Simulation Of Convection Flow Field Around A Hot Water Radiator And Its Structure Improvement

Radiator heating with hot water as heat medium is a major way of heating in north China, but in the use of radiator there are still some shortcomings insufficiencies. Dust formation is one of common phenomena. Since the indoor flow field is influenced by the room conditions, the size of radiator and its heating intensity, environmental factors and other parameters, thus resulting in difficulties in actual measurement and calculation. Numerical simulation method can solve these problems with a variety of data needed, having instructional significance to indoor flow field study and analysis.The following works have been carried out in order to investigate the cause of dust formation on the wall surface near the radiator and to seek ways to reduce dust formation:Air flow and heat transfer process near the radiator was theoretically analyzed, with establishing the physical and mathematical models on natural convection and radiation process within a heating room by radiator. The mathematical model was derived and simplified based on the fluid flow and heat transfer theory. The reason of dust formation was analyzed with the consideration of the flow field distribution.The two-dimensional and three-dimensional physical models was set up for a heating room by radiator, and the Navier-Stokes equation as well as energy equation was solved by using Fluent software, with the SIMPLE algorithm and the standard κ-ε turbulence model. The simulation was conducted on the temperature field and velocity field within the heating room. By analyzing of the indoor velocity field and the distribution of temperature field, the influence on the movement of dust particles was explained as the cause of dust formation. In addition, the2-D and3-D simulation results were compared with the experimental results.The external structure of the radiator was modified, and the indoor temperature and velocity fields were simulated. Also, the dust deposition and distribution was analyzed for the case of improved structure.The dust formation and distribution has a great relationship with the flow field around the radiator. By changing the structure of the radiator, dust formation can be minimized, with the advantages of the indoor beauty and easy dust-cleaning. This work will provide a certain reference for indoor heating design.