Indicators/Efficiency Criteria of Air Curtains

Selection of the optimal air curtain type, even determination of parameters to guide selection, requires technical evaluation and economic analysis. This task is made more difficult when the technology will be used in atypical applications or with large-size gates since science-based and field-proven information is not readily available for these less common uses. Air curtain manufacturers’ guidelines are limited; the information they contain does not support optimal air curtain selection. This absence of specific selection criteria or guidelines, when combined with a lack of case studies, can sometimes result in the selection of suboptimal or mismatched technologies that provide poor protection to the building’s apertures. The following performance dimensionless criteria for air curtains support the informed selection of air curtain archetypes.