Experimental and numerical investigation of the radiant panel heating system using scale room model

Abstract Radiant heating panel systems provide high thermal comfort because of low noise level and few required equipments. These panels are installed on walls, floor, and roof in a scale room model. This study aims to investigate the performance of radiant panel heaters. Temperatures inside the room and on its walls were experimentally measured. A numerical model was also employed to study flow pattern inside the room and to predict temperature distribution. The turbulent flow was solved by using RNG k-ɛ turbulent model. Heat transfer by radiation was modeled by using DO radiation model. The results showed that the used numerical technique could accurately predict temperatures distribution in the room. The model was used to study the effect of panel heater locations and sizes on the air flow and air temperature distributions. The heat transfer rates were also calculated numerically as well. It was found that the minimum heat transfer rates were achieved by using the heating panel on the floor, and the scale room model was able to simulate the full-size room within a small percentage error about 20% especially in heater load and the temperature distribution was about less than 1%.

[1]  B. Olesen,et al.  Experimental evaluation of heat transfer coefficients between radiant ceiling and room , 2009 .

[2]  Hasan Karabay,et al.  A numerical investigation of fluid flow and heat transfer inside a room for floor heating and wall heating systems , 2013 .

[3]  Derek Dunn-Rankin,et al.  Measurement and prediction of indoor air flow in a model room , 2003 .

[4]  Sture Holmberg,et al.  Flow patterns and thermal comfort in a room with panel, floor and wall heating , 2008 .

[5]  G. Raithby,et al.  COMPUTATION OF RADIANT HEAT TRANSFER ON A NONORTHOGONAL MESH USING THE FINITE-VOLUME METHOD , 1993 .

[6]  Shuo Wang,et al.  Influence of the ventilation system on thermal comfort of the chilled panel system in heating mode , 2010 .

[7]  Jacques Miriel,et al.  Radiant ceiling panel heating–cooling systems: experimental and simulated study of the performances, thermal comfort and energy consumptions , 2002 .

[8]  Lucia Fontana,et al.  Thermal performance of radiant heating floors in furnished enclosed spaces , 2011 .

[9]  Maxime Tye-Gingras,et al.  Comfort and energy consumption of hydronic heating radiant ceilings and walls based on CFD analysis , 2012 .

[10]  Tatsuo Oka,et al.  A simplified calculation method for estimating heat flux from ceiling radiant panels , 2010 .

[11]  J. Lienhard.  A heat transfer textbook , 1981 .

[12]  Bijan Farhanieh,et al.  A parametric study on radiant floor heating system performance , 2006 .

[13]  Ismail Teke,et al.  A numerical investigation on effects of ceiling and floor surface temperatures and room dimensions on the Nusselt number for a floor heating system , 2007 .

[14]  Qingyan Chen.  Comfort and energy consumption analysis in buildings with radiant panels , 1990 .

[15]  Michele De Carli,et al.  DIGITHON: A numerical model for the thermal balance of rooms equipped with radiant systems , 2012 .

[16]  Ala Hasan,et al.  A combined low temperature water heating system consisting of radiators and floor heating , 2009 .

[17]  Maxime Tye-Gingras,et al.  Investigation on heat transfer modeling assumptions for radiant panels with serpentine layout , 2011 .

[18]  M. Rahimi,et al.  Experimental study of radiation and free convection in an enclosure with under-floor heating system , 2011 .