Conjugate conduction convection and radiation heat transfer through hollow autoclaved aerated concrete blocks

Abstract

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is developed to study thermal performance of hollow autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) blocks in wall constructions of buildings under hot summer conditions. The goal is to determine size and distribution of cavities (within building blocks) that reduce heat flow through the walls and thereby lead to energy savings in air conditioning. The model couples conjugate, laminar natural convective flow of a viscous fluid (air) in the cavities with long-wave radiation between the cavity sides. Realistic boundary conditions were employed at the outdoor and indoor surfaces of the block. A state-of-the-art building energy simulation programme 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 AAC block domain. The results show a complex dependence of heat flux through the blocks on cavity and block sizes. In general, introducing large cavities in AAC blocks, being a construction material of low thermal conductivity, leads to greater heat transfer than the corresponding solid blocks. Several small cavities in a block may lead to small reductions in heat flux, but the best configuration found is a large cavity with a fine divider mesh in which case heat flux reductions of 50% are achievable.