In the light of EU’s requirements to achieve a major cut in energy use by 2050, Sweden has the same target. The built environment must by 2020 reduce energy use by 20 and 50 % by 2050. The size of the future building stock will naturally increase and regardless of how energy efficient future buildings will be, the energy performance of the old stock must be improved in order to reach those goals. In major renovation projects involving multifamily buildings in large residential areas in the cities, 50 % reduction can be achieved. This is cost-effective and profitable even if the rent is increased.

Gävleborg is a sparse region in the North, with few cities. Multifamily buildings are generally much smaller than in large cities and owners are reluctant to impose changes that increase rents due to the housing situation in the region. In consequence, the Regional Council and the University of Gävle set out to assess the potential and feasibility of reducing energy use and carbon dioxide emissions in this region’s multifamily buildings. Eleven real buildings were investigated, each having various ownership forms, different technical attributes and heating sources. Energy audits and measurements were conducted to assess the condition of each building. Performances of the buildings and proposed improvements were simulated with building energy simulation programs, whilst life cycle cost analyses were conducted to study viability. Carbon dioxide emission (CO₂) reductions were estimated for each improvement.

Based on the results, a concluding discussion is made on whether or not some myths on energy use and retrofitting are true. The following is concluded: It is possible to reach a 50 % reduction, but it is not economical with the costs involved and with today’s energy prices and moderate price increase over time.

Retrofitting or improvements made in the building’s services systems (HVAC) are more economical than actions taken to improve performance of building by constructions. HVAC improvements give about 20 % reduction in energy use. However, mechanical ventilation systems with heat recuperation are not economical, though these may or may not substantially reduce use of thermal energy.

Solar energy is, despite the latitude of the region, economically viable—especially PV solar energy. Photovoltaic panels (PVs) are becoming viable—the combination of PVs and district heating is beneficial since saving electricity is more important than thermal energy in district-heated areas.

The energy usage in residential sector have been around 22% of the total energy use in the world and increasing due to the population growth and higher living standards. The energy sources for this are made up primarily of non-renewable energy resources which generates a large amount of global greenhouse gases. A lot of countries have implemented various regulations and rules to reduce the energy usage in buildings and promoting the use of renewable energy technologies. This paper presents a parametric study of a typical multi-family building in its pre-design stage. The climate location used is Sweden (Gothenburg) and Japan (Osaka). The aim of the study is to compare various configurations and to examine how they affect the energy use. The most interesting configurations are the use of heat pump and solar cells. Other configurations that are examined are infiltration levels, pressure coefficients, wind impact, ventilation with heat recovery, ventilation scheduling, building orientation and finally changing U-values in the building material. Results of this study show that the energy saving, by utilizing a heat pump and solar panels, can reduce the total energy use by 34.9% for Gothenburg and 32% for Osaka. The results also show that the difference in total energy use between the two cities reduce substantially (3% difference) when utilizing a heat pump in combination with solar panels.

This study investigates the feasibility of using only corner impinging jet ventilation (CIJV) for heating and cooling a medium-sized office space with two occupants while maintaining adequate indoor thermal comfort and air quality compared to traditional mixing ventilation systems. This study examines what impact various outdoor temperatures, ranging from −15°C to 25°C, have on an office environment in terms of indoor thermal comfort and air quality. Three different workspace positions were evaluated. The results show that the CIJV system meets the ASHRAE thermal comfort standards for all three positions. In terms of indoor air quality, CIJV performs better than traditional mixing systems, with improved mean age of air and ACE values. This study concludes that CIJV can be used both close and far away from the supply inlets and still provide adequate indoor thermal comfort and air quality during both cooling and heating season.

A vital requirement for all-air ventilation systems are their functionality to operate both in cooling and heating mode. This article experimentally investigates two newly designed air distribution systems, corner impinging jet (CIJV) and hybrid displacement ventilation (HDV) in comparison against a mixing type air distribution system. These three different systems are examined and compared to one another to evaluate their performance based on local thermal comfort and ventilation effectiveness when operating in heating mode. The evaluated test room is an office environment with two workstations. One of the office walls, which has three windows, faces a cold climate chamber. The results show that CIJV and HDV perform similar to a mixing ventilation in terms of ventilation effectiveness close to the workstations. As for local thermal comfort evaluation, the results show a small advantage for CIJV in the occupied zone. Comparing C2-CIJV to C2-CMV the average draught rate (DR) in the occupied zone is 0.3% for C2-CIJV and 5.3% for C2-CMV with the highest difference reaching as high as 10% at the height of 1.7 m. The results indicate that these systems can perform as well as mixing ventilation when used in offices that require moderate heating. The results also show that downdraught from the windows greatly impacts on the overall airflow and temperature pattern in the room.

The performance of a newly designed corner impinging jet air distribution method with an equilateral triangle cross section was evaluated experimentally and compared to that of two more traditional methods (mixing and displacement ventilation). At nine evenly chosen positions with four standard vertical points, air velocity, turbulence intensity, temperature, and tracer gas decay measurements were conducted for all systems. The results show that the new method behaves as a displacement ventilation system, with high air change effectiveness and stratified flow pattern and temperature field. Both local air change effectiveness and air exchange effectiveness of the corner impinging jet showed high quality and promising results, which is a good indicator of ventilation effectiveness. The results also indicate that there is a possibility to slightly lower the airflow rates for the new air distribution system, while still meeting the requirements for thermal comfort and indoor air quality, thereby reducing fan energy usage. The draught rate was also lower for corner impinging jet compared to the other tested air distribution methods. The findings of this research show that the corner impinging jet method can be used for office ventilation.

The corner impinging jet concept has been proposed as a new air distribution system for use in office environments. The present paper reports the mean flow field behavior of an isothermal corner-based turbulent impinging jet in a room. A detailed experimental study is carried out to validate the numerical simulations, and the predictions are performed using three turbulence models. RNG k−ε model was chosen for this study. This study investigates the influence different configuration parameters such as jet discharge height, diffuser geometry (shape and size) and supply airflow rate have on the flow field. The results show that the diffuser geometries used in this study had in general a minor effect on the velocity developments along the centerline of the floor, maximum velocity decay and jet spreading rate except for some specific cases. When evaluating the triangle geometry cases, the results show that all the cases with volume flow <20 L/s are able to meet Boverket's building regulations velocity requirement both for summer and winter. The applicability evaluation show that the results can be considered for room sizes between ≈25 and 100 m2. In addition, the wall confinement effect (90° vs. 180°) is having a significant impact on the maximum velocity decay for corner impinging jet ventilation. In the regression analysis the results shows that the distance along the diagonal centerline of the room has the most impact on the evaluation of maximum velocity decay and jet spreading rate.

The performance of a corner based impinging jet ventilation system (CIJV) in an office environment was evaluated numerically. The evaluation was done both in terms of the local thermal comfort and the local indoor air quality. Three different inlet configurations were tested for a range of outdoor temperatures that included both winter and summer conditions. In terms of indoor air quality, the results showed that CIJV performed better than a traditional mixing system. The study also revealed that CIJV creates a stronger temperature stratification in summertime compared to wintertime. When evaluating the energy saving potential the results showed a possible reduction of 7% for the ventilation flowrate when the outdoor temperatures were between -15 °C and -5 °C, 8 % when the outdoor temperatures were between 0 °C and 10 °C and 9 % when the outdoor temperatures were between 15 °C and 25 °C.

An experimental study was conducted in a room resembling an office in a laboratory environment. The study involved investigating the ability of corner-placed stratum ventilation in order to evaluate the ventilation’s effectiveness and local thermal comfort. At fixed positions, the air temperature, air velocity, turbulence intensity, and tracer gas decay measurements were carried out. The results show that corner-placed stratum ventilation behaves very similar to a mixing ventilation system when considering air change effectiveness. The performance of the system was better at lower supply air flow rates for heat removal effectiveness. For the heating cases, the draught rates were all very low, with the maximum measured value of 12%. However, for the cooling cases, the maximum draught rate was 20% and occurred at ankle level in the middle of the room.

In this study, confluent jets ventilation (CJV) supply devices with three different nozzle arrays (1 × 19, 2 × 19, 3 × 19) were investigated both numerically and experimentally at two different airflow and supply air temperature set-ups. The performance of the CJV supply devices was investigated concerning thermal comfort, indoor air quality (IAQ), and heat removal effectiveness in a conference room environment. A comparison between the experimental and numerical results showed that the v2−f model had the best agreement out of the investigated turbulence models. The numerical results showed that the size of the array had a great impact both on near-field development and on the conditions in the occupied zone. A larger array with multiple rows and a lower momentum conserved the inlet temperature and the mean age of the air better than a single-row array with a higher momentum. A larger array with multiple rows had a higher IAQ and a greater heat removal effectiveness in the occupied zone because the larger array conserved the mean age of air better and the buoyancy driven flow was slightly better at removing the heat. Because of the lower inlet velocities, they also had lower velocities at ankle level, which decreased the risk of draft and thermal discomfort.

This  parametric study aims to predict the  performance of confluent jets ventilation (CJV) with variable air  volume (VAV) from four  CJV  design parameters. A  combination of  computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and response surface method (RSM) has  been used to  predict the  energy efficiency, thermal comfort and  IAQ  for  the  four  expected vital  design variables, i.e.,  heat load (XH),  number of  nozzles (XN),  airflow rate  (XQ) and  supply temperature (XTS).  The  RSM was  used to  generate a  quad-ratic  equation for  the  response variables exhaust temperature (TE),  sup-ply  temperature (TP),  PMV, DR, eT and  ACE. The  RSM  shows that  the  TE, TP and PMV were independent of the number of nozzles. The proposed equations were used to  generate setpoints optimized for  thermal com-fort  (PMV) for  summer, spring and  winter cases with different CLO  fac-tors  and  different TS under a  scenario where the  heat load varied between 10-30W/m2.  TE was  used as  setpoint to  regulate the  airflow rate  to  keep the  PMV values close to  zero. The  results show that  by adapting the TS to the CLO factor both thermal comfort and the energy efficiency can  be  improved. Further energy reduction can  be  gained by downregulating the airflow rate to keep the TP at a fixed setpoint when the  heat load is  decreased. This  means that  a  CJV  can  effectively be combined with VAV  to  improve environmental performance with good thermal comfort (-0.5<PMV <0.5,  DR <20%), above average IAQ (ACE = 106%) and  with a  higher heat removal efficiency (eT = 110%) than conventional mixing ventilation

Between 1990 and 2006 the energy use by ventilation systems in Swedish schools doubled. This is explained by high airflows in schools because of the high occupant density. Studies show that 87% of Swedish schools use constant air volume (CAV), and it is estimated that a change to variable air volume (VAV) could save 0.12-0.33 TWh (4.1*10(12) - 1.1*10(13) Btu) per year. Therefore the aim of this study is to investigate whether it is possible to replace displacement ventilation (DV) with mixing ventilation (MV) to create a comfortable indoor climate in a typical classroom and at the same time decrease the energy use by using VAV and Low Pressure Drop Ceiling Supply Device (LPDCSD). The study used two LPDCSDs which consist of circular channels with 190/228 round jets placed in an interlocking pattern, with a horizontal one/two-way-direction. The field study was carried out in a school which is intended to be extensively renovated. The school currently has DV and CAV. The study was carried out by installing MV with LPDCSD in one of the typical classrooms. Several different air-flow rates were investigated using tracer-gas technology to measure the local mean age of the air in the occupied zone. Simultaneously, thermal comfort and vertical temperature gradients were measured in the room. The results show nearly uniform distribution of the local mean age of air in the occupied zone, even in the cases of relatively low air-flow rates. Since the mixing of air is more or less the same in the entire occupied zone VAV can be used to reduce air-flow rate based on the desired CO2-level. Because of the number of students in each classroom and the fact that changes in air-flow rates have no significant effect on the degree of mixing, it is possible to reduce the air-flow rates for extended periods of time. Finally, since the LPDCSD has a lower pressure-drop than the currently used supply devices and it is possible to use VAV to lower the airflows in cases with reduced heat loads, it is possible to significantly reduce the energy usage in the school while maintaining the IAQ, increasing the thermal comfort and the available floor area of the occupied zone.

In developed countries, heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) systems account for more than 10% of national energy use. The primary function of a HVAC system is to create proper indoor environment. A number of ventilation strategies have been developed to minimize HVAC systems’ energy use whilst still maintaining a good indoor environment. Among these strategies are confluent jet ventilation and variable air volume. In this study, an air supply device with a novel nozzle design that uses both of the above-mentioned strategies was investigated both experimentally and numerically at three different airflow rates. The results from the numerical investigation using the SST k - ω turbulence model regarding velocities and flow patterns are validated by experimental data carried out by Laser Doppler Anemometry. The results from both studies show that the flow pattern and velocity in each nozzle is directly dependent on the total airflow rate. However, the flow pattern does not vary between the three different airflow rates. The numerical investigation shows that velocity profiles for each nozzle have the same pattern regardless of the airflow rate, but the magnitude of the velocity profile increases as the airflow increases. Thus, a supply device of this kind could be used for variable air volume and produce confluent jets for the airflow rates investigated.

The performance of three different confluent jets ventilation (CJV) supply devices was evaluated in a classroom environment concerning thermal comfort, indoor air quality (IAQ) and energy efficiency. The CJV supply devices have the acronyms: high-momentum confluent jets (HMCJ), low-momentum confluent jets (LMCJ) and low-momentum confluent jets modified by varying airflow direction (LMCJ-M). A mixing ventilation (MV) slot jet (SJ) supply device was used as a benchmark. Comparisons were made with identical set-up conditions in five cases with different supply temperatures (TS) (16–18 °C), airflow rates (2.2–6.3 ACH) and heat loads (17–47 W/m2). Performances were evaluated based on DR (draft rating), PMV (predicted mean vote), ACE (air change effectiveness) and heat removal effectiveness (HRE). The results show that CJV had higher HRE and IAQ than MV and LMCJ/LMCJ-M had higher ACE than HMCJ. The main effects of lower Ts were higher velocities, DR (HMCJ particularly) and HRE in the occupied zone as well as lower temperatures and PMV-values. HMCJ and LMCJ produce MV conditions at lower airflow rates (<4.2 ACH) and non-uniform conditions at higher airflow rates. LMCJ-M had 7% higher HRE than the other CJV supply devices and produced non-uniform conditions at lower airflow rates (<3.3 ACH). The non-uniform conditions resulted in LMCJ-M having the highest energy efficiency of all devices.

Alarge number of control rod cracks were detected during therefuelling outage of the twin reactors Oskarshamn 3 and Forsmark3 in the fall of 2008. The extensive damage investigationfinally lead to the restart of both reactors at theend of 2008 under the condition that further studies wouldbe conducted in order to clarify all remaining matters. Also,all control rods were inserted 14% in order to locatethe welding region of the control rod stem away fromthe thermal mixing region of the flow. Unfortunately, this measureled to new cracks a few months later due toa combination of surface finish of the new stems andthe changed flow conditions after the partial insertion of thecontrol rods. The experimental evidence reported here shows an increasein the extension of the mixing region and in theintensity of the thermal fluctuations. As a part of thecomplementary work associated with the restart of the reactors, andto verify the CFD simulations, experimental work of the flowin the annular region formed by the guide tube andcontrol rod stem was carried out. Two full-scale setups weredeveloped, one in a Plexiglass model at atmospheric conditions (inorder to be able to visualize the mixing process) andone in a steel model to allow for a highertemperature difference and heating of the control rod guide tube.The experimental results corroborate the general information obtained through CFDsimulations, namely that the mixing region between the cold crud-removalflow and warm by-pass flow is perturbed by flow structurescoming from above. The process is characterized by low frequent,high amplitude temperature fluctuations. The process is basically hydrodynamic, causedby the downward transport of flow structures originated at theupper bypass inlets. The damping thermal effects through buoyancy isof secondary importance, as also the scaling analysis shows, howevera slight damping of the temperature fluctuations can be seendue to natural convection due to a pre-heating of thecold crud-removal flow. The comparison between numerical and experimental resultsshows a rather good agreement, indicating that experiments with plantconditions are not necessary since, through the existing scaling lawsand CFD-calculations, the obtained results may be extrapolated to plantconditions. The problem of conjugate heat transfer has not yetbeen addressed experimentally since complex and difficult measurements of theheat transfer have to be carried out. This type ofmeasurements constitutes one of the main challenges to be dealtwith in the future work.

There is a new trend to convert the workplaces from individual office rooms to open offices for motivating money saving and better communication. With such a shift the ability of existing ventilation systems in meeting the new requirements is a challenging question for researchers. The available options could have an impact on workers' health in terms of providing acceptable levels of thermalcomfort and indoor air quality. Thus, this experimental investigation focuses on the performances of three different air distribution systems in an open-plan office space. The investigated systems were: mixing ventilation with ceiling-mounted inlets, confluent jets ventilation and underfloor air distribution with straight and curved vanes. Although this represents a small part of our more extensiveexperimental investigation, the results show that all the purposed stratified ventilation systems (CJV and UFAD) were more or less behaving as mixing systems with some tendency for displacement effects. Nevertheless, it is known that the mixing systems have a stable flow pattern but has the disadvantage of mixing contaminated air with the fresh supplied air which may produce lower performance and in worst cases occupants' illness. For the open-plan office we studied here, it will be shown that the new systems are capable of performing better than the conventional mixing systems. As expected, the higher air exchange efficiency in combination with lower local mean age of air for corner-mounted CJV and floor-mounted UFAD grills systems indicates that these systems are suitable for open-plan offices and are to be favored over conventional mixing systems.

In indoor applications, computed tomography is the process of transforming a network of intersecting attenuation measurements into a spatially resolved two-dimensional concentration map. In this study the Low Third Derivative method (LTD) was numerically evaluated and optimized for different conditions. A modified version of the LTD algorithm (LTD_m) was proposed and evaluated against the original version. Eight test maps were reconstructed under different conditions, such as weight ratio, pixel resolution, beam density and measurement noise. Performance of both LTD algorithms was found to be intimately related to the number of peaks and complexity in the test map and the steepness of the peaks. The LTD_m algorithm improved the quality, especially for concentration maps including steep gradients and regions with very low concentrations. The LTD_m method heavily lessened aliasing distortions and efficiently minimized the effects of noise.

The thermal indoor climate is a complicated combination of a number of physical variables, all of which strongly affect people’s well-being. The indoor climate not only heavily affects people’s health and life quality, but also their productivity and ability to work efficiently.

One of the reasons why so many problems are associated with indoor climate is that it is more or less invisible; it is hard to understand something that cannot be seen. In particular, the near-zone of supply air diffusers in displacement ventilation is very critical. Complaints about drafts are often associated with this type of ventilation system.

The main aim of this research is to improve the knowledge of the whole-field techniques used to measure and visualize air temperatures and pollutant concentrations. These methods are explored with respect to applicability and reliability. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been used to predict the velocity and temperature distributions and to improve the current limitations.

Infrared thermography is an excellent technique for visualization of air temperature and airflow pattern, particular in areas with high temperature gradient, such as close to diffusers. It is applicable to both laboratory and field test environments, such as in industries and workplaces. For quantitative measurements the recorded temperatures must be corrected for radiation heat exchange with the environment, a complicated task since knowledge about the local heat transfer coefficients, view factors and surrounding surfaces are needed to be known with good accuracy.

Computed tomography together with optical sensing is a promising tool in order to study the dispersion of airborne pollutants in buildings. However, the design of the optical sensing configuration and the reconstruction algorithm has a major influence on the performance of this whole-field measuring technique. A Bayesian approach seems to be a rational choice for reconstruction of pollutant concentration indoors, since it avoids the high noise sensitivity frequently encountered with many other reconstruction methods. A modified Low Third Derivative (LTD) method has been proposed in this work that performs well particular for concentration distributions containing steep gradients and regions with very low concentrations.

CFD simulation is a powerful tool for visualization of velocities, airflow pattern and temperature distribution in rooms. However, for predictions of the absolute value of the physical variables the CFD model have to be validated against some reference case with high quality experimental data. CFD predictions of air temperatures and velocities close to a complex supply diffuser are very troublesome. The performance of CFD prediction of the airflow close to a complex supply diffuser depends mainly on the accuracy of the diffuser, turbulence and wall treatment modeling

The purpose of the paper is to examine the relation between urban morphology, wind direction and air flow rates. In the study a highly idealized city model was used consisting of a circular block divided into two or four equally large sectors. Wind tunnel experiments and CFD predictions have been conducted. The interaction between the atmospheric boundary layer and a city is considered to be both a function of the overall shape and the internal resistance to the flow caused by the friction when the wind flows over the urban surfaces. Flow along the streets is generated by pressure differences. In the wind tunnel, velocity measurements have been recorded in the streets at several points and pressure on the ground was registered in 400 points. The wind tunnel measurements were used to validate the CFD model. The CFD predictions provided complete flow and pressure fields for different configurations and wind directions. The flow balance is presented considering both the horizontal air flow and the vertical air flow (subsidence and updraft). Special attention was on the pressure distribution at ground level (pressure footprint), which is believed to provide valuable information that can be used for qualitative city ventilation analyses. 

Modern diffusers applied in the field of ventilation of rooms are often complex in terms of geometry, including perforated plates, dampers, guide rails, curved surfaces and other components inside the diffuser, with the intention to create satisfying thermal comfort for the occupants. Also connecting ducts can be different for the same diffuser in different situations, affecting the supply velocity profile. It is obvious that simulation of airflow and air temperature particularly in rooms with displacement ventilation is very troublesome, particularly if the near-zone of the diffuser is of interest. Experiments commonly indicate very high turbulence intensities in the near-zone of displacement ventilation supply devices, especially close to the floor where high mean flow gradient occurs. This indicates that the air flow from inlet devices designed for displacement ventilation might be very unsteady; the position of the stream leaving the diffuser and entering the room is changing with time, hence diffusion of momentum and temperature are increased. Also Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities occurs, resulting in mixing and entrainment of surrounding air into the gravity current. These effects are not captured correctly in RANS simulations, since it is performed with the assumption of time-independent conditions. In this paper URANS simulations were performed for prediction of velocity and temperature distribution close to a complex air supply device in a room with displacement ventilation. The presented study show that URANS with the SST-SAS ￜￜ - ￜￜ turbulence model predicts the air velocities and air temperatures very well close to the air supply device. The URANS computation using the SST-SAS model seems to successfully contribute to the reproduction of large-scale unsteady flow patterns in the near-zone of the supply device, and therefore enable more accurate prediction of the velocity and temperature distributions compared to the steady-RANS computation and dissipative URANS models.

Modern diffusers applied in the field of ventilation of rooms are often complex in terms of geometry, including perforated plates, dampers, guide rails, curved surfaces and other components inside the diffuser, with the intention to create satisfying thermal comfort for the occupants. Also connecting ducts can be different for the same diffuser in different situations, affecting the supply velocity profile. It is obvious that simulation of airflow and air temperature particularly in rooms with displacement ventilation is very troublesome, particularly if the near-zone of the diffuser is of interest. Experiments commonly indicate very high turbulence intensities in the near-zone of displacement ventilation supply devices, especially close to the floor where high mean flow gradient occurs. This indicates that the air flow from inlet devices designed for displacement ventilation might be very unstable; the position of the stream leaving the diffuser and entering the room is changing with time, hence diffusion of momentum and temperature are increased. This effect is not captured in RANS simulations, since it is performed with the assumption of time-independent conditions. In this paper URANS simulations were performed for prediction of velocity and temperature distribution close to a complex air supply device in a room with displacement ventilation. The presented study show that unsteady simulations with the realizable turbulence k-ε model generates too high eddy viscosity and therefore damps out the unsteadiness of the flow especially inside the diffuser.

The traditional air distribution and supply devices in ventilated rooms are not always able to effectively remove excess heat from the space. Therefore, chilled beams, especially the active systems, are used to achieve the desired cooling demand. The focus of this paper was the potential benefit of a newly designed active chilled beam (ACB) system, to improve heat removal effectiveness local thermal condition and indoor air quality in the occupants’ breathing zone. The system based on 1-way flow design (1W-ACB) was installed in an open-plan office and its performance was studied by analysing the temperatures, velocities and tracer gas concentrations in predetermined risky zones. The system was compared against a traditional 4-way flow design (4W-ACB).

The obtained results showed that heat removal effectiveness was slightly higher for the 1W-ACB system compared to the 4W-ACB system. The local thermal condition was very good close to the workstations when using 1W-ACB. The benefits of the new system were also shown in the occupied zone by analysing the mean age of air and air-change effectiveness (ACE) in the breathing level at the workstation locations. The 1W-ACB system provided air with lower mean age (fresher air), and therefore higher ACE, near the breathing zone at the workstations compared to the 4W-ACB. On the other hand, the 4W-ACB system had the advantage of providing high thermal and mean age of air uniformity throughout the room.

Providing occupant comfort and health with minimum use of energy is the ultimate purpose of heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems. This paper presents the air-change effectiveness (ACE) within a typical office room using impinging jet ventilation (IJV ) in combination with chilled ceiling (CC) under different heat loads ranging from 6.5 - 51 W per square meter floor area. In this study, a validated CFD model based on the v2f turbulence model is used for the prediction of air flow pattern and ACE. The interaction effect of chilled ceiling and heat sources results in a complex flow with air circulation. The thermal plumes and air circulation in the room result in a variation of ACE within the room but also close to the occupant. For all studied cases, ACE is above 1.2 close to the occupants, indicating that IJV is more energy efficient than mixing ventilation.

Here, it is presented a possible methodology and experimental model for benchmarking of air quality in cities. The concept behind the methodology is that a city’s inherent structure affects the potential for contaminant removal due to the resistance it poses to inflow. The approach is based on homogenous emission across the street surface network, representing a worst-case situation. Different levels of complexity can be used for benchmarking, making it valuable for evaluating different layouts. Additionally, an urban ventilation index suitable for these kinds of experimental studies has been suggested. 

A micro/macro-level approach (MMLA) has been proposed which makes it possible for HVAC engineers to easily study the effect of diffuser characteristics and diffuser placement on thermal comfort and indoor air quality. In this article the MMLA has been used to predict the flow and thermal behavior of the air in the near-zone of a complex low-velocity diffuser. A series of experiment has been carried out to validate the numerical predictions in order to ensure that simulations can be used with confidence to predict indoor airflow. The predictions have been performed by means of steady Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) and the results have good agreement both qualitatively and quantitatively with measurements. However, measurements indicated that the diffusion of the velocity and temperature was to some extent under-predicted by the RSM, which might be related to high instability of the airflow close to the diffuser. This effect might be captured by employing unsteady RSM. The present study also shows the importance of detailed inlet supply modeling in the accuracy of indoor air prediction.

The intention of this paper was to demonstrate the principle and usefulness of computed tomography for concentration field measurements. Radial extinction coefficient profiles have been reconstructed using the LTD approach in the transition region of an isothermal jet of air at Reynolds number of 2 600. Reconstructed profiles were compared against velocity profiles at axial distances ranging from 2 to 20 nozzle diameters downstream. Results indicate that the width parameter of the reconstructed scalar distribution is around 23 % larger than the velocity distribution for distances between 10 and 20 nozzle diameters downstream. This finding is in good agreement with the results of other investigators. This technique has evidently yielded an accurate description of the scalar field of the round isothermal free jet.

The quality of the reconstructions is very promising considering the relatively few measurement data, projection angles and low pixel resolution used in this study.

Ccomputed tomography is superior for monitoring chemical concentrations over larger areas (whole room) when PMS and PLIF are unfeasible.

The near zone of supply air diffusers is very critical for the indoor climate. Complaints of draft are often associated with low-velocity diffusers in displacement ventilation because the air is discharged directly into the occupied zone. Today, the knowledge of the near zone of these air supply diffusers is insufficient, causing an increased need for better measuring methods and representation of the occupied zone.

A whole-field measuring technique has been developed by the authors for visualization of air temperatures and airflow patterns over a large cross-section. In this particular whole-field method, air temperatures are measured with an infrared camera and a measuring screen placed in the airflow. The technique is applicable to most laboratory and field test environments. It offers several advantages over traditional techniques; for example, it can record real-time images within large areas and capture transient events.

The purpose of this study was to conduct a parameter and error analysis of the proposed whole-field measuring method applied to a flow from a low-velocity diffuser in displacement ventilation. A model of the energy balance, for a solid measuring screen, was used for analyzing the influence of different parameters on the accuracy of the method. The analysis was performed with respect to the convective heat transfer coefficient, emissivity, screen temperature and surrounding surface temperatures.

Theoretically, the temperature difference between the screen and the ambient air was found to be 0.2–2.4 °C for the specific delimitation in the investigation. However, after applying correction the maximum uncertainty of the predicted air temperature was found to vary between 0.62 and 0.98 °C, due to uncertainties in estimating parameters used in the correction. The maximum uncertainty can be reduced to a great extent by estimating the convective heat transfer coefficient more accurately and using a screen with rather low emissivity.

This paper deals with tomographic techniques for two-dimensional spatially resolved concentration measurements indoors. This represents a significant advance over the traditional point measuring method for mapping tracer gas and pollutants. Methods for recording of data are stressed as well as different types of tomographic reconstruction algorithms such as the Smooth Basis Function Minimization (SBFM) and the modified Low Third Derivative (LTD_m) methods. Among the reconstruction algorithms available today, SBFM and LTD_m are among the most promising. These algorithms show potential for reconstruction of gas concentration in rooms, since they are regularized to converge towards smooth concentration distributions. Using the LTD method and ‘snapshot’ configuration enables the examination and real-time monitoring of transient flows.

This paper deals with tomographic techniques for two-dimensional spatially resolved concentration measurements indoors. This represents a significant advance over the traditional point measuring method for mapping tracer gas and pollutants. Methods for recording of data are stressed as well as different types of tomographic reconstruction algorithms such as the Smooth Basis Function Minimization (SBFM) and the modified Low Third Derivative (LTD_m) methods. Among the reconstruction algorithms available today, SBFM and LTD_m are among the most promising. These algorithms show potential for reconstruction of gas concentration in rooms, since they are regularized to converge towards smooth concentration distributions. Using the LTD method and ‘snapshot’ configuration enables the examination and real-time monitoring of transient flows.

Impinging jet ventilation (IN) has been proposed to achieve an effective ventilation of an occupied zone in office and industrial buildings. For IJV systems, draught discomfort is the issue of most concern since it supplies cooled air directly to the occupied zone. This study investigated a number of factors influencing draught discomfort and temperature stratification in an office environment equipped with IJV. The factors considered were: shape of air supply device, discharge height, supply airflow rate and supply air temperature. The Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to identify the level of the significance of the parameters studied, as well as to develop the predictive models for the local thermal discomfort. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was employed to perform a set of required studies, and each simulation condition was determined by the Box-Behnken design (BBD) method. The results indicated that at a low discharge height, the shape of air supply device had a major impact on the flow pattern in the vicinity of the supply device because of the footprint from impinging jet, which consequently affected the draught risk level in the occupied zone. A square-shaped air supply device was found to result in lower overall draught discomfort than rectangular and semi-elliptic shapes. The RSM analysis revealed that the supply airflow rate had a significant impact on the draught discomfort, while the shape of air supply device and discharge height had moderate effects. The temperature stratification in the occupied zone was mostly influenced by the supply air temperature within the range studied.

This paper presents the flow and temperature field within an office using impinging jet ventilation (IJV) under different heat loads ranging from 17 to 65 W per square meter floor area. The measurement was carried out in a full-scale test room to verify the reliability of three turbulence models, i.e., the RNG k-epsilon, SST k-omega and (nu(2)) over bar - f models. It is found that all the tested models show good agreements with measurements, while the (nu(2)) over bar - f model shows the best performance, especially on the overall temperature prediction. The (nu(2)) over bar - f model is used further to investigate a number of important factors influencing the performance of the IJV. The considered parameters are: cooling effect of chilled ceiling, external heat load as well as its position, number of occupants and supplied air conditions. The interaction effect of chilled ceiling and heat sources results in a complex flow phenomenon but with a notable feature of air circulation. The appearance and strength of the air circulation mainly depends on the external heat load on window and number of occupants. It is found that with higher external heat load on window (384 W and 526 W), the air circulation has a strong tendency towards the side wall in the opposite direction to occupant, while with lower power on window (200 W) the air circulation has a strong tendency in the center of the room and extends to a larger area. When two occupants are present, two swirling zones are formed in the upper region. The effects of air circulation consequently alter the temperature field and the level of local thermal comfort.

The impinging jet concept has been proposed as a new ventilation strategy for use in office and industrial buildings. The present paper reports the mean flow field behavior of an isothermal turbulent impinging jet in a room. The detailed experimental study is carried out to validate the numerical simulations, and the predictions are performed by means of the RNG k-ε and SST k-ω model. The comparisons between the predictive results and the experimental data reveal that both of the tested turbulence models are capable of capturing the main qualitative flow features satisfactorily. It is found that the predictions from the RNG k-ε model predicts slightly better of the maximum velocity decay as jet approaching the floor, while the SST k-ω model accords slightly better in the region close to the impingement zone.

Another important perspective of this study is to investigate the influence of different flow and configuration parameters such as jet discharge height, diffuser geometry, supply airflow rate and confinement from the surrounding environment on the impinging jet flow field with the validated model. The obtained data are presented in terms of the jet dimensionless velocity distribution, maximum velocity decay and spreading rate along the centerline of the floor. The comparative results demonstrate that all the investigated parameters have certain effects on the studied flow features, and the diffuser geometry is found to have the most appreciable impact, while the supply airflow rate is found to have marginal influence within the moderate flow range. 

The world is facing a rapid increase of air conditioning of buildings. It is the motivation of Annex 80 to develop, assess and communicate solutions of resilient cooling and overheating protection. Resilient Cooling is used to denote low energy and low carbon cooling solutions that strengthen the ability of individuals and our community to withstand, and prevent, thermal and other impacts of changes in global and local climates. It encompasses the assessment and Research & Development of both active and passive cooling technologies of the following four groups:

Reduce heat loads to people and indoor environments.Remove sensible heat from indoor environments.Enhance personal comfort apart from space cooling.Remove latent heat from indoor environments.The present review sums up the state of the art in cooling solutions which may be regarded as resilient. Its main objective is to systematically describe the available cooling solutions, their physical basis, their benefits and limitations, their technology readiness level, their practical availability, and applicability. Doing so, the State-of-the-Art Review forms the basis for the work of Annex 80.

This paper presents a Taguchi method-based approach that can optimize the operating performance of impinging jet ventilation (IJV) systems with limited computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation results. The Taguchi optimization calculation finds the best operating design for the weighted overall objective function as a presenter of the multi-objective function problem. The method is used to optimize the operating characteristics of an IJV system considering the factors of supply air temperature, level of the return air vent and percentage of the air exhausted through the ceiling to achieve an overall best performance of thermal comfort, indoor air quality (IAQ) and system energy performance as the objective functions. The study indicates the contribution percentage for each factor in each objective function. The level of the return air vent, the supply air temperature, and the percentage of air exhausted through the ceiling have a contribution of 35.8%, 28.5%, and 35.8% in the objective functions, respectively. Based on the results, the best performance of the IJV system happens when the inlet air temperature is 18 °C, the height of the return air vent is 2 m above the floor, and the percentage of air exhausted through the ceiling is 22.5%.

Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is one of the most sustainable, robust, and green building materials nowadays and is normally used for walls, floors, or roofs. The number of studies on CLT has increased significantly since 2010, which shows the acceptance and needs of CLT. Connection systems, rolling shear performance, and sustainability are the popular and main research topics within CLT, including wooden connections, metallic connections, adhesive and rod connections, aspect ratio, bonding performance, life cycle assessment, carbon emission, and environmental impact. Based on these three branches, the current study conducts a literature review on CLT. This review article aims to provide a valuable view and better understanding of CLT, which are linked to (1) promoting the usage of CLT and (2) summarizing the weaknesses of the CLT’s research. This article presents a full background of the CLT research and gives potential research directions for CLT as a structural material. It revealed that the design and analytical methodologies for novel timber and steel connections are the main trends. As for the CLT’s rolling shear performance, standardized testing protocol, environmental impact, and bonding quality need further development. Furthermore, the data collection, selection, and influence of different policies are important for the CLT’s sustainability assessment.

Achieving the targets of the Paris Agreement as an international treaty on climate change requires global climate actions by all sectors, including ensuring that buildings are more energy efficient. Today’s modern buildings employ a worldwide well-known and versatile usable building material which is a new type of green low-carbon engineered wood product, cross-laminated timber (CLT), for their structural frames. CLT as an innovative plate-shaped product provides a laminated structure and great physicomechanical characteristics. This article studies the development status and implementation of CLT in Europe, emphasizing its material properties and load-bearing characteristics. The newest findings related to CLT are reported. Also, the environmental benefits of using CLT in the construction industry are discussed. Moreover, the energy performance and performance of the utilized CLT elements are highlighted. According to our findings, the embodied energy and embodied carbon are significantly lower in CLT constructions compared with reinforced concrete and steel structures. Finally, the prospects of CLT are presented.

The use of timber as a building material is becoming increasingly popular thanks to its superior environmental performance compared with concrete and steel. However, timber structures rely on solid connections to improve their weak expansibility. Steel connections can be prone to corrosion over time, leading to the decreased structural integrity. Additionally, steel connections require more material and energy to manufacture and install compared with timber connections. This article focuses on the flexural performance of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels with adhesive-free edge connections under four-point bending tests. First, numerical models of experimentally tested CLT panels were constructed using the finite element (FE) software ABAQUS. Then, these FE models were validated with the comparisons of their results with those of the experimental tests. Afterward, four new adhesive-free edge connections using timber for the CLT panels were developed in this study, helping sustainable construction. Utilizing the designed edge connections of the current study, forty-one parametric studies were numerically conducted on the connected CLT panels to investigate their ultimate loads, strains, displacements, moment capacities, failure modes, and effective stiffness. The factors affecting the edge connections’ load-bearing capacity were also examined and discussed. The study provides helpful insights into the development of CLT as a sustainable construction material with improved adhesive-free edge connections.

Conventional concrete (CC) is for decades the most used construction material worldwide thanks to its good properties such as high strength, high thermal mass, low noise transmission, and high fire resistance. Cement is an important component of CC. The cement industry is a significant source of emissions and accounts for roughly 8% of the world’s CO₂ emissions today, which means all improvements that can be made within this single industry benefit the emissions reduction goals. Green concrete (GC) is the development in the field of construction technology, which offers a more sustainable and eco-friendly solution as a building material. GC deals with the mentioned negative issue of cement, since it offers new cementitious matrices where some part of the Portland cement of CC is being replaced by some supplementary cementitious materials, such as industrial by-products, agricultural wastes, or municipal wastes. This paper studies the properties, structural performance, and environmental benefits of GCs. The investigation is done through a literature review, identifying the knowledge gaps, and providing suggestions for further research. The results indicate that there is a good potential to significantly reduce the climate impact of CC by using alternative binder materials in GC.

With concrete’s key role in construction and infrastructure, the reduction of its carbon footprint is critical for addressing global carbon emissions. One strategy to reduce environmental impact from concrete production is to replace cement clinker or fine aggregates in concrete with industrial wastes. Mine tailings, being a high-volume under-utilized resource, possess properties making it suitable for use as a partial substitute for cement or fine aggregates. This review article provides an overview of the recent findings within the topic of tailings-based concrete (TBC). Many of the identified publications aimed to describe the mechanical performance of TBC, and to optimize the concrete mix with respect to the strength and durability. The recommended cement replacement ranged from 5 to 25% and the recommended fine aggregate replacement ranged from 20 to 60%. In general, the compressive strength was decreased with increasing use of tailings as a replacement of cement. For the use of tailings as replacement for fine aggregates, the correlation was more complex, normally the mechanical performance enhanced at low replacement levels, until it reached an optimum after which it decreased. CO2 savings for replacing fine aggregate with tailings were up to 12% and for the cement replacement up to 30%. When assessing the environmental performance, most of the publications did not account for the loss of its mechanical performance, which could lead to the risk of underestimating the environmental impact. This review not only provides a basis for understanding the mechanical, toxicological, and environmental performances of TBCs, but also links the perspectives together, unveiling the connections between them. Moreover, this review presents an organized overview of the topic of TBC and points out topics for future research.

The importance of reducing building energy usage and thriving for more energy efficient architectures, has nurtured creative solutions and smart choices of materials in the last few decades. Among those are optimizing surface optical properties for both interior and exterior claddings of the building. Development in the coil-coating steel industries has now made it possible to allocate correct optical properties for steel clad buildings with improved thermal performance. Although the importance of the exterior coating and solar gain are thoroughly studied in many literatures, the effect of interior cladding are less tackled, especially when considering a combination of both interior and exterior reflective coatings. This paper contemplates the thermal behavior of small cabins with reflective coatings on both interior and exterior cladding, under different conditions and climates with the aim to clarify and point out to the potential energy saving by smart choices of clad coatings.

Radiative properties of interior surfaces can affect not only the building heat flux but also the indoor environment, the latter of which has not been thoroughly investigated. The aim of this study is to analyse the effect of surface emissivity on indoor air and surface temperature distributions in a test cabin with reflective interior surfaces. This was done by comparing experimental and simulation data of the test cabin with that of a normal cabin. This study employs transient computational fluid dynamics (CFD) using re-normalisation group (RNG) k-epsilon model, surface-to-surface radiation model and an enhanced wall function. Boundary conditions were assigned to exterior surfaces under variable outdoor conditions. The numerical and the measurement results indicate that using interior reflective surfaces will affect the indoor air temperature distribution by increasing the vertical temperature gradient depending on the time of the day. CFD simulations with high spatial resolution results show increased interior surface temperature gradients consistent with the increased vertical air temperature gradient. The influence of reflective surfaces is potentially greater with higher indoor surface temperature asymmetry. The vertical indoor air temperature gradient and surface temperatures are important parameters for indoor thermal comfort.

A new air supply terminal based on confluent jets was installed on a workbench, in vicinity of a CNC machine, of an industrial space. The flow pattern and temperature field was carried out by CFD calculations and infrared camera imaging technique. A main goal of this technique is to save energy therefore the jet should distribute the air where it is desired. This is possible because the confluent jets system uses the benefits of both mixing (high momentum for better spreading of the air jet) and displacement (cleaner air in occupied zone). The results show that thermal comfort and air quality analysis relies on consistent facts and is in good agreements with the existed standards. It was shown that the supply terminal is able to spread the fresh air to the needed work area. This is an advantage of the high momentum air distribution system used in this investigation.

Envelopes with low thermal performance are common characteristics in European historic buildings, causing higher energy demand and insufficient thermal comfort. This paper presents the results of a study on indoor environmental quality (IEQ), with special focus on thermal comfort, in the historic City Hall of Gävle, Sweden, now used as an office building. There are two modern heat recovery ventilation systems with displacement ventilation supply devices. The district heating network heats the building via pre-heat supply air and radiators. Summer cooling comes from electric heat pump ejecting heat into the exhaust ventilation air. A building management system (BMS) controls the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment. The methodology included on-site measurements, BMS data logging and evaluating the occupants’ perception of a summer and a winter period indoor environment using a standardized questionnaire. In conclusion, indoor environmental quality in this historic building is unsatisfactory. Stuffy air, too high, too low and varying room temperatures, lighting problems and noise are constant issues. Although it is equipped with modern ventilation systems, there are still possibilities for improving thermal comfort by improved control strategies, since upgrading the building’s envelope is not allowed according to the Swedish Building Regulations in historic buildings with heritage value.