Thermal radiation properties of galvanized steel and its importance in enclosure fire scenarios

Measurements of the emissivity of hot dip galvanized steel have been performed as a function of temperature from about 200 to 650°C. These results have been used to calculate the temperature increase of a fire-exposed galvanized steel surface according to the European Recommendations for Fire Safety of Steel Structures. It can be concluded that the radiative heat transfer dominates over the convective heat transfer after some minutes. Using a constant estimated value for the emissivity can lead to discrepancies with a real situation. Under certain circumstances a step function for (T) seems useful.     

CFD simulations of a tunnel fire—Part II

The sensitivity of results of simulations of the area downstream of a fire in a tunnel to several factors was quantified. The factors were natural convective heat transfer, radiative heat transfer, wall roughness, downstream boundary position, slope and turbulence model. The results were most sensitive to natural convection, radiation and wall roughness. The results were not sensitive to which of the two turbulence models were used, nor to the position of the downstream boundary position. Overall uncertainties between the simulations were up to 60%, and temperatures were overpredicted in the base case by up to 75 K. The simulation carried out using a combination of factors gave maximum temperatures at the downstream end of the tunnel within 25 K of the experiments.     

Performance of phase change material boards under natural convection

The high thermal storage capacity of phase change material (PCM) can reduce energy consumption in buildings through energy storage and release when combined with renewable energy sources, night cooling, etc. PCM boards can be used to absorb heat gains during daytime and release heat at night. In this paper, the thermal performance of an environmental chamber fitted with phase change material boards has been investigated. During a full-cycle experiment, i.e. charging–releasing cycle, the PCM boards on a wall can reduce the interior wall surface temperature during the charging process, whereas the PCM wall surface temperature is higher than that of the other walls during the heat releasing process. It is found that the heat flux density of the PCM wall in the melting zone is almost twice as large as that of ordinary wall. Also, the heat-insulation performance of a PCM wall is better than that of an ordinary wall during the charging process, while during the heat discharging process, the PCM wall releases more heat energy. The convective heat transfer coefficient of PCM wall surface calculated using equations for a normal wall material produces an underestimation of this coefficient. The high convective heat transfer coefficient for a PCM wall is due to the increased energy exchange between the wall and indoor air.     

Surface configuration relevance in the overall thermal resistance of a wall

In the present work studies of experimental nature were made to evaluate the importance of the wall surface configuration related to its overall thermal resistance. A parameter with major importance in the value of such resistance is the convection heat transfer coefficient. In this way, several different surfaces were built and the correspondent convection coefficient was determined for natural convection conditions. As a reference for the comparative study a smooth surface has also been constructed. The value of the convection coefficient for each surface was obtained with the help of an infrared thermography system. The obtained results show a reasonable reduction in the smooth surface convection coefficient, which leads to an increase in overall thermal resistance. Therefore, if the objective is to increase the heat transfer rate between a surface and its neighbours there should be used roughness surfaces.     

Design considerations with ventilation-radiators: Comparisons to traditional two-panel radiators

Performance of heat emitters in a room is affected by their interaction with the ventilation system. A radiator gives more heat output with increased air flow along its heat transferring surface, and with increased thermal difference to surrounding air. Radiator heat output and comfort temperatures in a small one-person office were studied using different positions for the ventilation air inlet. In two of the four test cases the air inlet was placed between radiator panels to form ventilation-radiator systems. Investigations were made by CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations, and included visualisation of thermal comfort conditions, as well as radiator heat output comparisons. The room model was exhaust-ventilated, with an air exchange rate equal to what is recommended for Swedish offices (7 l s⁻¹ per person) and cold infiltration air (−5 °C) typical of a winter day in Stockholm.Results showed that under these conditions ventilation-radiators were able to create a more stable thermal climate than the traditional radiator ventilation arrangements. In addition, when using ventilation-radiators the desired thermal climate could be achieved with a radiator surface temperature as much as 7.8 °C lower. It was concluded that in exhaust-ventilated office rooms, ventilation-radiators can provide energy and environmental savings.     

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.     

Experimental investigation of the influence of the air jet trajectory on convective heat transfer in buildings equipped with air-based and radiant cooling systems

The complexity and diversity of airflow in buildings make the accurate definition of convective heat transfer coefficients (CHTCs) difficult. In a full-scale test facility, the convective heat transfer of two cooling systems (active chilled beam and radiant wall) has been investigated under steady-state and dynamic conditions. With the air-based cooling system, a dependency of the convective heat transfer on the air jet trajectory has been observed. New correlations have been developed, introducing a modified Archimedes number to account for the air flow pattern. The accuracy of the new correlations has been evaluated to±15%. Besides the study with an air-based cooling system, the convective heat transfer with a radiant cooling system has also been investigated. The convective flow at the activated surface is mainly driven by natural convection. For other surfaces, the complexity of the flow and the large uncertainty on the CHTCs make the validation of existing correlations difficult.     

CFD modelling of the air and contaminant distribution in rooms

The k-ϵ model is a widely used model in engineering practice in handling indoor air quality problem. However, difficulties may arise when using the high Reynolds number k-ϵ model to simulate air flow patterns close to the boundaries of air and the stagnant component as well as the low air flow fluctuation elsewhere in a room. When using the k-ϵ model for low Reynolds number cases, the correlations between turbulent coefficients and turbulent Reynolds number must also be defined. By using the so-called Kolmogorov micro scale method, a new set of turbulent coefficient functions was deduced in this paper for the k-ϵ model in a case of low Reynolds number flow. Using the standard wall function leads to large differences between the measured and calculated heat transfer coefficient. A special wall function valid for a viscous sublayer, a buffer zone and a fully turbulent log-law zone is recommended in this paper. In addition, the modelling of air terminal devices in CFD simulations is summarized by using a literature collection.     

Effect of an Absorptive Coating on Solar Energy Storage in a Thrombe wall system

An analysis is undertaken to show the effects of a range of coating absorptivity values on the improvement of heat transfer across a Trombe wall (which is used for passive solar heating) and to its enclosure. The analysis shows that enhanced heat delivery to the enclosure of a Trombe wall system is feasible with the application of an absorptive coating of a superior nature – characterized by high absorptivity and very low emissivity – on the heat-receiving surface of the wall and thus can be seen as a heat transfer enhancement technique.     

High-resolution CFD simulations for forced convective heat transfer coefficients at the facade of a low-rise building

High-resolution 3D steady RANS CFD simulations of forced convective heat transfer at the facades of a low-rise cubic (10 × 10 × 10 m³) building are performed to determine convective heat transfer coefficients (CHTC). The focus is on the windward facade. CFD validation is performed based on wind tunnel measurements of velocity and heat transfer for reduced-scale cubic models. The CFD simulations employ a high-resolution grid with, for the 10 m cubic building, cell centres at a minimum distance of 160 μm from the building surface to resolve the entire boundary layer, including the viscous sublayer and the buffer layer, which dominate the convective surface resistance. The results show that: (1) the wind flow around the building results in highly varying CHTC values across the windward facade; (2) standard and non-equilibrium wall functions are not suitable for CHTC calculation, necessitating either low-Reynolds number modelling or specially-adapted wall functions; (3) at every facade position, the CHTC is a power-law function of the mean wind speed; (4) the CHTC distribution at the windward facade is relatively insensitive to wind direction variations in the 0–67.5° angle range; (5) the CHTC shows a stronger spatial correlation with the turbulent kinetic energy than with the mean wind speed across the facade; and (6) the CHTC distribution across the windward facade is quite similar to the distribution of wind-driven rain (WDR), with both parameters reaching high levels near the top edge of the facade. This suggests that also the convective moisture transfer coefficient will be higher at this location and that the facade parts that receive most WDR might also experience a higher drying rate.     

The effects of emissivity on the performance of steel in furnace tests

The role that surface emissivity plays in the standard furnace test (BS476) is considered for steel sections. Steel samples coated with either a low-emissivity paint or a high-emissivity paint were subjected to furnace tests and cone calorimeter tests in order to quantify the degree to which emissivity affects performance. The cone calorimeter experiments were designed primarily to determine the emissivity of the coatings and to compare with the manufacturer's estimates. However, a welcome additional benefit of this analysis was an estimate of the average convection heat transfer coefficient h for horizontal test specimens in the cone calorimeter. Our measurements suggest that h has been significantly underestimated (in some cases by at least 50%) in the literature to date. Most studies appear to assume a value for h that is close to the value for free convection for a hot plate with hot surface uppermost (something in the region 10–15 W m⁻² K⁻¹). Our results suggest that a figure closer to 28 W m⁻² K⁻¹ is more appropriate. The furnace tests showed that emissivity has a low-order effect on performance and so we are able to conclude that convective heat transfer is dominant in these situations.     

平板显示器辐射散热比例影响因素分析

利用经验公式计算竖直平板显示器散热量,并计算显示器辐射散热比。分析了显示器表面发射率、平板设备表面温度、空气温度、围护结构表面温度和平板显示器高度这5个因素对辐射散热的影响。结果表明,辐射散热比例随着平板表面温度的升高先增大后减小。空气温度和围护结构表面温度在平板表面温度低于50℃时,对辐射散热比例影响比较明显;而当平板表面温度高于40℃时,随着特征长度增加,辐射散热比例先增大后减小。     

Numerical and experimental study of conjugate heat transfer in a horizontal air cavity

The demand for general reduction of the energy consumption in civil engineering leads to more frequent use of insulating materials with air gaps or cavities. Heat transfer through a constructional part can be decreased by adding an air gap and low emissivity reflective foils to the structure. In the first part of this paper, the impacts of cavity thickness and inner surface emissivity on combined conduction, convection and radiation heat transfer was experimentally explored in the case of constructional part with a horizontal cavity subjected to constant downward heat flux. The heat flow meter Netzsch HFM 436 Lambda was used for steady-state measurements. Results suggest that the studied parameters seriously affect the combined heat transfer in the composed structure. In the second part the paper reports the numerical study of two-dimensional conjugate heat transfer in closed horizontal cavity having air as the intervening medium. Numerical models validated by related experimental results were performed to further investigate the effect of radiation heat transfer. It was found that in general, the total heat flux through the composed structure decreases with increasing air cavity thickness, which is significant especially when low emissivity inner surfaces are taking into account. The direction of heat flow (downward or upward heat flow) has a significant impact on the convection heat transfer. An important contribution from the present work is the analysis of the optimal thickness of the cavity at different boundary conditions. The optimal thickness of the enclosure with low emissivity surfaces is 16 mm when subjected to upward heat flux.     

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.     

An adjusted temperature wall function for turbulent forced convective heat transfer for bluff bodies in the atmospheric boundary layer

Accurate convective heat transfer predictions are required in building engineering and environmental studies on urban heat islands, building energy performance, building-envelope durability or conservation and (natural) ventilation of buildings. When applying computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for these computationally-expensive studies at high-Reynolds numbers, wall functions are mostly used to model the boundary-layer region. In this study, an adjustment to the standard temperature wall function is proposed for forced convective heat transfer at surfaces of typical wall-mounted bluff bodies in turbulent boundary layers, such as the atmospheric boundary layer, at moderate to high Reynolds numbers. The methodology to determine this customised temperature wall function (CWF) from validated numerical data of CFD simulations using low-Reynolds number modelling (LRNM) is explained, where a logarithmic- law behaviour is found. The performance of this CWF is evaluated for several bluff-body configurations. Standard wall functions (SWFs) yield deviations of about 40% for the convective heat transfer coefficient, compared to LRNM. With the CWF however, these deviations are reduced to about 10% or lower. The CWF therefore combines increased (wall-function) accuracy for convective heat transfer predictions with the typical advantage of wall functions compared to LRNM, being a lower grid resolution in the near-wall region, which increases computational economy and facilitates grid generation. Furthermore, this CWF can be easily implemented in existing CFD codes, and is implemented in the commercial CFD code Fluent in this study.     

散热器背面与墙距离对散热量的影响

通过实验研究给出了几种常用散热器距墙不同时的散热量，并经过分析指出：散热器紧贴墙面安装会使散热量降低；板式散热器在距墙３ｃｍ时散热量最大；柱型散热器距墙１～５ｃｍ时散热量无大变化。     

Measurements of air temperatures close to a low-velocity diffuser in displacement ventilation using an infrared camera

The near zone of supply air diffusers is very critical for the indoor climate. Complaints of draft are often associated with low-velocity diffusers in displacement ventilation because the air is discharged directly into the occupied zone. Today, the knowledge of the near zone of these air supply diffusers is insufficient, causing an increased need for better measuring methods and representation of the occupied zone.A whole-field measuring technique has been developed by the authors for visualization of air temperatures and airflow patterns over a large cross-section. In this particular whole-field method, air temperatures are measured with an infrared camera and a measuring screen placed in the airflow. The technique is applicable to most laboratory and field test environments. It offers several advantages over traditional techniques; for example, it can record real-time images within large areas and capture transient events.The purpose of this study was to conduct a parameter and error analysis of the proposed whole-field measuring method applied to a flow from a low-velocity diffuser in displacement ventilation. A model of the energy balance, for a solid measuring screen, was used for analyzing the influence of different parameters on the accuracy of the method. The analysis was performed with respect to the convective heat transfer coefficient, emissivity, screen temperature and surrounding surface temperatures.Theoretically, the temperature difference between the screen and the ambient air was found to be 0.2–2.4 °C for the specific delimitation in the investigation. However, after applying correction the maximum uncertainty of the predicted air temperature was found to vary between 0.62 and 0.98 °C, due to uncertainties in estimating parameters used in the correction. The maximum uncertainty can be reduced to a great extent by estimating the convective heat transfer coefficient more accurately and using a screen with rather low emissivity.     

Field measurements for estimating the convective heat transfer coefficient at building surfaces

To establish a comprehensive and qualitative prediction basis for the convective heat transfer coefficient (CHTC) for various urban canopy surfaces mainly consisting of building envelopes, a series of outdoor experiments were performed. Multi-point measurements of surface heat balance lead to a distribution of the CHTC on an actual building envelope. Several turbulent statistical values acquired at two different sites enabled the development of an experimental equation depicted by non-dimensional numbers that express a relationship between CHTC and wind velocity containing a turbulent factor. An important thing is the fact that the two measuring sites, one a rooftop slab and the other the vertical wall of a test dwelling, have different scales and different surface directions facing the wind.     

Improvement of thermal performance through window surface with interior blind by analyzing detailed heat transfer

Generally, the cooling loads of buildings with interior blinds are greater than those of buildings with exterior blinds. This is caused by convective and infrared heat gain from the blind and the air gap between the blind and the window’s inner surface. The aim of this study is to determine the optimum thermal properties of an interior blind that can generate the minimum window heat gain. Therefore, we analyzed the detailed window heat gain with several variables of window blinds. In addition, we found the best performance case in terms of the combination of the solar reflectance and the infrared emissivity that has the minimum window heat gain according to the different slat angles. We used the EnergyPlus software V.8.1 verified according to the ANSI/ASHRAE standard 140-2011 to analyze the detailed window heat gain. The results of this study informed the following conclusions. Increasing the solar reflectance of both sides of the blind slat is advantageous to reduce the window heat gain with the interior blind, regardless of the blind slat angle. Moreover, increasing the infrared emissivity of both sides of the blind slat is the best way to reduce the window heat gain in the case of the blind slat angle of 0°. However, in other cases, the best way to reduce the window heat gain is to increase the infrared emissivity of the front side of the blind slat and decrease the infrared emissivity of the back side of the blind slat.     

Improving predictions of heat transfer in indoor environments with eddy viscosity turbulence models

Heat transfer modelling in indoor environments requires an accurate prediction of the convective heat transfer phenomenon. Because of the lower computational cost and numerical stability, eddy viscosity turbulence models are often used. These models allow modification to turbulent Prandtl number, and near wall correction which influences stagnation points, entrainment, and velocity and time scales. A modified v ²–f model was made to correct the entrainment behaviour in the near wall and at the stagnation point. This new model was evaluated on six cases involving free and forced convection and room airflow scenarios and compared with the standard k–ε, and k–ω–SST models. The results showed that the modification to the v ²–f model provided better predictions of the buoyant heat transfer flows while the standard k–ε failed to reproduce and underestimate the convective heat transfer. The k–ω–SST model was able to predict the flow field well only for a 2D square cavity room, and 3D partitioned room case, while it was poor for the other four cases.