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Experimental evaluation of thermal characteristics of wall mounted radiant cooled environment with ceiling fan

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Abstract

Worldwide the radiant cooling system is used as an energy-efficient alternative to conventional air conditioning systems. Understanding the heat extraction characteristics of the radiant cooling system is necessary to understand the system’s thermal performance. The radiant cooling system’s heat extraction characteristic differs from conventional air conditioning system. The predominant form of heat transfer is through radiation, that is more than 50% of heat transfer takes place by radiation. In this study, the focus is to evaluate the heat extraction characteristic of the radiant cooling system by varying panel position, area of cooling panel, water mass flow rate, and water set temperature. The ratio of radiative heat flux to total heat flux (qr/qtot) is used to evaluate the system’s thermal characteristics. The study’s outcome indicates that the radiative heat transfer coefficient (hr) varies from 5.7 to 6.03 W/m2 K throughout the experimental study, indicating that the hr value remains relatively constant. The study shows that at steady state, increase in mass flow rate of water and water set temperature increases the percentage of radiative heat flux to total heat flux (qr/qtot). At steady state, increase in area of radiant cooling panel decreases the ratio of qr/qtot. The radiant cooling panel area restricts the cooling capacity of a radiant cooling system. The cooling capacity can be enhanced for a given area of radiant cooling system by adding fins to the radiant panel or by increasing convective heat transfer. In this study, the cooling capacity of the radiant cooling system is enhanced using a ceiling fan. The outcome shows that when Wall B is active at Tw of 25 °C, there is a 19% increase in the cooling capacity of the radiant cooling system as air velocity in the chamber increases from 0 to 0.95 m/s.

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Abbreviations

AC:

Air conditioning

A j :

Area of jth surface (m2)

A s :

Surface area of radiant cooling panel (m2)

AUST :

Average unheated surface temperature (°C)

\({c}_{p}\) :

Specific heat (J/kg K)

D :

Diameter of globe temperature sensor (m)

F :

Calculated parameter

\({F}_{s-j}\) :

View factor between radiant surface and jth surface

\({F}_{{\varepsilon }_{s-j}}\) :

Radiation interchange factor

h c :

Convective heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)

h r :

Radiative heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)

\({\dot{m}}_{w}\) :

Mass flow rate of water (l/h)

PEX:

Cross linked polyethelene

q c :

Convective heat flux density (W/m2)

Q r :

Radiative heat flux (W)

q r :

Radiative heat flux density (W/m2)

q tot :

Total heat flux density (W/m2)

\({q}_{w}\) :

Water cooling capacity (W/m2)

RC :

Radiant cooling

T a :

Air temperature (°C)

T g :

Globe temperature (°C)

T j :

Temperature of jth surface (°C)

T mrt :

Mean radiant temperature (°C)

T op :

Operative temperature (°C)

T s :

Radiant surface temperature (°C)

T w :

Water set temperature (°C)

T w,in :

Inlet water temperature (°C)

T w,out :

Outlet water temperature (°C)

v a :

Air velocity (m/s)

WA :

Radiant panel on Wall A

WB :

Radiant panel on Wall B

WC :

Radiant panel on Wall C

WD :

Radiant panel on Wall D

WAB :

Radiant panel on Wall A and Wall B

WAC :

Radiant panel on Wall A and Wall C

WACD :

Radiant panel on Wall A, Wall C and Wall D

WBC :

Radiant panel on Wall B and Wall C

WBD :

Radiant panel on Wall B and Wall D

WBCD :

Radiant panel on Wall B, Wall C and Wall D

WCD :

Radiant panel on Wall C and Wall D

x, y, z :

Dependent parameter

\(\varepsilon \) :

Emissivity of surface

\({\varepsilon }_{j}\) :

Emissivity of jth surface

\({\varepsilon }_{s}\) :

Emissivity of radiant surface

σ:

Stefan–Boltzmann constant (Wm−2 K−4)

∆T:

Change in temperature (°C)

∆t:

Change in time (h)

r :

Radiant

c :

Convective

j :

J-surface

s :

Radiant surface

a :

Air

tot :

Total

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. EWRE Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, 600036, India

    Jayashree Arumugam & S M Shiva Nagendra

  2. RAC Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600036, India

    M P Maiya

Authors
  1. Jayashree Arumugam
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  2. M P Maiya
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  3. S M Shiva Nagendra
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jayashree Arumugam.

Appendix I

Appendix I

 

WA/21

WA/23

WA/25

WA/27

WB/21

WB/23

WB/25

WC/21

WC/23

WC/25

WC/27

WD/21

WD/23

WD/25

\(\dot{{m}_{w}}\) (l/hr)

640

640

660

660

690

695

705

665

670

670

680

690

695

700

Ts(°C)

25.5

26.0

26.9

27.8

25.8

26.5

27.0

25.8

26.9

27.6

28.5

25.3

26.0

27.1

Ta(°C)

21.3

22.7

24.7

27.1

21.0

23.0

24.8

22.3

24.3

25.6

27.6

21.0

22.6

24.7

Top(°C)

25.9

26.5

27.4

28.4

26.5

26.9

27.5

26.4

27.4

28.2

28.9

25.9

26.5

27.6

Tmrt(°C)

26.1

26.6

27.6

28.7

26.6

27.3

27.6

26.5

27.5

28.2

29.1

25.8

26.6

27.7

AUST (°C)

26.6

26.9

27.5

28.3

27.2

27.3

27.6

27.2

27.6

28.5

28.8

26.8

27.0

27.8

qtot (W/m2)

49.9

41.2

25.2

9.6

68.0

42.6

25.9

54.9

41.6

29.1

13.8

50.9

42.5

27.4

qr (W/m2)

30.2

24.8

15.8

5.8

35.5

25.4

16.5

33.2

23.6

19.9

9.7

33.2

25.6

18.3

qc (W/m2)

19.7

16.4

9.4

3.8

32.5

17.3

9.4

21.7

18.0

9.2

4.2

17.8

16.9

9.1

qr/qtot

0.61

0.6.0

0.63

0.60

0.52

0.60

0.64

0.60

0.57

0.68

0.70

0.65

0.60

0.67

qc/qtot

0.39

0.40

0.37

0.40

0.48

0.40

0.36

0.40

0.43

0.32

0.30

0.35

0.40

0.33

Qr(W)

122.4

100.4

64.2

23.4

139.1

99.3

64.5

134.5

95.7

80.6

39.1

161.2

124.4

89.2

hr (W/m2.K)

5.7

5.8

6.0

5.9

5.7

5.8

5.8

5.7

5.7

5.9

6.0

5.7

5.8

5.9

 

WAB/21

WAB/23

WAB/25

WAB/27

WCD/21

WCD/23

WCD/25

WCD/27

WACD/21

WACD/23

WACD/25

WBCD/21

WBCD/23

WBCD/25

\(\dot{{m}_{w}}\) (l/hr)

870

880

910

915

825

895

910

915

950

965

1000

990

1015

535

Ts(°C)

24.2

25.4

26.9

28.2

25.2

26.2

27.6

29.1

24.2

25.3

22.9

24.6

26.2

26.5

Ta(°C)

21.1

22.5

25.2

28.7

21.3

22.8

24.8

27.3

21.1

23.0

21.1

23.1

26.0

25.2

Top(°C)

24.5

25.7

27.4

28.5

25.6

26.6

27.9

29.4

24.5

25.6

23.1

24.7

26.6

26.7

Tmrt(°C)

24.8

26.1

27.6

28.5

25.9

26.7

28.2

29.7

24.7

25.8

23.4

24.9

26.8

27.0

AUST (°C)

25.0

25.9

27.5

28.3

26.5

27.4

28.4

29.8

24.9

25.8

23.0

24.4

26.3

26.7

Qrs(W)

38.4

34.9

22.9

5.9

56

47.2

36.6

26.3

47.5

29.8

24.9

20.5

5.0

23.8

qr (W/m2)

21.9

18.0

14.4

3.6

29.9

25.5

20.4

16.3

21.6

16.1

15.3

9.5

3.2

9.3

qc (W/m2)

16.8

16.9

8.5

2.3

26.1

21.7

16.2

10.0

25.9

13.7

9.6

11.0

1.7

14.5

qtot (W/m2)

0.57

0.52

0.63

0.61

0.53

0.54

0.56

0.62

0.46

0.54

0.61

0.46

0.65

0.39

qr/qtot

0.43

0.48

0.37

0.39

0.47

0.46

0.44

0.38

0.54

0.46

0.39

0.54

0.35

0.61

qc/qtot

174.0

143.1

114.6

28.5

266.2

227.4

182.1

145.4

280.4

208.5

196.2

122.1

41.5

36.5

hr(W/m2.K)

5.7

5.8

5.9

6.0

5.7

5.8

5.9

6.0

5.7

5.8

5.7

5.7

6.0

5.9

 

WB/0.4

WB/0.8

WB/0.95

WD/0.4

WD/0.95

WD/355

WD/553

WAB/432

WAB/679

WBCD/504

WBCD/793

   

\(\dot{{m}_{w}}\) (l/hr)

705

710

665

690

685

355

553

432

679

504

793

   

Ts(°C)

27.1

27.0

26.8

22.6

22.7

26.1

25.9

25.2

25.2

24.2

24.2

   

Ta(°C)

24.7

24.9

24.9

26.0

26.1

22.5

22.9

23.3

22.9

23.3

23.3

   

Top(°C)

27

27.0

26.8

26.5

26.7

26.6

26.2

25.5

25.8

24.6

24.6

   

Tmrt(°C)

27.6

27.9

27.8

26.9

27.4

26.5

26.8

25.7

25.9

24.7

24.8

   

AUST (°C)

27.1

26.9

26.8

26.5

26.6

27.2

27.1

25.8

26.0

24.2

297.6

   

qtot (W/m2)

30.7

36.6

37.9

52.5

75.3

41.3

41.6

32.1

33.1

18.6

18.7

   

qr (W/m2)

13.4

11.9

10.4

22.3

22.0

26.5

26.4

17.2

18.2

7.8

8.5

   

qc (W/m2)

17.2

24.7

27.5

30.2

53.3

14.8

15.2

14.9

14.9

10.7

10.3

   

qr/qtot

0.44

0.32

0.27

0.42

0.29

0.64

0.63

0.54

0.55

0.42

0.45

   

qc/qtot

0.56

0.68

0.73

0.58

0.71

0.36

0.37

0.46

0.45

0.58

0.55

   

Qr(W)

52.6

46.6

40.7

108.2

107.1

128.7

128.1

137.0

145.0

100.4

108.5

   

hr (W/m2.K)

5.6

5.7

5.8

5.8

5.8

5.8

5.8

5.8

5.8

5.7

5.7

   

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Arumugam, J., Maiya, M.P. & Shiva Nagendra, S.M. Experimental evaluation of thermal characteristics of wall mounted radiant cooled environment with ceiling fan. Sādhanā 49, 119 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12046-024-02480-5

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