With an aimof resolving the problem of conflicting thermal environmental needs of visitors and relics conservation

we propose a differentiation environmental control strategy that employs a displacement ventilation system for relics preservation area and thermal comfort air-conditioning system for visitors’ area

simultaneously satisfying both the requirements. An experimental hall with environmental control systems was built to simulate the exhibition hall of Emperor Qinshihuang’s mausoleum archaeology museum. The temperature distribution of indoor thermal environmental parameters and relics preservation environment balance characteristics for the test cases with natural ventilation

independent environmental control for visitors’ area

local environmental control for relics preservation area

and differentiation control for visitors and relics preservation area were investigated and compared. Results showed that in the case of natural ventilation

the temperature fluctuation and average relative humidity of the relics preservation area reached up to 3°C and 90%

respectively. Meanwhile

the average temperature of the visitors’ area reached up to 36.5 ℃

which indicates that the natural ventilation was incapable of satisfying the environmental needs for both the relics preservation area and visitors. A single operation of the thermal comfort air-conditioning system or the displacement ventilation system could only provide a desired environment for the prescribed area. On the contrary

the differentiation control strategy could not only satisfy the requirements of the visitors’ and relics simultaneously but also created an environmental balance between the soil and air environments

where the temperature difference between the two decreased to only 0.4 ℃.