leak geometries were simulated using the STAR-CD
CFD code. The aspect ratios of the leaks were varied between 1 and
3. The models were simulated at ve different Reynolds numbers
between 27,000 and 82,000.
The k-factor were calculated for all the leak geometries. It was
found that they are a function of geometry in contrast to the reg-
ular formula which expresses it in terms of static pressure loss
and mean velocity through the leak. The ow coefcient (C) and
pressure exponent (n) were found for all leak geometries and
at each Reynolds number using the power law model also. Also,
the leakages calculated by the CFD code and with the formula
used to estimate duct leakage in mine ventilation were compared.
The use of the form of Eqs. (1) and (3) is simply to allow the
current research to borrow from the current literature some of
the appropriate forms of how to quantify the characteristics of
these chosen leakage hole geometries. To be more exact the lit-
erature did not yield any theoretical results yet of these types
of leakage holes rather there are results of typical classications
of semi empirical values of leakage in ducts in units of L/s/m2
of duct area. These holes are somewhat more idealized in this
study obviously in their geometries but do offer a variety of sit-
uations as to what type of leakages might be confronted in the
eld. In fact an informal survey of some eld installations and
some of the current observations in the laboratories at UNLV that
were involved in part of this study did indicate indeed that a vari-
ety of shapes exist for these leaks and that no one shape would
depict all types of leaks. Hence it is thought that this study can
provide a reasonable ground on which somebody attempting to
measure air duct leakage in the eld can base his calculations on.
Previous studies [11] did present some suggested values for the
exponent n in Eq. (1) of around 0.6 (variation given between
0.5 and 1.0 depending on the leakage shape) although there was
no denition of the geometry of the leakage shapes at all. Com-
paring that with the n values from Table 1 one can observe that
the average of these indices is a little on the low side compared
to that value by about 20%. This is not surprising as the leak-
age geometry here is more dened and would probably be much
smoother than that of a typical jagged real duct leak. The orig-
inal study in which Eq. (3) was used [4] in the calculation of k
was for a motorized damper placed in a duct and not for leak-
age of air ow where the hydrodynamics of the ow in these
two cases are very different and cannot be compared together.
539
is not as sensitive in regards to the variation of the Reynolds number
keeping the aspect ratio unchanged as it is in regards to the changes
same Reynolds number.
Finally it can be deduced from this basic study of several well
dened air leakage geometries that the ow and pressure drop
characterizations of several leak geometries can be summarized by
giving the values of C, n and k-factor values which can help future
researchers in this area in providing new information for them to
characterize eld leakages.
The direct benet from this simulation study was in using some
of the n exponent and C values that were derived in Table 1 which
were used in some of the generated articial leakage holes in the
test facility mentioned above (ADLL) for calibration purposes of
simulated pressure drop vs. leakage ow in the system according
to the existence of these simulated hole shapes where the leak-
age rates varied from about 1% to 25% of the supply fan ow. Then
according to the number of leakage holes chosen for a particular test
one can predict how much ow can be expected to ow out of these
holes for the measured pressure drop measured between inside of
the duct around that area and the ambient conditions. Although this
paper is not aimed at describing the current method of air leakage
determination, it can be briey said that the state of the art method
of determining air leakages works on the basis of determining these
leaks (in a global sense i.e. over the whole duct system) where the
calculation method assumes an average duct pressure for the sys-
tem for which the leakage of the supply and return duct system are
calculated (Delta-Q method). This assumed average duct system
pressure may not coincide with the actual pressure of the system
at hand at each local leak. Of course if anything, the pressure is
expected to vary from a high (near the supply fan) to a relatively
low pressure at the end of the duct system. The method of deter-
mining air leaks as part of the current larger study mentioned above
is aimed at determining local leakage of sections of ducts as well
as the global leakage rate. By doing this, one can hopefully isolate
those critical duct sections and try to x (seal) those duct sections
as opposed to more expensive duct leak mitigation which can easily
cost for a typical home around $2000.
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