Experimental investigation of air distribution and ventilation efficiency in an ice rink arena

This study presents extensive experimental measurements in a modern Finnish ice rink arena including temperature, relative humidity, carbon dioxide, air speed, air flow and pressure difference measurements in addition to smoke tests. Furthermore, the air exchange rate (ACH), air-exchange efficiency, and mixing factor were calculated. The main aim was to determine ventilation effectiveness, vertical stratification of the air and how commonly re-circulation can be used in a modern ice rink arena representing common practice. Results show that re-circulation of return air was virtually continuous and in normal operating conditions the outdoor air fraction of the supply air was only 3.7% corresponding to ACH of 0.03 1/h. The ceiling distributed mixing ventilation was not able to mix the whole volume sufficiently, leading to two imperfectly mixed zones with an average air-exchange efficiency of 39% in the lower zone, corresponding to a mixing factor of 1.7.