Potential Performance Improvements of Floor Heating Systems in Light-weight Floors - A Numerical Study of HSB Living Lab

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Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master Thesis
Program
Structural engineering and building technology (MPSEB), MSc
Publicerad
2016
Författare
Stigemyr Hill, Victoria
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Floor heating system is a heating system with the ability to both supply small amount of heat and operate on low temperate water, required by low-energy buildings and alternative energy supply systems. Embedded into a floor construction with high thermal inertia, the most energy efficient floor heating system is obtained. While in combination with a light-weight construction, the floor heating system is not as energy efficient. HSB Living Lab is a steel-framed modular building with student housing and research infrastructure, situated at Chalmers University of Technology, which consist of short- and long-term research projects. Due to the light-weight construction, HSB Living Lab offers possibilities to investigate performance improvements of floor heating systems in light-weight floors by experiments. The purpose of this study is to develop an in-depth numerical model of a floor heating system. Further, the model is applied to the floor heating system of HSB Living Lab with the aim to investigate theoretical improvements, i.e. energy efficiency and self-regulation ability of floor heating systems embedded into light-weight floor constructions. The study is performed by simulating the floor construction with the numerical software COMSOL Multiphysics. The in-depth numerical model is based on modules simulating heat transfer in solids and heat transfer in pipes. Three improvements are studied; increased heat distribution from the floor heating system by inserting a heat conductive layer of graphite, increased thermal mass of the floor construction by embed the pipes into screed and a combined investigation of the two improvements. The study shows declined and insignificantly improved performance of the floor heating system when investigating the increase of thermal mass respectively heat distribution. Further by combining the two improvements, the heat transfer improves and it operates similar as a floor heating system embedded into a floor construction with high thermal inertia.
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Byggnadsteknik , Materialvetenskap , Building engineering , Materials Science
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