Development of a Method for Heating Room Indoor Microclimate Study which Includes Thermophysical Modelling and Experimental Data

Abstract

. Research on behalf of comfort indoor microclimate conditions in premises with different assignment is still relevant, as soon as it helps to design of buildings in a way that ensure comfortable occupancy for people and eliminate unnecessary energy excesses. Nowadays, comfort conditions are estimated with PMV, PPD and local PD indices, which, in turn, calculated from local thermal parameters such as air temperature [°C], relative humidity [%], air velocity [m/s], the temperature of solid bodies [°C] and turbulence intensity [%]. All above-mentioned local thermal parameters can only be calculated through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technology. This article provides a system of differential equations that fully govern indoor microclimate thermophysical processes (air-flow convection and solid body radiation) and explains the possibility of its simplifications for practical engineering applications. A new methodology is proposed for indoor microclimate study, which combines air flow thermophysical simulation in OpenFOAM software and experimental data for thermal radiation. For air-flow simulation, it is suggested to use buoyantPimpleFoam solver (governing differential equations system is provided), which shows good results. Experimental data should be obtained in series of laboratory test for every single heating device with following variable parameters: distance from the wall to parallel positioned heating device [m], time [s], the concentration of water vapour and dust in the air. Implementation of this methodology will reduce the likelihood of local discomfort in every single part of a room due to precise numerical computation of air-flows while ensuring an adequate calculation rate replacing differential equation for radiative heat transfer with experimental data that represents time-dependent temperature [°C] of internal enclosures.