Investigation Of Thermal Performance Of A Radiant Floor Panel Heating System

The radiant floor heating system (RFH) provides a comfortable environment. Forthe feature of energy saving, it attracts more attention nowadays. With thedevelopment of plastic pipes and building technology, the RFH has been widely usedin the north of China. But there are still some problems, such as adding the thicknessand the weight to the floor. Therefore the cost of the building will be increasedaccordingly. How to make the heating systems suit the sustainable energy saving isthe main task of the research on heating. The heat flow and the mean temperature ofthe panel surface are the most important parameters of the RFH. This paper discussesthe heat exchange of a panel floor heating system, and compares the thermalperformance with that of the traditional system with coiling pipes.On the basis of reasonable supposition, a two-dimensional stable convectionmodel is built. Under different boundary conditions, the heat flow of the modularizedheating panel is simulated by the numerical calculation software, ANSYS. In theprocess of establishing mathematical model, this paper discusses the boundarycondition of the upper surface of the modularized heating panel, analyzes thedifferences between it and those in former research papers. The results of simulationare arranged in calculation tables. The effect of every factor on the heat flow isanalyzed.To check up the preciseness of the model, sets up a test room, measues thetemperature of related surfaces, and works out the heat efficiency of the radiant floorpanel heating system.At the end of the paper, compares the two forms of the RFH, panel heating andcoil heating, and concludes that the heat performance of the panel heating is betterthan the coiling system, but the stiffness and stability of the coiling system withcement is better than the panel system. The research will be helpful to theinvestigation of such a heating system in future.