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A comprehensive review of variable refrigerant flow (VRF) and ventilation designs for thermal comfort in commercial buildings

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Abstract

In buildings, air conditioning and mechanical ventilation (ACMV) systems are the major shareholders of overall energy consumption. Energy-efficient designs for ACMV systems in building applications are therefore needed. While designing an efficient ACMV system, consideration must be given to the growing concerns of enhanced thermal comfort and improved indoor air quality. The variable refrigerant flow (VRF) air-conditioning system is a widely adopted alternative to the existing building cooling systems due to the higher energy efficiency and individualized temperature control feature. However, it still suffers from shortcomings such as no outdoor air induction for ventilation and higher initial cost. Therefore, this paper reviewed the variable refrigerant flow and mechanical ventilation/air distribution systems, their integrated designs for non-residential buildings, performance evaluation and control optimization of the integrated systems, VRF systems’ faults detection and diagnosis, current application of the VRF systems, and associated challenges. Together with these all, some advanced buildings’ cooling techniques and improvements toward nearly/net-zero energy buildings are briefly discussed. Indoor thermal comfort models and criteria for different climates are also presented for an in-depth understanding of the VRF integrated mechanical ventilation designs. The literature survey shows that the supply air temperature and airflow rate are foremost in parameters that can be optimized in VRF integrated ventilation design as they greatly reduce the energy consumption. Further, policies on elevated indoor temperatures in air-conditioned buildings to mitigate their carbon footprint are strictly being implemented. Therefore, this review provides an insight to the researchers for further improvement in the integrated design and control optimization of the parameters involved. A paradigm shifts from the conventional compression-based electric-powered air conditioning systems to the renewable energy driven advanced air conditioning technologies which is also an emerging research area to be focused on achieving the target of nearly/net-zero energy buildings.

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Abbreviations

AC:

Air conditioning

ACH:

Air change rate

ACMV:

Air conditioning and mechanical ventilation

AHU:

Air handling unit

ASHRAE:

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers

CAV:

Constant air volume

CFD:

Computational fluid dynamics

COP:

Coefficient of performance

DCV:

Demand control ventilation

DOAS:

Dedicated outdoor air supply

DV:

Displacement ventilation

EES:

Engineering equation solver

EEV:

Electronic expansion valve

ESS:

Energy storage system

FAP:

Fresh air processor

FCU:

Fan coil unit

FDD:

Fault detection and diagnosis

FPM:

Feet per minute

HAD:

Hybrid air distribution

HP:

Heat pump

HR:

Heat recovery

HVAC:

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning

IAQ:

Indoor air quality

IEA:

International Energy Agency

IJV:

Impinging jet ventilation

MV:

Mixing ventilation

mRMR:

Max-relevance and min-redundancy

NTU:

Number of transfer unit

nZEB:

Net-zero energy building

OA:

Outdoor air/outside air

OAD:

Outdoor air dehumidifier

OAP:

Outdoor air processor

OC:

Over charge

OU/IU:

Outdoor unit/indoor unit

PMV:

Predicted mean vote

PV:

Personalized ventilation

RCA:

Refrigerant charge amount

PCB:

Printed circuit board

PCM:

Phase change materials

PEC:

Personal evaporative cooling

PPD:

Predicted percentage dissatisfied

PTAC:

Packaged terminal air conditioner

RA:

Return air

RH:

Relative humidity

SCHX:

Sub cooling heat exchanger

SHR:

Sensible heat ratio

SV:

Stratum ventilation

SVM:

Support vector machine

TRNSYS:

Transient simulations

UC:

Under charge

UFAD:

Underfloor air distribution

VAV:

Variable air volume

VCS:

Vapor compression system

VRF:

Variable refrigerant flow

VRV:

Variable refrigerant volume

WD:

Wavelet de-noising

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank University of Malaya for providing the University of Malaya’s SATU grant ST001-2021 to the authors for research work to be conducted at University of Malaya. Thanks are extended to Pakistan Government for the full scholarship provided to the first co-author, Dr. A.R. Umair, for conducting his PhD research work in HVAC&R Lab at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Malaya.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Yat Huang Yau, Umair Ahmed Rajput & Ahmad Badarudin

  2. UM-Daikin Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Yat Huang Yau & Umair Ahmed Rajput

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering, Science and Technology (QUEST), Nawabshah, Pakistan

    Umair Ahmed Rajput

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  1. Yat Huang Yau
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  3. Ahmad Badarudin
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YHY PhD (Mech) (Canterbury, NZ), PEPC(Malaysia), IntPE, FIEAust CPEng NER(Australia), APEC Engr., FIEM, MASHRAE is a Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Professor YHY is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the current project. UAR BEng, MEng (Pakistan), PhD (Malaya) is a Lecturer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering, Science and Technology (QUEST), Nawabshah, Pakistan. Dr. UAR is a former PhD candidate at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Malaya. AB PhD (Mech) (Cranfield, UK) is a former Senior Lecturer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Malaya. Dr. AB is the former Co-PI of the current project. All authors contributed equally to the preparation of this manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yat Huang Yau.

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Yau, Y.H., Rajput, U.A. & Badarudin, A. A comprehensive review of variable refrigerant flow (VRF) and ventilation designs for thermal comfort in commercial buildings. J Therm Anal Calorim 149, 1935–1961 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12837-3

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