Heat gain definition vs comfort in CFD simulation

[erydjunaedy]

All,

I am about to try the method outlined by @TheodorosGalanos in the following post:

Adding heat sources in hvac simulations

Hi all, While running hvac simulations is it possible to add heat sources? To keep things simple I can uniformly distribute people and lighting load over the floor area. Or should I make a box and assign certain surface temperature according to the heat load I am expecting? Any help is much appreciated. Thank you!

The method basically says that (1) create a volume withing the flow domain, and then (2) define the heat gains from people, lighting, etc as volumetric heat source.

So imagine a room where there is a person. We can create a box representing that person, and then define the volumetric heat source.

I want to think out loud on how to prove comfort using that method. I imagine that there will be an increased temperature in the volume(s) that we defined as heat source. I do not have any guess on who much will the temperature increase, but this will in turn affect comfort calculation.

Assuming that we have the corresponding EPlus simulation that will supply surface temperatures, can we show comfort by showing PMV values on the spots where the persons are? In the heat source volumes?

I am doing some tests now, and will report back in this space. In the mean time, I would love to hear some thoughts on this issue. Thanks

[minggangyin]

@erydjunaedy As I knew, butterfly only support temperature as thermal boundary and does not support heat source. Radiation model is not available in butterfly. So until now, butterfly can not calculate the PMV model.