The influence of sun patches on buoyancy-driven air movement and heat transfer within a passive solar test cell

摘要

The dynamic (time-varying) behaviour of buoyancy-driven air movement and heat transfer has been examined for a thermally lightweight, low energy test cell subject to external climatic variations. Measurements include heat transfer from a sun patch induced by solar gain through a south-facing, glazed facade This data was analysed by two different methods; simple single-sample thermo-fluid experiments and time-series analysis techniques. These were in turn compared with computational fluid dynamics simulations and recent correlating equations. The results provide insights into the physics of buoyancydriven convective flows within, and the thermal design requirements for, passive solar buildings.