In-situ measurements of the U-value of a ventilated wall assembly

The walls in a building envelope have the largest contact area with the exterior environment, and, therefore, a considerable portion of the thermal energy can be lost through the walls compared to the other parts of the building envelope. For energy-saving purposes, the thermal transmittance of walls is typically limited by building energy performance standards at the national level. However, the presence of a ventilated air-space behind the external cladding, which has variable hydro-dynamic behavior, can differently affect the total thermal transmittance of the entire structure. This paper aims to provide an experimental analysis of the total U-value of a ventilated wall assembly measured in a building prototype following the average and dynamic methods defined by ISO 9869-1. Differences between the calculated theoretical U-value and the measured U-value are compared. The contribution of the thermal resistance of the ventilated air-space in the total thermal transmittance of the wall assembly is also analyzed. The results show that the air movement and the enthalpy change in the ventilated cavity can affect the thermal performance of the wall structure to a certain extent.

Effect of Passive Flow Control Devices on Base Pressure for Mach Numbers Between 0.5 and 1.4

Experimental studies are carried out on an axisymmetric cylindrical base body for six freestream Mach numbers between 0.54 to 1.41. Unsteady pressure is measured on the base surface using high-frequency response Kulite pressure transducers. The effect of passive flow control devices on the mean base pressure and the unsteady characteristics of base pressure has been studied. A blunt base, a conventional cavity device and three different ventilated cavity devices have been tested along with four different rounded base lip devices. A total of 20 different base geometric modifications are tested at six freestream Mach numbers resulting in 120 test cases. The cavity devices improve the base pressure as compared to the blunt base case. Among all the cases considered, a maximum increase of 8.6% in the base pressure coefficient is noticed for the Normal Ventilated Cavity device as compared to the blunt base case for freestream Mach number of 1.22. The power spectral density of base pressure fluctuations revealed the dominant peaks on the base surface. The shear layer flapping frequency for all the cases have been found and the Strouhal number based on base diameter varies between 0.2 to 0.27. In the presence of cavity devices, dominant peaks are observed in the range of 2 kHz to 8 kHz which can be attributed to the vigorous action within the recirculation bubble. Maximum reduction in base pressure fluctuation is observed for the Normal & Inclined Ventilated Cavity device configuration test cases.

Numerical Study on Energy-Saving Performance of a New Type of Phase Change Material Room

The thermal performance of a phase change energy storage building envelope with the ventilated cavity was evaluated. CaCl2·6H2O-Mg(NO3)2·6H2O/expanded graphite (EG) was employed to combined with the building for year-round management. The energy consumption caused by the building under different influence parameters was evaluated numerically. The results indicated that CaCl2·6H2O-8wt %Mg(NO3)2·6H2O/EG should be installed on the south wall for the heating season, while CaCl2·6H2O-2wt %Mg(NO3)2·6H2O/EG should be integrated on the roof for the cooling season. When the air layer was ventilated and the south wall was coated with the solar absorbing coating, the room could save approximately 30% of energy consumption. Moreover, the energy consumption increased with an increase in the air layer thickness, and the air layers played a different role in the building envelope. The optimal value of the flow rate between air layer 2, air layer 3, and the room was 0.09 m3/s. To reduce the energy consumption, the phase change materials (PCMs) with large and small thermal conductivity should be installed in the south wall and roof, respectively. In general, the phase change energy storage building envelope with the ventilated cavity can save energy during the heating and cooling seasons.

MODELING OF A VENTILATED CAVITY BEHIND A STREAMLINED BODY

The results of physical and numerical modeling of a ventilated air cavity behind a streamlined body are presented. The results of laboratory experiments to determine the amount of gas flowing from the ventilated cavity are presented. It is formed behind the cavitator depending on a number of geometric and dynamic parameters. Numerical simulation of non-stationary 3D two-phase flow was performed on the basis of open source software OpenFOAM. The influence of gas blowing parameters on the formation of an air cavity, size, shape and stability has been investigated. Good qualitative agreement with experimental data was obtained. It is shown that the thickness of the ventilated cavity is determined by the diameter of the cavitator regardless of the diameter of the blow hole, and the increase in velocity or gas flow rate has a positive effect on the length and stability of the formed cavity.

Ventilation of Square Cavity Containing a Heat Source

A numerical simulation of turbulent mixed convection of a ventilated cavity containing a heat source placed of the center has been carried out. This cavity is outfitted along couple holes: one placed within the lower left corner and the other in the top right corner. The width of the hole "H" represents is 1/5 of the length of the cavity side. The diameter regarding the round heat source "D" is equal in accordance with the breadth of the inlet gap’s H (D = H). The walls of the cavity considered are maintained adiabatic, while the temperature of the heat source T is higher than the ambient temperature. The turbulence model k-ε was used for governing equations of turbulent mixed convection inside the cavity. The finite volume method was used for numerical resolution. The parameters of flow are: the Grashof number is set to Gr = 109 and the Reynolds number (Re) varies so that the number of Richardson (Ri) takes the values Ri = 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 30 (Ri = Gr/ Re2). The effect of thermo-dynamic parameters and the shape geometric cavity effect are investigated.

Effect of porous partition height on thermal performance of a ventilated cavity using LBMMRT

The objective of this work is to study the effect of the thickness of a porous separation on the thermal performance in a cavity with displacement ventilation. The cold air jet enters and exits through two openings located in the lower and upper parts of the left wall and the right wall respectively. The other horizontal walls are also adiabatic. The hydrodynamic and thermal characteristics of the transfer were studied for three configurations with the same aspect ratio L/H=2. The height Hp of the porous separation was varied between 0.2 and 0.8 where is placed in the center of the cavity. The transfer rates on the active wall for the thicknesses were studied for different permeability therefore different Darcy numbers varying over an interval:10-6≤Da≤10. The dimensionless Rayleigh and Reynolds numbers were taken from the rows: 10≤Ra≤106 and 50≤Re≤500. The governing equations of momentum and energy were solved by the Lettice Boltzmann Multiple Relaxation Time Method (LB-MRT) D2Q9 for the velocity field and D2Q5 for the temperature field. In order to take into account the introduction of the porous medium, an additional term is added to the standard LB equations based on the generalized model (Darcy model extended to Brinkman-Forchheimer).