Heat transfer characteristics of a composite radiant wall under cooling/heating conditions

The radiant wall composited with capillary tubes has been widely applied in heating or cooling systems due to its large heat transfer area, low-temperature heating and high-temperature cooling. In this study, a ratio model of heat transfer in steady-state condition was established, which explores heat transfer capacity from the capillary layer (active layer) towards the indoor and outdoor sides. The experimental data including the radiant surface temperature, the capillary layer temperature and the heat flux distribution were collected in cooling and heating conditions. The proposed ratio model was validated. The results show that the fluctuation of indoor air temperature is relatively small, suggesting that the radiant system possesses higher stability. Results showed that thermal resistances of the composite radiant wall in summer and winter conditions vary greatly due to different moisture contents. With the continuation of the system operation, the calculated values from the ratio model under the steady-state condition were more consistent with average values obtained from experiments under unsteady-state conditions, indicating that the overall heat transfer performance of the composite radiant wall could be properly evaluated by the proposed model in engineering applications.