Vertical Temperature Profiles and Cooling Load in Large Spaces Ventilated by Stratified Air-Conditioning Systems: Scale-Model Experiment and Nodal Modeling

Abstract

An improved heat balance nodal model is proposed to predict the inner wall temperature profiles and calculate the stratified air-conditioning load in large spaces. The model aims to weaken the correlation between load calculation methods and indoor airflow patterns, and to ensure the synchronization of each heat transfer process, so as to be closer to actual situations. The scale-model experiments were conducted in an enthalpy different laboratory in University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (USST) in Shanghai, China. This paper took the air distribution of nozzle air supply system as an example to calculate the inner wall temperatures and the stratified air-conditioning load by the nodal model and verified by the scale-model experiments. The results showed the maximum deviations of the experimental and theoretical values for the inner wall temperatures, the heat transfer load from the nonair-conditioned (NAC) area and the stratified air-conditioning load were all within 5%. The effects of the air temperature in the NAC area on the heat transfer load from the NAC area and the stratified air-conditioning load were analyzed, and the load nomogram was produced. It was found the heat transfer load from the NAC area accounted for 10–30% of the stratified air-conditioning load. The load nomogram compared two methods for determining the air temperature in the NAC area and gave the recommended one. The findings in this paper can be used to further develop load calculation models for non-uniform thermal environments.