• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.476-485
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• 2000

This study numerically investigates thermal comfort in a space cooled by the floor-supply air conditioning system, in which three different supply-return locations, one floor supply-ceiling return and two floor supply-floor returns, are treated. A complementary experiment is peformed to validate the present numerical analysis, and the prediction agrees favorably with the measured data. In the numerical procedure, a simplified model mimicking the inlet flow through the diffuser is developed for efficient simulations. The calculated results show that the ceiling return type is far better in thermal comfort than the floor return ones within the extent of this study, which seems to be caused by effective vertical penetration of the supply air against natural convection. It is also revealed that the arrangement of port locations in the floor supply-floor return system has insignificant effect on the cooling performance. For selecting a proper system, other characteristics including the heating performance should be accounted for simultaneously with the present estimation.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.640-648
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• 1998

A numerical study has been conducted to investigate the effect of inflow supply air temperature and velocity on ventilation effectiveness in an underfloor air conditioning space. A low Reynolds number k-$\varepsilon$ model is implemented to calculate steady state turbulent velocity distributions. A step-down injection method is used to calculate local and room mean ages from transient concentrations based on the concept of the age of air. Results show that there is a significant effect of Archimedes number on ventilation effectiveness especially for cooling conditions. Reynolds number shows relatively minor effect on velocity distribution and ventilation effectiveness especially for isothermal and heating conditions. It can be concluded that underfloor air conditioning system provides good ventilation characteristics for cooling conditions because of temperature stratification in the space.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.610-618
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• 1998

In this study, a tracer gas technique was used to measure ventilation effectiveness in a thermal environmental chamber simulating an under-floor air conditioning system. A tracer gas of $SF_6$ was injected in a supply duct using step-up and step-down methods. Local mean ages and room mean ages were calculated from the measured concentrations under isothermal and cooling conditions with and without diffusers. Ventilation effectiveness is found to be higher in cooling ventilation operations than in isothermal operations. Results also show that ventilation effectiveness is not significantly affected by a diffuser.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.15-20
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• 2006

Despite the fact that UFAD (Under Floor Air Distribution) systems have many benefits and are being applied in the field in increasing numbers, there is a strong need for an improved fundamental understanding of several key performance features of these systems. This study numerically investigates the effect of design parameters on the performance of UFAD, especially focused on thermal comfort. The design parameters considered in this study include supplied air temperature, supplied flow rate, diffuser shape, swirl, diffuser location, and floor-to-floor height. Also this study has compared UFAD with over head system, on the point of thermal comfort by evaluating PMV using radiative mean temperature, which shows how inadequate the evaluation of thermal comfort can be when radiation is neglected. Until now, the radiative temperature has been the missing link between CFD and thermal comfort, but the present study paves the way for overcoming this weakness.

• The Magazine of the Society of Air-Conditioning and Refrigerating Engineers of Korea
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.42-47
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• 2010

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.25-33
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• 2020

It has been reported about the energy saving performance of UFAD(under floor air distribution) system and NPC(night purge cooling) system respectively which are applied for commercial buildings. However, when two systems are used at the same time, the effect of heat transfer from floor plenum to slab may vary depending on the operating conditions of NPC. In this study, cooling energy demands were analyzed for building models with UFAD and NPC by using TRNSYS 17 program. UFAD was applied as a cooling system of the base building model, and the cooling energy demands were compared for 64 cases in which the operating time, supply airflow rate, and outdoor air temperature(T_o) of NPC. As a result, it was confirmed that the cooling energy demands were reduced to 30 ~ 80% level compared to UFAD alone, and in particular, the energy demand was reduced in proportion to the supply airflow rate or the operating time while T_o was 16 ~ 20℃. However, when T_o was 22℃, the increase in the supply airflow rate or the operating time results in a disadvantage in terms of cooling energy demands. In addition, the cooling energy demands for UFAD+NPC model were analyzed by applying weather data from three regions with different average outdoor air temperatures. As a result, the cooling energy demand of operating NPC only when T_o was below 20℃ was reduced by 27% compared to that of operating NPC continuously for 8 hours.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.40-46
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• 2016

In order to improve air quality of indoor environment, studies of the underfloor air distribution (UFAD) system for application in buildings are actively in progress based on temperature and air flow distribution. However, although the age of air is the major evaluation parameter, there has been very little study on this parameter for the UFAD system. In this study, we investigated the age of air to reach the air diffuser, which is installed at the bottom of the interior by the UFAD system. Computational fluid dynamics simulations showed no regular pattern to the maximum value of the age of air in accordance with air flow rate and the velocity at air diffuser. These factors can be deduced from air movement by considering that air emitted from air conditioners was rotated according to the bottom shape of the floor, and then, the age of air in the rotation center was increased. The average age of air of internal interior was reduced considerably as the flow velocity at the underfloor air diffuser was increased from 0.5 m/s to 1.0 m/s However, the age of air was not substantially affected with change in the air volume. Moreover, when the flow velocity at the underfloor air diffuser was higher than 1.0 m/s, the age of air showed no significant difference with change in air volume or height of measurement. These results imply that indoor air quality is more substantially influenced by flow velocity than air volume, and the appropriate flow velocity is 1 m/s or more.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.78-85
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• 2011

In this study, an underfloor air distribution(UFAD) system installed on the S. office building was evaluated for its indoor environmental quality performance. Field measurement and survey were conducted for the overall POE(Post Occupied Evaluation). PMV(including temperature, humidity, air velocity and globe temperature) and several environmental components were measured while thermal comfort, thermal sensation, acoustical environment and others. were investigated through survey. Except for the direct upper part of the air supply diffuser on the floor, the indoor velocity was less than 0.25m/s, which has been suggested by ASHRAES tandard 55 as the limit for thermal comfort. MRT of the perimeter zone of the room showed a higher value than that in the interior because of the introduced solar radiation through the building envelope. PMV was generally maintained in the range of thermal comfort (from -0.5 to +0.5), though it weighted to the warm side. It was reported to have 61% positive response on thermal comfort and 55% on neutral thermal sensation. The results of each survey item showed some gender-based differences. Specifically, female respondents had higher degree of dissatisfaction with indoor air cleanness and acoustical privacy. The working surface showed more than 400 lux and the equivalent noise level showed less than 50 dB(A). In conclusion, the results of the measurement and survey showed good agreement. Indoor environmental quality of the subject office room where the UFAD system was installed showed an overall excellent performance.

• The Magazine of the Society of Air-Conditioning and Refrigerating Engineers of Korea
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.40-47
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• 2011

지중축냉시스템, 흡수식히트펌프, 천장형복사패널+바닥급기 공조방식 등의 획기적 에너지절약 시스템을 반영한 한국전력공사 신사옥건립 기계분야 기본설계 사례를 소개하고자 한다.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.84-84
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• 2007