Measuring the human body's microclimate using a thermal manikin

The human body is surrounded by a microclimate, which results from its convective release of heat. In this study, the air temperature and flow velocity of this microclimate were measured in a climate chamber at various room temperatures, using a thermal manikin simulating the heat release of the human being. Different techniques (Particle Streak Tracking, thermography, anemometry, and thermistors) were used for measurement and visualization. The manikin surface temperature was adjusted to the particular indoor climate based on simulations with a thermoregulation model (UCBerkeley Thermal Comfort Model). We found that generally, the microclimate is thinner at the lower part of the torso, but expands going up. At the head, there is a relatively thick thermal layer, which results in an ascending plume above the head. However, the microclimate shape strongly depends not only on the body segment, but also on boundary conditions: The higher the temperature difference between the surface temperature of the manikin and the air temperature, the faster the airflow in the microclimate. Finally, convective heat transfer coefficients strongly increase with falling room temperature, while radiative heat transfer coefficients decrease. The type of body segment strongly influences the convective heat transfer coefficient, while only minimally influencing the radiative heat transfer coefficient.     

Determining the thermal capacitance,conductivity and the convective heat transfer coefficient of a brick wall by annually monitored temperatures and total heat fluxes

The finite volume scheme and complex Fourier analysis methods are proposed to determine the thermal capacitance (defined as the product of density and specific capacity) and thermal conductivity for a building construction layer using the monitored inner/outer surface temperatures and heat fluxes. The overall heat transfer coefficient for the air gap, and the convective heat transfer coefficient for air gap surfaces and room surfaces are determined by the linear relationship between the surface convective heat flux and the temperature difference. Convective heat flux is obtained by removing the thermal radiation flux from the total surface heat flux. Finally, the predicted surface heat fluxes using the calculated thermal properties and ASHRAE values were compared with the measurements.     

The effect of south wall's outdoor absorption coefficient on time lag,decrement factor and temperature variations

In this study, the effect of outdoor absorption coefficient of an opaque wall on time lag, decrement factor and temperature variations is investigated by employing a dynamic thermal-network model. The model simulates heat transfer by conduction through the wall and considers convection boundary conditions under detailed forcing functions on the wall outer and inner surfaces. The transient analysis is based on the fundamental principles of thermal circuits and the well-known analogies between the thermal and electrical laws are employed. The effect of the solar absorptivity, is examined for representative wall formations including masonry, insulation and coatings on both surfaces. The insulation is placed as one or two layers on the outer, the inner or in the mid-center of the masonry. The investigation is carried out for a wall with south orientation during the cooling season in the Mediterranean region. The analyses presume a non-sinusoidal periodical excitation that simulates precisely the effect of the outdoor environmental conditions. Computer results show how these varied aspects affect thermal inertia parameters and outdoor/indoor temperature peaks.     

混凝土砌块墙体检测中的几个问题

墙体主体传热系数通常使用热流计进行测量.本文分析了热流计的使用条件,提出对于砌块墙体等表面温度分布不均匀的墙体,不适宜使用热流计测量其主体传热系数的观点.而后以混凝土砌块墙体为例,分别模拟了不同室外温度时,不保温、外保温和内保温3种情况下,墙体内外表面温度分布的情况.并针对保温墙体改变其保温层厚度.得出墙体内外表面温度及温差变化的趋势,进而得到应将热流计粘贴在保温层一侧对保温墙体进行检测的结论.模拟结果还显示,当室外温度大于0℃时,对于保温层厚度大于70 mm的内保温墙体,也可将热流计贴在不保温的一侧进行检测.     

相变墙体冬季传热性能评价及相变参数优化

本文从相变墙体冬季的传热过程出发,提出“保温因子”和“放热因子”评价其传热性能。然后,利用热阻法建立相变墙体在冬季的传热模型,并利用单因素分析的方法研究相变墙体内外层热阻和相变温度对“保温因子”和“放热因子”的影响,结果显示当相变墙体的作用是保温的情况下,相变层应布置在墙体的外侧,相变温度应该接近室内空气温度。当相变墙体的作用是放热的情况下,相变层应布置在墙体的内侧,相变温度应该尽量高一些。本研究可以为相变墙体的应用提供理论支持。     

A data analysis method for detecting wall thermal resistance considering wind velocity in situ

To improve the accuracy of data analysis methods for the field measurement of wall thermal resistance, a method considering wind velocity is presented through an analysis of both surface heat flux and temperature samples. This analysis method takes the wall heat transfer of linear system into account, simplifying the first order differential equation of wall transient response based on the nodes of the interior and exterior wall surfaces. An approximate solution has been proposed in the form of time domain interpolation. By applying the weighted residual method for the approximate solution, the data analysis method about temperature, heat flux, and wind velocity can be achieved.A transient heat transfer model of a wall was established applying the infinite difference method, by which the proposed analysis method was validated in this paper. Additionally, the heat flow meter experiment platform considering wind velocity was built, on which the proposed method, the mean method and the dynamic analysis method suggested by the international standard ISO 9869 were applied to the test wall under different wind velocities. The wall thermal resistance value obtained in our proposed method has proven to be in better agreement with that obtained for a steady state.     

Experimental evaluation of heat transfer coefficients between radiant ceiling and room

The heat transfer coefficients between radiant surfaces and room are influenced by several parameters: surfaces temperature distributions, internal gains, air movements.The aim of this paper is to evaluate the heat transfer coefficients between radiant ceiling and room in typical conditions of occupancy of an office or residential building. Internal gains were therefore simulated using heated cylinders and heat losses using cooled surfaces. Evaluations were developed by means of experimental tests in an environmental chamber.Heat transfer coefficient may be expressed separately for radiation and convection or as one total parameter, but this choice may lead to different considerations about thermal performance of the system. In order to perform correct evaluations, it is therefore extremely important to use the proper reference temperature.The obtained values confirm tendencies found in the literature, indicating limitations and possibilities of radiant ceiling systems improvement.     

大空间建筑室内热环境CFD模拟中壁温及室温的求解

应用PHOENICS软件模拟某体育馆的室内热环境,将壁温作为模拟的第一类边界条件。建立了室内表面对流辐射耦合换热方程,着重讨论了采用表面换热分析法求解表面传热系数以求解壁温的方法。因壁温计算和室温计算互相耦合,采用迭代计算的方法求解壁温和室温。模拟计算结果与实测结果基本吻合。     

Newspaper sandwiched aerated lightweight concrete wall panels—Thermal inertia, transient thermal behavior and surface temperature prediction

Experimental investigation on aerated lightweight concrete (ALC) wall panels in terms of thermal inertia, transient thermal behavior and surface temperature prediction using finite difference method (FDM) are the main focus of this study. ALC wall panels of different density and different aerial intensity of newspaper sandwiched were produced and installed on a prototype house. The ALC wall panels were facing east direction and subjected to Malaysia natural environment condition. The inner and outer surface temperatures of the wall panels were recorded at 3 min interval, 24 h a day for a period of one year. Time lag and decrement factor were computed from the surface temperatures recorded. The results showed that thermal diffusivity has a positive relationship to the thermal inertia of ALC wall panels. FDM was used to predict the surfaces temperature and the predicted temperature was close to the observed temperature. The average differences between the observed and the predicted outer wall surface temperature lied between 1.4 and 2.4% whereas for the inner wall surface, the range was 1.3-2.2%. Greater deviations were detected on the predicted outer surface temperature could be due to some unaccounted factors such as wind direction and relative humidity in the present FDM.     

Experimental investigation into the interaction between the human body and room airflow and its effect on thermal comfort under stratum ventilation

Room occupants' comfort and health are affected by the airflow. Nevertheless, they themselves also play an important role in indoor air distribution. This study investigated the interaction between the human body and room airflow under stratum ventilation. Simplified thermal manikin was employed to effectively resemble the human body as a flow obstacle and/or free convective heat source. Unheated and heated manikins were designed to fully evaluate the impact of the manikin at various airflow rates. Additionally, subjective human tests were conducted to evaluate thermal comfort for the occupants in two rows. The findings show that the manikin formed a local blockage effect, but the supply airflow could flow over it. With the body heat from the manikin, the air jet penetrated farther compared with that for the unheated manikin. The temperature downstream of the manikin was also higher because of the convective effect. Elevating the supply airflow rate from 7 to 15 air changes per hour varied the downstream airflow pattern dramatically, from an uprising flow induced by body heat to a jet‐dominated flow. Subjective assessments indicated that stratum ventilation provided thermal comfort for the occupants in both rows. Therefore, stratum ventilation could be applied in rooms with occupants in multiple rows.     

寒冷地区通信机房外墙厚度计算模型研究

通过对寒冷地区通信机房外墙的研究和总结,重点研究室外气候条件与通信机房墙体传热系数和墙体厚度的关系,并且利用节能计算公式分析,总结出一个简单的数学计算模型。经过实例验证,结果证明寒冷地区不同城市的通信机房,各围护结构的传热总量相同时,其节能方案的墙体厚度只与当地气候条件有关。笔者认为,计算模型的建立能够使寒冷地区通信机房的研究结果更加具有普遍性。     

大连地区特隆布墙夏季不同降温方式的实验研究

对比分析了五种方案下墙体的温度场和得热量,确定了较为合理的特隆布墙夏季运行方案,即卷帘白天放下、夜间开启,外通风口全天开启,内通风口自动启闭。与对比房的比较结果表明采用该方案不仅有效解决了特隆布墙夏季过热问题,而且还可以对室内进行一定程度的被动式降温。针对实际应用,提出了进一步强化特隆布墙降温效果的措施。     

混合对流作用下通风小室内流动换热的数值模拟

本文对一个侧壁受定热流作用的通风小室在两种气流组织型式下的混合对流换热情况进行了数值模拟,计算得到了流场,温度场及混合对流条件下室内的换热情况等随雷诺数Ｒａ的变化规律。     

Measurements and computations of ventilation efficiency and temperature efficiency in a ventilated room

In order to improve the indoor air quality in a room and to save energy, the air movement and contamination distributions in the room with ventilation have been studied experimentally and numerically. The experiment is carried out in a full-scale climate room with different air supply systems, heat gains from the venetian blinds and ventilation rates. The measurements concern room airflow patterns and air temperature, velocity and contamination concentration fields, etc. The airflow computer program PHOENICS and the cooling load program ACCURACY have been applied for the numerical simulations. PHOENICS solves the conservation equations of air mass, momentum, energy, concentration, kinetic energy and dissipation rate of kinetic energy. ACCURACY, which considers the influence of room air temperature distributions, is employed for the determination of cooling load, wall surface temperatures and convective heat transfer on room enclosure surfaces. These are the boundary conditions required by PHOENICS.The agreements between the computations and the measurements are good. The ventilation efficiency and temperature efficiency which are used for evaluation of indoor air quality and energy consumption are reported for each case. Additional application of these computations to annual energy analysis is also discussed.     

Experimental study of radiation and free convection in an enclosure with a radiant ceiling heating system

Participation of the radiation and free convection in the heat transferred from the ceiling surface of a room to other internal surfaces has been investigated in this study. A model enclosure representing a room was constructed and equipped with a radiant ceiling heating system. In order to have a thermal map over both internal and external surfaces of the enclosure, 108 elements were specified over the walls, floor and ceiling of the enclosure. Temperatures at both sides of the elements were measured using an infrared thermometer and k-type thermocouples under steady state heat flow condition. Using the measured temperatures, conductive heat transfer through the compartment elements was first calculated. A model based on the net-radiation method was employed to compute the radiation exchanges between internal surfaces of the elements. Convection participation was also specified using radiation and conduction for each element. Based on the results, more than 90% of the heat is transferred by the radiation from the heated ceiling to the other surfaces of enclosure. The participation of the radiation increases slightly as the ceiling temperature is increased.     

Coupled heat transfer modes for calculation of cooling load through hollow concrete building walls

A CFD model was developed to study thermal performance of hollow cement wall constructions of buildings under hot summer conditions. The approach employed couples conjugate, laminar natural convective flow of a viscous fluid in hollow building blocks with long-wave radiation between the cavity sides. Realistic boundary conditions were employed at the outdoor and indoor surfaces of the wall. A state-of-art building energy simulation program, ESP-r, was used to determine the outdoor thermal environment that included solar radiation, equivalent temperature of the surroundings and convective heat transfer coefficient. The CFD problem is put into dimensionless formulation and solved numerically by means of the control-volume approach. The study yielded comprehensive, detailed quantitative estimates of temperature, stream function and heat flux throughout the wall domain. A detailed parametric study showed that using a wider cavity within a building block does not necessarily reduce heat flux through the block. Radiation heat transfer between cavity sides may account for a significant fraction of heat flux through the block and neglecting its effect can lead to errors that could be as large as 46%. The geometry of the hollow blocks was demonstrated to affect the heat flux by as much as 30%.     

Experimental and numerical investigation on bare tube cross flow heat exchanger-using COMSOL

ABSTRACT

In this study, COMSOL multi-physics modelling software was used to make a computational model of a bare helical tube cross flow heat exchanger in order to simulate the temperature changes in the heat exchanger. The computational results of heat transfer are validated by using the analytical models. A conjugate convection/conduction heat transfer model was developed, which exhibited good agreement to the experiments. A different velocity of air taken into the consideration to find out the temperature distribution through the pipe and air temperature inside the duct. The temperature profile, and the overall heat transfer rate from the wall of the tube were calculated and plotted for theoretical, experimental and Numerical method using the k- conjugate heat transfer model. The model is validated through comparison with theoretical relations for single-pass cross-flow arrangements and with experimental results also. Simulation results showed good agreement with experimental values with respect to different mass flow rates.     

Convective heat transfer coefficients in a full-scale room with and without furniture

The convective heat transfer coefficient at an outer ambient wall with a window exposed to natural climate was measured in a room with and without furniture. The method used was to estimate the heat flow from measured temperatures and solar radiation. The convective heat transfer was calculated as the difference between the heat flow through the building element and the calculated long-wave radiation. Even though the accuracy was at best ±15%, the effect of different heating and ventilation strategies could clearly be detected. Local coefficients may be more than 10 times the expected, due to ventilation or position of the radiator.     

The effect of internal heat source and opening locations on environmental natural ventilation

Two-dimensional computational simulations are performed to examine the effect of open location on natural ventilation for room with an internal heat source. The room is symmetrically cooled from the sides and insulated from lower and upper walls. The analysis of the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of the natural ventilation was carried out by the method of streamline and temperature contours. Three different cases of local open length on lower and upper walls are studied for Rayleigh numbers ranging from 10³ to 10⁵ and open aspect ratio varied from 0.0 to 0.8. The results show that the enhancement of the heat transfer is the greatest at high Rayleigh numbers and open aspect ratios. The best position for the open locations was found out to be on the upper wall as shown in case 3.     

Modeling thermal response of steel–concrete floor systems in a furnace

A methodology was developed to predict the thermal exposure from a furnace onto a floor assembly specimen. In furnaces with low conductivity wall linings and gas fired burners with complete combustion, the gas attenuation effects were determined to be small indicating that radiation between surfaces and convection are the dominant modes of heat transfer. This was modeled by assigning the internal furnace wall temperature to the furnace time–temperature exposure and performing a three-dimensional heat transfer analysis on the specimen. The furnace exposure model predicted heat transfer to the specimen surface that was within 5–14% of measured heat fluxes. The proposed furnace exposure methodology was used to predict the temperature rise of steel in a floor assembly where the test specimen can view itself as well as the furnace, making radiation exchange an important aspect of the problem. Predictions were within 5–10% of the measured values, which was within the experimental uncertainty.