Simulation study on the thermal environment in an office with radiant cooling and displacement ventilation system

Abstract

The combined system of Radiant Chilled Ceilings and Displacement Ventilation (RC/DV) system represent a promising integrated technology that can meet the requirements for both energy efficiency and thermal comfort. As a result, RC/DV systems have gained much more attention and used widely in advanced buildings in recent years. However, the radiant cooling surfaces influence the heat exchange within a room, the characteristics of the indoor thermal environment still need to be studied. In this paper, an office room with combined system was established and the flow and temperature fields were simulated by Computational Fluid Dynamitic (CFD) method. During the simulation process, 7 cases were compared to investigate the impacts of radiant cooling surface layout on thermal environment. The displacement ventilation system and its operating conditions of each case is identical. All the radiant cooling surfaces have the same surface temperature and the total cooling surface area of case is 17.8m2. The results show lower room temperature and better thermal comfort were achieved on cases with radiant cooling surface configured to the upper part of the room.