Objectives  This paper presents a numerical study of the air environment comfort in a four-person accommodation cabin of a ship in order to analyze the influence of different air supply schemes on the air environment.

  Methods  The evaluating indicators of airflow organization are analyzed by CFD and a simulation of the air supply velocity, temperature, relative humidity, PMV and CO₂ concentration of the fluid-domain model under summer design conditions is conducted. Through comparisons with the simulation results of different air supply schemes, the influence of the air supply angle, temperature and rate on the thermal comfort and air quality are studied.

  Results  The simulation results show that when the air supply angle is 30 to 45 degrees, it has little influence. Although reducing the air supply temperature and rate leads to a lower relative humidity and higher CO₂ concentration, it can successfully meet the design requirements and improve thermal comfort when considering the evaluation indexes of airflow organization.

  Conclusions   These research results can provide certain guiding references for the air supply layout in the accommodation cabins of ships.