Extract

This paper proposed a novel ceiling radiant cooling panel (CRCP) with a concave and segmented surface. Full-scale laboratory experiments are conducted to study the heat transfer characteristics extensively and thermal comfort conditions inside an environmental chamber coupled with four CRCP-s with a concave and segmented surface under various operating conditions. Moreover, a three-dimensional finite volume simulation was developed to study the conjugated heat transfer and fluid flow, as well as the thermal comfort conditions. The results show that the simulation achieves a good agreement with experimental results with an accuracy of 98.9 %. The proposed panel enhances the convection heat transfer by 61% and 23 % compared with the flat and inclined surface panels. The fluid inlet temperature of 18 ºC and the fluid flow rate of 1.5 L/min achieve the lowest temperature difference between the head and ankle level of 0.18 ºC; also, it shows the neutral PMV of 0. So, changing only the panel surface shape from ordinary flat to a concave and segmented surface gives a chance to use a lower fluid flow rate and higher inlet water temperature and maintains an acceptable comfortable level, which reveals the potential of energy saving by using this new panel.

Keywords: Radiant Ceiling Panel; CFD; Numerical analysis; Curved shape; Radiant cooling.

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