Thermal environment optimization in a large space building for energy-saving

Abstract

As the functionality of large space buildings becomes more sophisticated, to ensure that the interior of the building has a reasonable thermal environment when it is put to use, designers must consider the thermal comfort of the human body and the building's potential for energy-saving during the design stage. The Grand Canal Exhibition Center is used as the research object in this study. Its numerical simulation of two pre-design cases using CFD technique is carried out and it studies the indoor airflow organization and temperature field distribution. In addition, it considers the factors that affect the building's energy consumption and assesses the best case. The Grand Canal Exhibition Center's initial design is optimized using the ADPI index, which is also used to calculate the building's energy-saving and evaluate the whole area's thermal comfort uniformity. The results of the research show that case 2 has greater thermal comfort uniformity and energy-saving potential, with a ground floor ADPI value of 83.3% and uniform thermal comfort throughout the entire zone. The second floor's ADPI value is 85%, and the entire space has the best thermal comfort. The third floor's ADPI value is 79%, and the localized area's thermal comfort is poorer. The building of case 2 has a 5% increase in energy-saving over case 1 regardless of the season, and it still has a significant amount of energy to spare. The research in this paper will be an invaluable resource for architects to design large space buildings.

Keywords

• Exhibition center
• Numerical simulation
• Airflow organization
• Thermal comfort
• Energy-saving potential