Research Outputs
CFD-Simulation für thermische Trennverfahren: Beschreibung der Hydrodynamik auf Kolonnenböden
Monitoring data from an office room in a real operating building, suitable for state-space energy modelling
The dataset provides all necessary variables for data-driven energy modelling of an office room. The measurement data have been obtained from an office building operating as living lab in a temperate climate of Central Europe. The temperatures and the ventilation air flowrate are raw measurements, while the heat flows are calculated from measurements. The incoming solar irradiance is calculated with two façade models –simple and enhanced–, using measurements (solar irradiance, movable shading settings) and building characteristics (geometry, glazing and shading properties). One year and four months of data is provided with a fine one-minute time step and a coarser fifteen-minute time step. The dataset can be used to test and validate data-driven models, for example for predictive control applications.
Numerical and experimental development of integrated electrostatic precipitator concepts for small-scaled biomass furnaces
Micron particle deposition in the nasal cavity using the v2–f model
Commercial CFD codes are commonly used to simulate models that involve complicated geometries such as the human nasal cavity. This means that the user has to work within the limitations of the available models of the CFD code. One such issue is the turbulent dispersion of particles in the Lagrangian reference, namely the Discrete Random Walk (DRW) model which overpredicts the deposition of smaller inertial particles, due to its inherent isotropic treatment of the normal to the wall fluctuation, v′ , in the near wall region. DNS data for channel flows has been used to create a function that reduces the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) to match the v′ profile which has delivered improved particle deposition efficiency results. This paper presents an alternative approach to reduce the TKE to match v′ , by directly taking the profile from the v2–f turbulence model. The approach is validated against experimental pipe flow for a 90° bend and then applied to particle dispersion in a human nasal cavity using Ansys-Fluent which showed improved results compared to no modification.
Towards distributed enthalpy measurement in large-scale air conditioning systems
Air conditioning systems are among the major energy consumers in buildings. Energy-efficient operation of AC systems is an important step towards better energy management in building automation, but requires efficient monitoring of the energy or enthalpy flows within the AC installation, which is currently still difficult because of the lack of appropriate equipment. This paper introduces a distributed data acquisition system for large-scale AC systems based on low-cost flow sensors implemented by means of standard printed circuit board technology and interconnected via a wireless sensor network. A critical issue for the system installation is the placement of the sensors in the air ducts to obtain representative measurements of the air flow. To this end, extensive aerodynamical simulations are carried out to analyze the flow distributions in typical building blocks for air ducts, particularly with respect to turbulences. The simulation results are compared with experimental data from the literature and are shown to be reliable.
Evaluation and improvements of RANS turbulence models for linear diffuser flows
Flow patterns produced by linear diffusers are highly dependent on the turbulent momentum exchange process. Hence a realistic computation of indoor room airflows that are produced from plane wall and free jets requires an accurate prediction of the anisotropic turbulent stresses. This is particularly the case in regions near the wall and entrainment effects which are caused by the turbulent shear stresses. For this reason a non-linear eddy viscosity assumption is presented which can be adjusted to account for the turbulent mixing process in the free shear flow region, and to reproduce the redistribution of the turbulent normal stresses near the wall. Based on several test cases such as a free and plane wall jet, IEA (International Energy Agency) Annex 20 room airflow, and a 3D room with a partition, the essential characteristics of the linear and non-linear k-epsilon, k-omega and v(2)-f turbulence models are analysed. Thereby it is shown that the proposed non-linear assumption can improve the prediction of linear diffuser airflows.
Improving predictions of heat transfer in indoor environments with eddy viscosity turbulence models
Heat transfer modelling in indoor environments requires an accurate prediction of the convective heat transfer phenomenon. Because of the lower computational cost and numerical stability, eddy viscosity turbulence models are often used. These models allow modification to turbulent Prandtl number, and near wall correction which influences stagnation points, entrainment, and velocity and time scales. A modified v 2–f model was made to correct the entrainment behaviour in the near wall and at the stagnation point. This new model was evaluated on six cases involving free and forced convection and room airflow scenarios and compared with the standard k–ε, and k–ω–SST models. The results showed that the modification to the v 2–f model provided better predictions of the buoyant heat transfer flows while the standard k–ε failed to reproduce and underestimate the convective heat transfer. The k–ω–SST model was able to predict the flow field well only for a 2D square cavity room, and 3D partitioned room case, while it was poor for the other four cases.
Hybrid photovoltaic-thermal solar collector modelling with parameter identification using operation data
System efficiency of pvt collector-driven heat pumps
The use of standard heat pump (HP) systems offers an efficient option to replace conventional heating systems (e.g. oil and gas boilers) for space heating and domestic hot water. Due to the higher noise emissions and the lower overall energy efficiency of air-to-water heat pumps, the use of ground-coupled heat pump systems is increasingly in demand. The cost-efficient dimensioning of horizontal ground heat exchanger (HGHE) systems, considering possible solar waste heat potentials to improve regeneration behaviour, is particularly challenging. The reason for this is the complex system and control engineering optimisation possibilities resulting from the dynamic heat transport behaviour of the horizontal ground heat exchanger. Essential influencing variables such as the water content of the soil due to the groundwater level, rainwater infiltration and surface evaporation can only be described with massive effort using the model equations of the unsaturated zones. However, these variables are necessary to obtain a better fundamental understanding of the usable storage potential of solar-coupled systems and to be able to derive targeted optimisations at the system level. Therefore, the waste heat utilisation potential of PVT collectors for the regeneration of heat pump coupled horizontal ground heat exchanger systems are analysed employing simulations. For this purpose, a PVT-collector model and a HGHE model based on a single-family were developed and validated by experimental investigations. Based on this, a system simulation model consisting of the components PVT-collector, heat pump, heat delivery system, HGHE and the corresponding control units were built using TRNSYS. With the help of the simulation model, parameter studies were carried out, and the main factors influencing the overall energy efficiency (COP) of the system and the seasonal performance factors (SPF) were identified. Furthermore, the solar waste heat utilisation potential of the PVT collectors was analysed to increase the efficiency of the heat pump system.