A laboratory experiment on natural ventilation through a roof cavity for reduction of solar heat gain

The study targets the reduction of roof solar heat gain through the use of natural ventilation in a roof cavity. This study is mainly concerned with factory buildings. Experimental outcomes were obtained from an inclined cavity model which was heated on the upper surface to mimic solar radiation on a roof. The dimensions of the cavity were 4882 mm× 400 mm × 78 mm. The two opposing smallest sides were allotted as the inlet and outlet, and narrowed to simulate resistance of the air flow in practical applications. Temperature and velocity measuring facilities were prepared in the experimental model. A number of measurements were carried out by varying the combinations of different heat production, inclination angles, and opening ratios. It was found that resistance to heat and air flow in the cavity was strongly influenced by the opening size. When the Reynolds number was examined, it showed that the flow belonged to the laminar region. The average velocity reached to 0.25 m/s at the highest in the examined cases. In other words, the cavity air was turned over 184 times in an hour. Natural ventilation in the roof cavity seemed to be effectively applicable to solar incidence discharges in factory buildings.     

Evaluation of heat flux reduction provided by the use of radiant barriers in clay tile roofs

In Brazilian towns and cities the greatest thermal gain occurs through the roof of single-storey buildings. In this regard, the use of thermal radiation barriers has the function of minimizing the heat flux through the roof. Even though the use of this type of thermal insulation has increased in recent years; there are still no technical standards which address the subject. Thus, many products have become available on the market which have the appearance of a radiant barrier, but without low emissivity, and not functioning properly as thermal insulation. The objective of this study is to analyze the efficiency of some types of radiant barriers found on the civil construction market, as well as to analyze the efficiency of sheets made from the joining together of a solid urban waste, long-live carton packaging, in loco and in the laboratory. The in loco measurements were carried out in a roof of a residence in the city of Florianópolis, where the heat flux, surface temperatures of the tiles and the ceiling, and the internal and external temperatures, were monitored. The laboratory experiments were carried out with an apparatus which simulates the thermal resistances of a real roof. The results allowed the verification of which is the best type of radiant barrier, that is, which achieves the greatest reduction in heat flux through the roof. This study also allowed a comparison between the in loco and laboratory results.     

Enhancement of stack ventilation in hot and humid climate using a combination of roof solar collector and vertical stack

In the hot and humid climate, stack ventilation is inefficient due to small temperature difference between the inside and outside of naturally ventilated buildings. Hence, solar induced ventilation is a feasible alternative in enhancing the stack ventilation. This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of a proposed solar induced ventilation strategy, which combines a roof solar collector and a vertical stack, in enhancing the stack ventilation performance in the hot and humid climate. The methodology selected for the investigation is physical experimental modelling which was carried out in the actual environment. The results are presented and discussed in terms of two performance variables: air temperature and air velocity. The findings indicate that the proposed strategy is able to enhance the stack ventilation, both in semi-clear sky and overcast sky conditions. The highest air temperature difference between the air inside the stack and the ambient air (T_i−T_o) is achieved in the semi-clear sky condition, which is about 9.9 °C (45.8 °C–35.9 °C). Meanwhile, in the overcast sky condition, the highest air temperature difference (T_i−T_o) is 6.2 °C (39.3 °C–33.1 °C). The experimental results also indicate good agreement with the theoretical results for the glass temperature, the air temperature in the roof solar collector’s channel and the absorber temperature. The findings also show that wind has significant effect to the induced air velocity by the proposed strategy.     

Development and preliminary evaluation of double roof prototypes incorporating RBS (radiant barrier system)

Double-skin roof is known as a very effective way to reduce both the conduction and convection heat transfers from roof to the ceiling of building, on the other hand, RBS (radiant barrier system) is very effective in blocking the radiation heat transfer between roof and ceiling. In this study, prototypical double roofs inspired by the concepts of both double-skin structure and RBS technique was specifically designed to cut down the solar heat gain from roof. The effect of energy saving was experimentally measured. A double roof structure, formed by a roof plate and an aluminum foil-PP (polypropylene) board-RC slab, can achieve good performance of heat barrier and is highly recommended.     

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.     

The response of natural displacement ventilation to time-varying heat sources

We examine transients caused by sudden changes in heat load in a naturally ventilated chamber. The space we consider has an isolated heat source, modeled as an ideal plume, and is connected to the exterior via openings at the top and bottom. Pressure differences between the exterior and interior that arise due to the buoyancy in the space drive a natural ventilation flow through the space that generates a two-layer system with buoyant (warm) fluid in the upper layer and ambient fluid in the lower layer. We develop two mathematical models, one assuming perfect mixing of each layer, the other accounting for stratification. We compare both models to small scale laboratory experiments. Neither model is significantly better than the other, and both give good agreement with the experiments.     

Numerical simulation of natural ventilation of a factory roof cavity

The study targets the reduction of roof solar heat gain through the use of natural ventilation in a cavity of a factory roof. In the laboratory experiment [1], the average air velocity reached 0.25 m/s. A simulation program was developed to calculate the heat and air flow attained in the experiment. An airflow passage was divided into sections to trace the pattern of the air temperature rise. When the cavity was divided into 20 sections, it was enough to trace the temperature rise pattern, and hence to calculate buoyancy for natural ventilation. Then the simulated air velocities, temperatures and heat transportations were compared with the experimental results. The molecular viscosity and thermal conductivity of the air were modified to adjust the simulation results to the experimental results in a wide range of experimental conditions. When they were multiplied with a magnitude of 30 equally, the least root mean square of the ratio of deviations of the heat transportation was obtained. This simulation could predict the heat transportation as a result of natural ventilation with a root mean square of the deviation of 0.25 in a short calculation time.     

Possibility of using roof openings for natural ventilation in a shallow urban road tunnel

Naturally ventilated urban vehicular tunnels with multiple roof openings have increased in China. Unnecessary gas (polluted air or fire smoke) are expected to be exhausted out through openings. Whether its safety standards can be satisfied or not still needs to be verified. In this paper, a safe CO concentration was firstly discussed, and a heat risk level of very high to extreme up to 46 °C was given. Secondly, a real 1410 m tunnel was proposed, and a 1/10 scale model tunnel was reproduced. Ambient winds of 0.95 m/s in prototype and 0.3 m/s in model were considered. Under normal traffic test, a track circuit was constructed with model vehicles moving on it to form traffic wind, and once the air velocity was larger than 0.31 m/s, the airflows were found to be not relevant to the Reynolds number. The traffic winds were weakened by openings. For three of all tested traffic, the actual air velocities were larger than the required ones, so its air qualities were satisfied. In firing test, two sets of burning experiments were conducted with which the heat release rates (HRR) were 8.35 kW and 13.7 kW. Large amounts of smoke were exhausted out of openings, and the high-temperature was not significant. Full-scale numerical simulations were carried out to verify the experimental results respectively using Fluent 6.0 for normal traffic and FDS 4.07 for firing. The simulations were compared well with the experiments. Further FDS simulations show that the openings’ mass flow rates are influenced little by ambient temperature; with the increasing length of the buried section, much smoke accumulate inside leading to a high temperature; having 4–5 openings in one shaft group is oversize in the actual engineering design.     

Thermal comfort assessment and application of radiant cooling: A case study

A field assessment of thermal comfort was conducted at Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, situated in the subtropical region of Pakistan. The results show that people of the area were feeling thermally comfortable at effective temperature of 29.85 °C (operative temperature 29.3 °C). A comparison of this neutral effective temperature was made with the neutral effective temperature determined from adaptive models. It is found that the neutral effective temperature determined during this study closely match that of the adaptive model based on either indoor temperature or both indoor and outdoor temperatures. The results of thermal acceptability assessment show that more than 80% of occupants were satisfied at an effective temperature of 32.5 °C, which is 6.5 °C above the upper boundary of ASHRAE thermal comfort zone. Naturally ventilated classrooms and air-conditioned offices of the University were simulated using TRNSYS system simulation program for two cases, once when conventional air-conditioning is used for providing thermal comfort, and when comfort is achieved through radiant cooling. In the simulation, cooling tower was used to regenerate cooling water for the radiant cooling system. Energy consumption was estimated from simulation of both cases. The results show that it is possible to achieve thermal comfort for most of the time of the year through the use of radiant cooling without a risk of condensation of moisture from air on the radiant cooling surfaces. A comparison of the energy consumption estimates show that savings of 80% is possible in case thermal comfort is achieved through radiant cooling instead of conventional air-conditioning.     

Effect of volumetric heat sources on hysteresis phenomena in natural and mixed-mode ventilation

The summer-time cooling efficiency of hybrid buildings depends critically upon exploiting multiple environmental resources to dispose of waste heat. To this end, many previous studies have explored the role of wind, which exerts different static pressures on a building's windward and leeward facades. Here, we consider how this methodology may be extended to the converse problem of winter-time heating wherein hot, buoyant air is purposefully supplied to the interior space using a coupled ventilation scheme. A “blocked” flow regime is desired such that cold air inflow is impeded; to avoid interstitial condensation, the pressure distribution within the building must favor outflow through designated extraction vents. For the idealized geometry considered here, blocked conditions represent a unique solution to the flow equations in well-defined regions of parameter space. The likelihood of blocking may be increased through prudent choice of extraction vent size/orientation depending on the external forcing conditions. A discussion of the inherent tradeoffs associated with multi-season design of hybrid buildings is also presented.     

An analytical and numerical study of solar chimney use for room natural ventilation

The solar chimney concept used for improving room natural ventilation was analytically and numerically studied. The study considered some geometrical parameters such as chimney inlet size and width, which are believed to have a significant effect on space ventilation. The numerical analysis was intended to predict the flow pattern in the room as well as in the chimney. This would help optimizing design parameters. The results were compared with available published experimental and theoretical data. There was an acceptable trend match between the present analytical results and the published data for the room air change per hour, ACH. Further, it was noticed that the chimney width has a more significant effect on ACH compared to the chimney inlet size. The results showed that the absorber average temperature could be correlated to the intensity as: (T_w = 3.51I^0.461) with an accepted range of approximation error. In addition the average air exit velocity was found to vary with the intensity as (ν_ex = 0.013I^0.4).     

Heat source modelling and natural ventilation efficiency

We compare natural ventilation flows established by a range of heat source distributions at floor level. Both evenly distributed and highly localised line and point source distributions are considered. We demonstrate that modelling the ventilation flow driven by a uniformly distributed heat source is equivalent to the flow driven by a large number of localised sources. A model is developed for the transient flow development in a room with a uniform heat distribution and is compared with existing models for localised buoyancy inputs. For large vent areas the flow driven by localised heat sources reaches a steady state more rapidly than the uniformly distributed case. For small vent areas there is little difference in the transient development times. Our transient model is then extended to consider the time taken to flush a neutrally buoyant pollutant from a naturally ventilated room. Again comparisons are drawn between uniform and localised (point and line) heat source geometries. It is demonstrated that for large vent areas a uniform heat distribution provides the fastest flushing. However, for smaller vent areas, localised heat sources produce the fastest flushing. These results are used to suggest a definition for the term ‘natural ventilation efficiency’, and a model is developed to estimate this efficiency as a function of the room and heat source geometries.     

太阳能强化烟囱技术在强化室内自然通风中的研究进展

详细阐述了研究背景、技术原理、研究进展以及研究意义。在总结国内外学者在该领域的主要研究方法和成果的基础上,指出了目前存在的问题。结合当前我国室内通风设计的现状,给出了富有建设性的意见。     

Experimental study of natural roof ventilation in full-scale enclosure fire tests in a small compartment

An analysis of full-scale fire test experimental data is presented for a small compartment (3×3.6×2.3 m). A square steady fire source is placed in the center of the compartment. There is an open door and a horizontal opening in the roof, so that natural ventilation is established for the well-ventilated fire. A parameter study is performed, covering a range of total fire heat release rates (330, 440 and 550 kW), fire source areas (0.3×0.3 m and 0.6×0.6 m) and roof ventilation opening areas (1.45×1 m, 0.75×1 m and 0.5×1 m). The impact of the different parameters is examined on the smoke layer depth and the temperature variations in vertical direction in the compartment. Both mean temperatures and temperature fluctuations are reported. The total fire heat release rate value has the strongest influence on the hot smoke layer average temperature rise, while the influence of the fire source area and the roof opening is smaller. The hot smoke layer depth, determined from the measured temperature profiles, is primarily influenced by the fire source area, while the total fire heat release rate and the roof opening only have a small impact. Correlations are given for the hot smoke layer average temperature rise, the buoyancy reference velocity and the total smoke mass flow rate out of the compartment, as a function of the different parameters mentioned. Based on the experimental findings, it is discussed that different manual calculation methods, widely used for natural ventilation design of compartments in the case of fire, under-predict the hot layer thickness and total smoke mass flow rate, while the hot layer average temperature is over-estimated.     

Effect of roof solar reflectance on the building heat gain in a hot climate

The effect of the roof solar reflectance on the thermal performance of a building is often ignored. However, there are significant differences in heat gain from light and dark-coloured roof surfaces. In this paper an equation for the average daily downward heat flow of a sunlit roof is derived. Using building simulation, it is first shown that the thermal mass of the roof does not significantly affect the overall daily heat gain (although it causes a time lag and reduction in peak heat flow). As a consequence the daily heat gain from the roof may be estimated by integrating the equation for the steady-state downward heat transfer over the day. For north Australia the derived equation suggests that a light-coloured roof has about 30% lower total (air temperature difference and solar-driven) heat gain than a dark-coloured one. The effect of aging (change in solar reflectance with time) is considered in the calculations and a relationship between the solar absorptance of new and aged material is suggested. A classification of roof colours with respect to their solar absorptance (dark, medium, light and reflective) is proposed to enable a quick and simple assessment of the effect of roof colour on the heat gain and R-value.     

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.     

General expressions for the calculation of air flow and heat transfer rates in tall ventilation cavities

Solar heated tall ventilation cavities including solar chimneys are used to enhance natural ventilation of buildings. A validated CFD model was used to predict the buoyancy-driven air flow and heat transfer rates in vertical ventilation cavities with various combinations of heat distribution on two vertical walls ranging from symmetrical to fully asymmetrical heating. The natural ventilation rate and heat transfer rate have been found to vary with the total heat input, heat distribution on the cavity walls, cavity width and height and inlet opening position. General expressions for these variables have been obtained and presented in non-dimensional terms, Nusselt number, Reynolds number, Rayleigh number and aspect ratio (H/b), as Nu = f(Ra, H/b) and Nu = f(Ra, Re) or Re = f(Ra, Nu), for natural ventilation design.     

Simulation of buoyancy-driven natural ventilation of buildings—Impact of computational domain

Two computational domains have been used for simulation of buoyancy-driven natural ventilation in vertical cavities for different total heat fluxes and wall heat distributions. Results were compared between cavities with horizontal and vertical inlets. The predicted ventilation rate and heat transfer coefficient have been found to depend on the domain size and inlet position as well as the cavity size and heat distribution ratio. The difference in the predicted ventilation rate or heat transfer coefficient using two domains is generally larger for wider cavities with asymmetrical heating and is also larger for ventilation cavities with a horizontal inlet than those with a vertical inlet. The difference in the heat transfer coefficient is generally less than that in the ventilation rate. In addition, a ventilation cavity with symmetrical heating has a higher ventilation rate but generally lower heat transfer coefficient than does an asymmetrically heated cavity. A computational domain larger than the physical size should be used for accurate prediction of the flow rate and heat transfer in ventilation cavities or naturally ventilated buildings with large openings, particularly with multiple inlets and outlets. This is demonstrated with two examples for natural ventilation of buildings.     

Contribution of natural ventilation in a double skin envelope to heating load reduction in winter

This study examined the contribution of a double skin envelope (DSE) to the heating energy savings brought about by natural ventilation in office buildings. A DSE was applied to the east- and west-facing walls on an actual three-floor building. Field measurements and computer simulations were performed in winter.     

Model development and experimental validation of a floriculture greenhouse under natural ventilation

Greenhouse technology is an effective method of cultivation of flowers, crops, etc. under controlled environment. For any greenhouse, ventilation performance is a major factor in production, influencing the yield and quality of the products. Natural ventilation can be effectively used to maintain greenhouse microclimate, conducive to plant growth, when the ambient conditions are not extreme. The present paper discusses the modeling aspects of a floriculture greenhouse suitable for operation in typical Indian climate under natural ventilation. Combined ridge and sidewall ventilation is considered in the model. The model is validated against the test results of an experimental greenhouse. Parametric analysis is also done to understand the effects of variations in parameters such as wind speed, solar radiation intensity, effective greenhouse height etc. The study reveals that the performance of a greenhouse under natural ventilation is influenced considerably by parameters such as intensity of solar radiation, effective distance between the side and the roof vents, free wind speed etc.