Coupled EnergyPlus and CFD analysis of PCM for thermal management of buildings

Pandey, Brijesh; Banerjee, Rangan; Sharma, Atul

doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.110598

Cited by 80 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…The quasi-dynamic strategy is one of the most prominently used coupling method within the existing research work. 27,28,66–68 As shown in Figure 8, the methods start with running one simulator at the first time-step to initiate the process (BES, in this case). The results from this simulation are then collected by the interface and provided to the other simulator (CFD) as boundary conditions to initiate the simulation for its first time-step.…”

Section: Resolution Of Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A literature review of building energy simulation and computational fluid dynamics co-simulation strategies and its implications on the accuracy of energy predictions

Singh

Sharston

2021

Building Services Engineering Research and Technology

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The paper presents a review of existing literature in the field of coupling Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) with Building Energy Simulations (BES) to better predict indoor environmental conditions and building energy implications. CFD is capable of providing a detailed analysis of airflow profile and temperature gradients in the space as well as better prediction of heat transfer involving convection and radiation. Whereas BES can provide dynamically changing boundary conditions to CFD to facilitate a precise transient analysis. Combining the two simulations provides a powerful framework to accurately predict building performance parameters. The review examines the variables exchanged between the two simulations and establishes that the Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient (CHTC) as the most important exchanged variable that can significantly improve the accuracy of energy simulations. Issues regarding the application of co-simulation mechanism are then discussed in terms of simulation discontinuities, along with strategies adopted by researchers to overcome the same. In the later sections, the review evaluates the applicability of co-simulation from the perspective of year-long building energy simulations and presents an overview of methods used in research to implement the same. Finally, the conclusions are discussed and the scope for future research in the field is presented. Practical implication: The review presents a critical analysis of essentially all major coupling strategies that can be used to perform a BES-CFD coupled analysis along with their strengths, limitations and possible application scenarios. Additionally, the problems associated with establishing the co-simulation are examined and various adopted solutions are presented along with methods implemented towards extending the practical applicability of such an analysis to encapsulate year-long simulations.

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Section: Resolution Of Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A literature review of building energy simulation and computational fluid dynamics co-simulation strategies and its implications on the accuracy of energy predictions

Singh

Sharston

2021

Building Services Engineering Research and Technology

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“…The aim was to find the optimal temperature set points for the subzones in order to achieve a uniform occupant thermal comfort and avoid overcooling in a large open office. Pandey et al [53] also coupled the EnergyPlus and Ansys Fluent tools for BES-CFD simulations of phase change material (PCM) in the built environment and compared the results with those obtained from EnergyPlus. Their findings highlighted that the coupled simulation has better prediction accuracy than the BES tool for active and passive use of PCM under forced convection.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building Retrofitting through Coupling of Building Energy Simulation-Optimization Tool with CFD and Daylight Programs

2021

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Simultaneous satisfaction of both thermal and visual comfort in buildings may be a challenging task. Therefore, this paper suggests a comprehensive framework for the building energy optimization process integrating computational fluid dynamics (CFD) daylight simulations. A building energy simulation tool, IDA Indoor Climate and Energy (IDA-ICE), was coupled with three open-source tools including GenOpt, OpenFOAM, and Radiance. In the optimization phase, several design variables i.e., building envelope properties, fenestration parameters, and Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) system set points, were selected to minimize the total building energy use and simultaneously improve thermal and visual comfort. Two different scenarios were investigated for retrofitting of a generic office building located in Oslo, Norway. In the first scenario a constant air volume (CAV) ventilation system with a local radiator in each zone was used, while an all-air system equipped with a demand control ventilation (DCV) was applied in the second scenario. Findings showed that, compared to the reference design, significant reduction of total building energy use, around 77% and 79% in the first and second scenarios, was achieved respectively, and thermal and visual comfort conditions were also improved considerably. However, the overall thermal and visual comfort satisfactions were higher when all-air system was applied.

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“…The operation of PCMs is mainly activated by the external stimulus, such as heat and/or light, based on which latent heat zone [14] is achieved with (almost) isothermal performance. It demonstrates that the PCM-based thermal energy is indeed the passive thermal management [15], i.e., the human efforts and the temperature controllers are not required for thermal regulation of buildings. However, despite much work on PCM-driven thermal management of buildings [16], the challenges posed by the PCM still exist, e.g., encompassing liquid drainage threats [17], compatibility with building materials (cement, sand, or their mixtures) [18] and temperature mismatch necessary for the human comfort zone [19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental and Numerical Analyses of Thermal Storage Tile-Bricks for Efficient Thermal Management of Buildings

et al. 2021

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Due to the tremendous increase in the population and emerging energy crisis, the surging demand for the thermal management of buildings has become essential. Thermal management of buildings is of high importance for maintaining optimum thermal comfort and controlling the drastic environmental impacts. To avoid high energy consumption strategies and continuous operation such as active air heaters and air conditioners, passive strategies driven by phase change material-based thermal storage are expected to leverage the energy challenges. This work attempts to present the form-stabilized thermal storage tile-bricks (TSTBs) that are fabricated by a combination of octadecane, phosphogypsum, kaolin clay and cement. The optimal percent contents of each entity were found with respect to the design criterion of form-stability and effective temperature control capacity. Two TSTBs with a thickness of 10 mm and 15 mm were constructed, which are then applied on ordinary clay bricks to build a prototype wall. The optimal TSTBs are experimentally and numerically evaluated by subjecting them to transient thermal performance analysis, providing longer temperature retardation (~3000 s) compared with ordinary clay bricks (~400 s). It is thus implied that TSTBs can provide a viable solution against energy mismanagement by inhibiting the heating in summer and reserving the cold in winter.

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Coupled EnergyPlus and CFD analysis of PCM for thermal management of buildings

Cited by 80 publications

References 70 publications

A literature review of building energy simulation and computational fluid dynamics co-simulation strategies and its implications on the accuracy of energy predictions

A literature review of building energy simulation and computational fluid dynamics co-simulation strategies and its implications on the accuracy of energy predictions

Building Retrofitting through Coupling of Building Energy Simulation-Optimization Tool with CFD and Daylight Programs

Experimental and Numerical Analyses of Thermal Storage Tile-Bricks for Efficient Thermal Management of Buildings

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