TY - GEN

T1 - COMPUTER MODEL FOR THE SIMULATION OF RELATIVE HUMIDITY OF AN INDOOR ENVIRONMENT

AU - Raghavalu Thirumalai, Durai

AU - Spear, Morwenna

AU - Curling, Simon

AU - Ormondroyd, Graham

PY - 2018/10

Y1 - 2018/10

N2 - Demand and the supply of energy is a major issue today, leading to consideration of energy efficiency in buildings. Especially for residential buildings, energy requirements are increasing day-by-day. Humans typically spend 80 percent of their time mostly inside a building. To providecomfortable and healthy working and living environments, modern buildings often require HVAC systems. Proper ventilation is also very important, because it helps in controlling the indoor air quality (IAQ). HVAC mainly consists of fans and ducts that supply fresh air from the exterior, and replace polluted air from the interior. Too much moisture in indoor environments may lead to issueslike condensation or mould growth on walls. Adjusting moisture and ventilation inside a building plays a key role in determining human comfort and indoor living environment. Relative humidity controlled ventilation systems may help to increase the energy performance of a building without exposing them to moisture damage. This paper gives a brief overview of a heat and moisture model using SOLIDWORKS, a widely used CFD-tool for modelling and simulating flows. A three dimensional (3D) model was chosen to design a kitchen room in a building with a HVAC system. In order to see preliminary results, a simulation was done in a 3D kitchen (4.4 m x 5.17 m x 4.4 m). The kitchen room is analysed forunderstanding internal environment, which is controlled by a centralised system. The 3D model had two openings located on either side of the room near the ceiling. Where one outlet had an exhaust fan pulling air out of the room at a constant flow rate, similarly the other opening had no fan and ambient air exchanged naturally. An exhaust vent was designed to extract the hot humid air from the cooking area. To study the effect of humidity indoors, the model was studied by defining water vapour in the gas, i.e. air. The computational model derived results for better understanding of the indoor climate of kitchen environments.

AB - Demand and the supply of energy is a major issue today, leading to consideration of energy efficiency in buildings. Especially for residential buildings, energy requirements are increasing day-by-day. Humans typically spend 80 percent of their time mostly inside a building. To providecomfortable and healthy working and living environments, modern buildings often require HVAC systems. Proper ventilation is also very important, because it helps in controlling the indoor air quality (IAQ). HVAC mainly consists of fans and ducts that supply fresh air from the exterior, and replace polluted air from the interior. Too much moisture in indoor environments may lead to issueslike condensation or mould growth on walls. Adjusting moisture and ventilation inside a building plays a key role in determining human comfort and indoor living environment. Relative humidity controlled ventilation systems may help to increase the energy performance of a building without exposing them to moisture damage. This paper gives a brief overview of a heat and moisture model using SOLIDWORKS, a widely used CFD-tool for modelling and simulating flows. A three dimensional (3D) model was chosen to design a kitchen room in a building with a HVAC system. In order to see preliminary results, a simulation was done in a 3D kitchen (4.4 m x 5.17 m x 4.4 m). The kitchen room is analysed forunderstanding internal environment, which is controlled by a centralised system. The 3D model had two openings located on either side of the room near the ceiling. Where one outlet had an exhaust fan pulling air out of the room at a constant flow rate, similarly the other opening had no fan and ambient air exchanged naturally. An exhaust vent was designed to extract the hot humid air from the cooking area. To study the effect of humidity indoors, the model was studied by defining water vapour in the gas, i.e. air. The computational model derived results for better understanding of the indoor climate of kitchen environments.

KW - 3D Modelling, Indoor environment, Relative Humidity, Finite Element Simulation

M3 - Conference contribution

BT - Proceedings of 29th Inter-American Congress of Chemical Engineering incorporating the 68th Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference

T2 - 29th Inter-American Congress of Chemical Engineering incorporating the 68th Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference

Y2 - 28 October 2018 through 31 October 2018

ER -