Transient Free Convection and Heat Transfer in a Partitioned Attic-Shaped Space under Diurnal Thermal Forcing

摘要

One primordial consideration in residential ventilation standards is the comfort of provided to people living in those habitations. This is highly dependent on the thermal and fluid flow conditions, the space geometry and so on. Efficient designs may reduce the energy usage, making the buildings more sustainable over a longer period of time. This study aims to investigate the impact of whole day thermal conditions on the fluid flow structure and heat transfer phenomena, mainly natural convection, inside a partitioned attic-shaped configuration. The Finite Volume Method is applied to solve the governing equations. Sinusoidal thermal boundary condition is applied on the sloping walls to illustrate the characteristics of primary flow through daily cycles. A highly thermal conductive partition was placed vertically at the middle of the cavity. Note that through the partition, only heat could freely transfer between two fluid zones. Results show that, during day time, a stratified fluid flow structure is obtained, which originates from the prevailing conduction heat transfer mechanism, while, for the night-time it changed into a strong convection mechanism which significantly affects the flow structure. These results are particularly important for understanding the fluid dynamics inside the attic shaped building and also designing new residential building.