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Active pipe-embedded building envelope is a new kind of external building wall or roof which usually has pipes embedded in it to let water circulate in these pipes for heat transfer. This structure may effectively intercept the heat/coolth from the ambient environment to indoor space and provide extra space conditioning for the indoor space. Frequency-domain finite-difference (FDFD) model can predict the frequency thermal response of active pipe-embedded building envelope directly and provide some important guidelines for system control and system sizing. This paper presents the experimental validation of this model in time domain by using Fourier series analysis. An experiment test rig was developed for the thermal response measurements of the pipe-embedded building envelope under pre-defined conditions. First, the measured time series of surface temperatures are transformed into complex Fourier series by using Discrete Fourier Transform and applied into the FDFD model as the boundary condition for calculation. Then, the calculated frequency thermal responses by FDFD model can be easily transformed into time series by using Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform. Finally, the time-domain thermal responses of FDFD model are obtained. The results show that the calculated time-domain thermal responses of the active pipe-embedded building envelope by using FDFD model agree well with the experimental measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active pipe-embedded building envelope is a new kind of pipe-embedded building external wall/roofs. Usually, pipes are embedded in the wall slab or roof slab to allow water circulating in these pipes for heat transfer. Low-grade energy sources can be used for this structure since the enlarged heat transfer surface between the slab mass and water in the pipe allowing for substantial heat flow for relatively small temperature difference. This structure may reduce building cooling/heating load and improve indoor thermal comfort by intercepting the heat/coolth from the ambient air to indoor space. This paper presents a semi-dynamic model of this structure for thermal performance evaluation for system design or indoor environment control etc. This semi-dynamic model is a coupled model. The first part is a simplified dynamic RC model (i.e., resistance and capacitance model). The heat transfer along the width of this structure can be predicted easily by the RC model. The second part is a classical NTU model for evaluating the heat transfer along the pipe and total heat transfer on both surfaces of this structure. A CFD model is developed to act as a virtual experimental test rig to simulate the thermal characteristics of this structure. The simulated results are used to validate this semi-dynamic model and its performance prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active pipe-embedded building envelope can allow for substantial heat flow for relatively small temperature difference due to the embedded pipes in the external wall/roof. This structure can directly utilize the low-grade sources for reducing building cooling/heating load and improving indoor thermal comfort by intercepting the heat gain/loss through the building envelope due to the circular water inside the embedded pipe. This paper presents the experimental validation of a semi-dynamic simplified model of the active pipe embedded building envelope. The experiment test rig consists of two environment chambers with one for simulating the ambient environment and one for indoor environment with a pipe-embedded building envelope sample separating both chambers. A small chiller and a buffer tank are installed to provide stable water temperature for the test sample. The temperatures and heat fluxes on both sides of the test sample, the inlet and outlet water temperature as well as flow rate are measured. The measured boundary conditions are used as the inputs of the semi-dynamic simplified model for calculating the thermal performance of the active structure. The results show the semi-dynamic simplified model can predict the semi-steady or pure dynamic thermal performance of the pipe-embedded building envelope very well by comparing with the measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]