The primary objective of this article is to describe the development, setup, and application of the particle imaging velocimetry (PIV)for air velocity measurements in a large-scale room environment. Experimental velocity and turbulence intensity data for fourteen planes (i.e.,four horizontal and ten vertical planes) to characterize the airflow field around a standing person in a simple room with realistic and well-documented environmental conditions were obtained. Complete experimental results are presented in a companion paper; however, results for two planes are presented here. Development of the two-dimensional PIV system and collection of experimental data were accomplished as part of the requirements for a research project funded by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) entitled, “Interaction of Air Motion and the Human Body in Confined Spaces,” RP-978. The initiation of this research project was in response to a need for a complete and accurate set of experimental velocity measurements around a human body in a well-documented airflow field for the purpose of validating existing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes.

Units: Dual