Modeling coupled heat transfer and air flow in a partitioned building with a zonal model: Application to the winter thermal comfort

Abstract

The assessment of building thermal comfort quality in the Mediterranean context necessitates detailed information concerning local air speed and temperature inside the space. We have extended the three-dimensional zonal model ZAER (Zonal AERial model) to enable predictions of air flow pattern and thermal distributions between and within rooms. Numerical simulations from the new program have been compared with data obtained from measurements on the experimental cell Minibat (CETHIL, INSA Lyon laboratory) and with the prediction of another zonal model as well as a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool. The comparison indicates that this new program is an effective model for predicting air flow and temperature distribution in a partitioned building. By coupling ZAER with a thermal comfort model, we study the influence of a passive solar component belonging to a south-oriented room upon the winter thermal comfort of an unconditioned Tunisian dwelling. The obtained results show that this simulation tool has the potential to describe realistically the thermal comfort within a dwelling, and that a Trombe wall can be a useful heating component to improve thermal winter comfort in the Tunisian context, even in another room.

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“…The authors are also investigating methods to reduce daylighting simulation times for large models using artificial intelligence (AI), in particular knowledge-based systems (KBS) (Pham and Pham 1999), and distributed computing frameworks. Existing and developing modeling frameworks for combined heat, air, and moisture analysis could also be integrated into this MDO environment (van Schijndel 2009;Woloszyn and Rode 2008;Boukhris et al 2009). …”

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A new integral management model and evaluation method to enhance sustainability of renewable energy projects for energy and sanitation services

“…For optimal performance, these walls were positioned facing north; materials with high heat-storage capacity, such as stone and adobe, were used; and the external surface of the wall was coloured black to increase the absorption rate (Thumann and Mehta, 2008). Trombe walls not only provide thermal comfort in the spaces connected to the system, but also in adjacent spaces (Boukhris et al, 2009). …”