õhusuunda

Õhusuund is an Estonian term that refers to the direction of air movement, i.e., the orientation in which air travels within a space or through a ventilation system. The concept is used in HVAC engineering, building design, and environmental analysis to describe how air enters, circulates, and exits rooms, ducts, or equipment. Knowing the õhusuund helps engineers plan effective ventilation, maintain thermal comfort, remove contaminants, and improve energy efficiency.

In practice, professionals specify and assess the intended air flow direction for supply diffusers, return vents, exhausts, and ductwork. Techniques to determine or verify the õhusuund include smoke visualization, vane or thermal anemometers with directional capability, tracer gas tests, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The chosen orientation affects mixing versus displacement ventilation, draft risk, and pollutant transport, and it is especially important in cleanrooms, laboratories, hospitals, data centers, and large occupiable spaces.

The term is distinct from the meteorological wind direction, which is usually described as tuule suund. Õhusuund generally refers to indoor or system-level air flow, though it may also describe outdoor air movement relative to a structure in some contexts. Variants such as õhusuund or õhusuuna are encountered in different grammatical cases, but the core idea remains the same: the path air takes as it moves through an environment.