Airflow and Heat Transfer in the Slot‐Vented Room with Radiant Floor Heating Unit

Abstract

Radiant floor heating has received increasing attention due to its diverse advantages, especially the energy saving as compared to the conventional dwelling heating system. This paper presents a numerical investigation of airflow and heat transfer in the slot-vented room with the radiant floor heating unit. Combination of fluid convection and thermal radiation has been implemented through the thermal boundary conditions. Spatial distributions of indoor air temperature and velocity, as well as the heat transfer rates along the radiant floor and the outer wall, have been presented and analyzed covering the domains from complete natural convection to forced convection dominated flows. The numerical results demonstrate that the levels of average temperature in the room with lateral slot-ventilation are higher than those without slot-ventilation, but lower than those in the room with ceiling slot-ventilation. Overall, the slot-ventilation room with radiant floor heating unit could offer better indoor air quality through increasing the indoor air temperature and fresh air exchanging rate simultaneously. Concerning the airborne pollutant transports and moisture condensations, the performance of radiant floor heating unit will be further optimized in our future researches.

Numerical study of airflow and heat transfer in an air-cooled room with different inlet positions

“…Several CFD simulations of flow in heated rooms, with and without the radiation, were analyzed and found that the development of buoyant plumes is highly dependent on thermal stratification. Liu et al (2012) presented a numerical analysis of airflow and heat transfer in a 2D slot-vented room with the radiant floor-heating unit. The authors considered the influence of the natural and forced convection as well as the thermal radiation.…”