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Title: Micro-environmental control for efficient local heating: CFD simulation and manikin test verification

Abstract

Micro-environment control system has been proved to be able to provide local thermal comfort control. It also has the potential to save building energy by relaxing the control on the unoccupied space. This work aims at designing an efficient heating delivering device (HDD) to locally warm the person to restore thermal comfort when the unoccupied space temperature is reduced from 70.0 °F to 66.0 °F to save the energy. A three-stage approach was developed for designing the HDD including the initial stage of developing by CFD simulation, the second stage of manikin test verification and final stage of human subject test confirmation. The results of the first two stages were presented and discussed in this work. It was shown that convective heating was not efficient enough unless a confinement box was used to hold the hot air around the legs and feet. A more ergonomically friendly design of using a foot warmer was finally proved to be a better solution for individually heating by both simulation and experiments since it can heat the occupant sufficiently. The ability of using CFD to predict heat loss from the clothed human body and its limitation was also investigated. It was found that withmore » proper clothing insulation, the CFD can give a reasonable prediction, although simulating the clothing as a layer of certain thermal resistance might be problematic regarding the structure and permeability of the clothing material. In conclusion, a more appropriate method for simulating the clothing was needed for better prediction in the future.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Syracuse Univ., Syracuse, NY (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Syracuse Univ., NY (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
OSTI Identifier:
1479100
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1636842
Grant/Contract Number:  
AR0000526
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Building and Environment
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 147; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0360-1323
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
42 ENGINEERING; Micro-environment; Thermal comfort; CFD; Local heating; Clothing

Citation Formats

Kong, Meng, Dang, Thong Q., Zhang, Jianshun, and Khalifa, H. Ezzat. Micro-environmental control for efficient local heating: CFD simulation and manikin test verification. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.10.018.
Kong, Meng, Dang, Thong Q., Zhang, Jianshun, & Khalifa, H. Ezzat. Micro-environmental control for efficient local heating: CFD simulation and manikin test verification. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.10.018
Kong, Meng, Dang, Thong Q., Zhang, Jianshun, and Khalifa, H. Ezzat. Wed . "Micro-environmental control for efficient local heating: CFD simulation and manikin test verification". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.10.018. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1479100.
@article{osti_1479100,
title = {Micro-environmental control for efficient local heating: CFD simulation and manikin test verification},
author = {Kong, Meng and Dang, Thong Q. and Zhang, Jianshun and Khalifa, H. Ezzat},
abstractNote = {Micro-environment control system has been proved to be able to provide local thermal comfort control. It also has the potential to save building energy by relaxing the control on the unoccupied space. This work aims at designing an efficient heating delivering device (HDD) to locally warm the person to restore thermal comfort when the unoccupied space temperature is reduced from 70.0 °F to 66.0 °F to save the energy. A three-stage approach was developed for designing the HDD including the initial stage of developing by CFD simulation, the second stage of manikin test verification and final stage of human subject test confirmation. The results of the first two stages were presented and discussed in this work. It was shown that convective heating was not efficient enough unless a confinement box was used to hold the hot air around the legs and feet. A more ergonomically friendly design of using a foot warmer was finally proved to be a better solution for individually heating by both simulation and experiments since it can heat the occupant sufficiently. The ability of using CFD to predict heat loss from the clothed human body and its limitation was also investigated. It was found that with proper clothing insulation, the CFD can give a reasonable prediction, although simulating the clothing as a layer of certain thermal resistance might be problematic regarding the structure and permeability of the clothing material. In conclusion, a more appropriate method for simulating the clothing was needed for better prediction in the future.},
doi = {10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.10.018},
journal = {Building and Environment},
number = C,
volume = 147,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Oct 10 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Wed Oct 10 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

Journal Article:

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Cited by: 20 works
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Figure 1 Figure 1: Categories of the micro-environmental control strategy

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Works referencing / citing this record: