Air infiltration characteristics in oxygen-enhanced and heated chambers on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau

Journal article, 2025

The Qinghai-Xizang Plateau is characterized by a low-pressure and oxygen-deficient environment due to its high altitude, causing discomfort and major safety problems for the inhabitants. To address this, oxygen-enriched chambers can be used to alleviate the plateau reaction. However, little consideration has been given to air infiltration in these chambers, with a lack of information on the corresponding infiltration heat loss phenomenon. This paper addresses this by investigating the phenomenon of air flow in an oxygen-enriched chamber using experiments and simulations. The results highlight that when there is a difference in oxygen concentration between the interior and exterior of the chamber, mass transfer occurs due to both the molecular diffusion in addition to a flow due to the air density difference caused by the variation in concentration. Also, the simultaneous stack effect is roughly equivalent to 10 times the oxygen pressure, and the two pressure effects act in opposite directions. It is also noted that both the oxygen pressure and the stack effect decrease as the atmospheric pressure decreases. Overall, the oxygen-enriched chambers exhibit less infiltration in plateau areas with a low atmospheric pressure compared to plains areas with a relatively high atmospheric pressure. Finally, this study establishes formulas that can be used to calculate air infiltration rates in oxygen-enriched chambers. This study fills a gap in the existing literature regarding the air infiltration mechanism in oxygen-enriched chambers at high altitudes and low pressures, providing a theoretical foundation for improving indoor environments in the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau and other high-altitude regions.