Transient analysis and improvement of indoor thermal comfort for an air-conditioned room with thermal insulations

Abstract

Thermal insulations over the building envelop reduce the heat gain due to solar radiation and may enhance good and uniform indoor thermal comfort for the occupants. In this paper, the insulation layer-wood wool is laid over the roof and exposed wall of an air-conditioned room and its performance on indoor thermal comfort is studied by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique. From this study, 3% of indoor thermal comfort index-predicted mean vote (PMV) is improved by providing wood wool layer. In addition, the optimum supply air temperature of air-conditioning unit for good thermal comfort is predicted as in the range of 299–300 K (26–27 °C).

Keywords

• Thermal comfort
• Building insulation
• Predicted mean vote
• Computational fluid dynamics
• Air conditioned room